In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina put four feet of water in our neighbor’s house, owned by Monica’s sister. The house has since been demolished.

You can just make out our house in the upper left of the picture, about 250 feet from where I was standing when I took this photo. The empty area right in front of me – in the front of the picture – is where the house stood. It was a small wooden frame house with 3 bedrooms. The back porch was just in front of the azalea bushes. FEMA claimed that the house could be "repaired" and paid a settlement. However, after the water receded the flooring of the house and all the interior walls were warped, so the whole house needed to be redone. Monica’s sister just wrote it off and had the house torn down last summer. They own the property – well, actually the bank still does until they finish paying off the mortgage. FEMA’s share "kicks in" when they have the mortgage paid off down to the amount that FEMA gave as a settlement. They want to build another house somewhere on this spot or nearby, but a little higher off the ground than the old house.