This happened almost 9 years ago and it still bothers me. In 2016, there was a perfect storm that landed over Louisiana. People say that it wasn’t a hurricane. But if you looked at the satellite image, it was. The storm formed over Louisiana and stayed for 30 days. It dropped 62 inches of rain and the water had no place to go. The storm kept the water from draining out into the Gulf of Mexico. All of Louisiana, from New Orleans to Lake Charles flooded and as far north as Alexandria. To say the least it was a disaster. Over 200,000 homes were flooded. It displaced about half the state residents. Of which my family and I were among them.

The day we began in earnest cleaning out my flooded house, I was not looking forward to this. It is was a real pain. I’m thankful that only about 6 inches of water got into the house, but still it destroyed a lot of things. I had treasures from my great grandmother, grandmother and mother. Again putting it into prospective they are only things. But those things I wanted to hand down to my children. My children responded with enthusiasm and a sense of urgency. And several nieces and nephews and my brother will be there with us. As so often is the case, you don’t know what people will do until adversity comes. I always wanted God to explain to me why it takes adversity to get people off of dead center. But I am grateful that they responded. It was stressful enough just having a flooded house. So many people in southwest Louisiana were forced out of their homes by the water. If you don’t understand we had rains of biblical proportions. As heart-breaking as it was, I am thankful to God that very few people died. And that God is still in control of this world no matter what we think. I will still give Him honor and glory for who He is. Ecclesiastes 3:1,10 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: ….I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” (KJV).

Crain Blanchard.

Joseph1637@juno.com

Joseph1637.com