“We knew the rain was coming. I was going to work the next day, so I made me a stick to put in the yard. I thought it would just flood a little bit and everything would be alright, but it wasn’t alright. The water started coming up on that stick and I knew it was bad. We didn’t get 12 inches, but it came up from the total opposite way. It came so fast that we didn’t have time to do anything to prepare. I compare it to turning on a sink on low and then trying to fill it up with a fire hydrant. It was that damn bad. It was a Forrest Gump rain, coming down sideways. It was so hard that it was going behind the metal on the outside and getting my camper wet from the damn wind. I live eight miles away from here and came over to help. For two days, there was flood porn on local TV and I couldn’t watch it. During Katrina I helped clean out the charity hospital and we had to pump out the morgue. The smell was so bad, we wadded up our cigarette butts and put them in our nose.”

“The beard started six years ago when they put me on a list for a hip replacement. I got the replacement 10 months ago. The tattoo on my shoulder is my dad. Years ago I lost nearly everything I owned through pure stupidity and one really bad choice. This is the only picture I have of anyone in my family. I am glad I got it.”