THE
CIVILIAN CIVILIAN
A STUDENT PUBLICATION FOR THE LSU LAW CENTER COMMUNITY SEPTEMBER 2016 | VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 1
For most students at LSU Law, the last few days before the start of term are reserved for relaxation and preparation. By Thursday, August 11th, many students were only just approaching the jarring realization that textbooks had to be purchased and school supplies procured. While his classmates were making final arrangements to start Kathryn Jakuback school on the following Monday, Travis Staff Writer Simmons, 3L, was watching the news. A few weeks after the flood, we’ve all seen the news footage and done our part to alleviate some of the destruction that the Storm That Must Not Be Named has left in its wake. On that Thursday, however, Travis says that he and his family were hopeful. “During the 1983 flood, the river was around 41 feet and it only got to the threshold of our house,” Simmons recounted. That attitude, shared by many Louisianians in the area, quickly turned to horror as the waters continued to rise. “Just from the rainfall in the beginning of the storm, there was about six inches in our house.” Travis and his girlfriend, 3L Samantha Babin, spent Thursday night braving the flooded streets to rescue his mother from his childhood home. His father insisted on staying to try to put their belongings on higher ground. They returned to get him out on Friday before 6 a.m. Travis shared that he spent thirty
minutes in his home on Friday morning before the water got so high they were in danger of not making it out. “Driving out was tough,” he said. “We had to go slow and be careful not to get stuck or fall into a ditch. Everyone was yelling to stop because the waves from the truck were pushing more water into their houses. The on-ramp to the interstate was almost completely flooded. The hood of my truck was almost fully submerged but it got us out of there.” Travis and his family were glued to local news stations for the next few hours and they watched as coverage showed the water continue to rise until the interstate ramp they’d been on was entirely submerged. Travis said they spent the afternoon texting friends and family and checking on neighbors who were still trying to wait out the rain. They listened to police scanners for updates and learned that the current running through their neighborhood had frustrated rescue efforts. Differing reports of the scope of the damage continued to roll in and Travis says that “being in limbo was the worst part.” Travis’s neighborhood was one of the first to flood and one of the last to drain. When the water finally receded, Travis and his family prepared to survey the damage. The night before they returned to their home, Travis received a text from a friend at the Law Center. “Chris Ortte texted me that he had a couple guys who wanted to help. I thought he was talking like three or four people.” He recounted how he and his family started