Homeowners contemplating leaving LC after storms and now floods - American Press

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Homeowners contemplating leaving LC after storms and now floods - American Press Posted: 17 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT Sarah Guilott-McInnis and her husband, Zack, are in shock after Monday's heavy rainfall and flooding caused at least shin-deep water to inundate their home on Young Lane in Lake Charles. She posted a video on Facebook of an exasperated Zack trudging through water that can be seen throughout the home.   "This is the worst it has ever been," Guilott-McInnis said. "Now it's like I'm homeless. I don't know how we're supposed to handle this. I didn't think I'd ever be on this side of the situation." The Lake Charles native, who purchased the home 10 years ago, said she plans to stay with her parents while damage is assessed and the home is cleaned and repaired. Her willingness to stay in the city is dwindling. "We're honestly going to have to move," she said. "We've been contemplating it since the hurricanes, and it's like everything is making us and forcing us to at this point." Because it isn't in a flood zone, she didn't have flood insurance. The house didn't flood during Hurricanes Laura or Delta. She said a small amount of water got in the home when the carpet in the sunken-in living room got wet during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, she said. "This is unprecedented," Guilott-McInnis said of Monday's flooding. "Water was coming in through all the doors, through the walls even." Guilott-McInnis said she left her home around 9 a.m. Monday to drop off their 15-month-old daughter at her mother's house on Enterprise Boulevard. After leaving her mother's home, the flooded downtown roadways forced to turn around and go back. Zack, alone at the Young Lane home, called her around 10 a.m., worried. "He said, 'It looks really bad,' " she said. "Water was coming up the lawn to the door, and the garage already had water in it. The pool was going to overflow. That's normal in heavy rains. It's not a big deal." Thirty minutes later, Zack called back and told her water was in the home. "I asked where, and he said, 'It's everywhere,' " she said. "It just continuously got worse."   Most of the house had shin-deep water, but the sunken living room area was closer to knee-deep, she said. The home didn't suffer major damage from Hurricane Laura, but repairs remain unfinished, Guilott-McInnis said. Laura caused the chimney topper to puncture a small hole in her new roof, which she paid for less than a year before the hurricane. Because the roof is made out of a flat, single-ply plastic membrane commonly found on commercial buildings, it had to be completely replaced, she said. Built in 1964, the home was designed by architect Gilbert Spindel in a style described as "geodesica," a mid-century modern round house with a flat roof, Guilott-McInnis said. She has found eight homes in the U.S. with the exact same design and keeps in touch with those homeowners through Facebook. "I feel like I've been a steward to that house," she said. "Now, I feel like all of my hard work has been for naught." Guilott-McInnis blamed Lake Charles' ongoing drainage woes on lost tree coverage after Hurricanes Rita, Laura and Delta, along with continued development. "When we've lost as many trees as we have and continue to increase the amount of concrete by expanding, there's just nowhere for water to go anymore," she said. For the time being, all Guilott-McInnis can do is work on getting the home repaired. She said Zack, a Sulphur native, is prepared to travel to Lafayette and New Orleans for work. Hurricanes Laura and Delta forced both of them to make career changes.

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