File photo. (iStock/Thinkstock)(BATON ROUGE, La.) — For some Louisiana residents, now displaced after days of devastating flooding in the southeastern part of the state, this week brings back painful memories of evacuating during Hurricane Katrina 11 years ago.
After floodwaters came up to Cierra Davis’ roof this week, she “barely got out of the house,” she told ABC News meteorologist Rob Marciano. She said she was rescued by the National Guard.
She said she’s glad her children weren’t at the house with her, otherwise they wouldn’t have made it out.
“I’m trying to deal with it in the best way that I can, but it’s just so horrible,” Davis said, adding that she’s grateful to be safe.
Ten people have died from this week’s flooding, which Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday described again as “unprecedented” and “historic.”
Davis said she also lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. Katrina killed more than 1,500 people in Louisiana.
“It was horrible,” Davis recalled of living through Katrina. “We lost everything. Family members, and animals and people that we cared about the most.”
And now, it’s happened to her again.
“It’s so heartbreaking,” Davis said.
She said she hasn’t slept in days and has “no plan right now.” When she goes home, Davis said she expects for “everything [to be] damaged and gone.”
For Lester Coleman, of Baton Rouge, this was his second time around, too. He told ABC News’ Phillip Mena on Sunday that he moved to Baton Rouge after his house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“I had no other choice,” he said of the move.
He said during Katrina, the water rose faster than it did this week.
“Overnight the water came in, and once it came in we just had to get out,” he said of Katrina. But in both cases, it was the “same damage,” he said.
“You’re never exempt for any kind of tragedy,” Coleman said. “You gotta take things and hold on for Christ as long as you can and just keep the hope. You keep your faith, and as long as a life is saved, that means more. Material things is nothing.”
Looking to the future, Coleman said, “I’ll go from here just like I did for Katrina. Start all over again as long as I’m living. As long as we got a way to make it with hope and faith, that’s all you need.”
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