Constructing homes to handle flooding
Don Gagnon by Caroline Gerdes, 2012; 4700.2440
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Don Gagnon.
TEMPESTS: Storms in the Archives
Don Gagnon: This house was only flooded once and that was during Katrina, and it took thirty inches of water. Not only is the land here close to the levee, it's high, but this house is terraced about three and half feet above the street. That made the water level inside not very high. The most important thing though was the house was designed to flood. The whole ground floor is masonry. The walls are solid masonry. There is no wood whatsoever except the trim. So after Katrina it was a matter of pressure washing the inside walls and sweeping out the water. That's basically all we did. We did lose the lower cabinet doors in the kitchen, but that's the only thing that we lost.