I've lived all my life on the bayous of Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. When I was a child, we would go out on the bayous in a small flatboat with oars and paddle around the bayous taking in the life of the area, but were always stopped at the same passages that were very shallow and unpassable in the boat. That was over 30 years ago. Today, those areas are completely navigable, even during the winter when the water table is naturally low. The water table has risen.
This is the reason why we have such terrible flooding problems when hurricanes or tropical storms come to our area. During the 60s and 70s our neighborhood withstood the flooding impact caused by a hurricanes tidal surge. Everyone's homes were safe then. That hasn't been the case for the last 18 years. Our neighborhood has undergone repeated devastating flooding. Just two years ago a small tropical storm with 60-mph max winds pushed over four feet of water into our area, flooding 90 percent of the homes.
Many of my neighbors have sold their homes and moved on. I can't begin to explain what it's like to lose your home to flooding and find yourself homeless. When hurricanes or tropical storms are in the Gulf of Mexico we are on alert and must prepare to evacuate if we are threatened. This is extremely difficult for me as a divorced single parent with three children, an elderly parent to take care of and 10 pets. I am now giving up. The hurricanes are getting too numerous and intense to keep going through this, both emotionally and physically. It's sad for us because we have lived here through two generations and don't want to leave.