LAKE CHARLES, La. – A Louisiana man was going to pick up his daughter and her friend from school on Monday. Flood conditions were not an obstacle.
Danny Bartlett, of Lake Charles, used a kayak to transport the children home from T.S. Cooley Elementary School, The Advocate of Baton Rouge reported.
Heavy rains in southern Louisiana shut down roads, closed businesses and flooded homes. That did not stop Bartlett.
“I was a dad determined to get his kid,” Bartlett told The Advocate. “That’s all that was on my mind.”
Bartlett said it would normally take 15 minutes to pick up Kinsley, his 7-year-old daughter, from school, the newspaper reported. Monday’s flooded streets turned that short trip into a two-hour adventure.
The school was surrounded by water, but Bartlett grabbed his kayak from the garage, parked his truck as close to the school as he could, then began paddling for his daughter, The Advocate reported.
Bartlett estimated that the distance between his truck and the school was 1,000 yards, and he navigated his daughter and her friend in 18 to 33 inches of water toward his vehicle, the newspaper reported.
Some parts of Lake Charles had up to 15 inches of rain on Monday. Bartlett said area residents are used to the flooding, especially since the area endured a pair of hurricanes last year. Flooding is not unexpected, but Monday’s storm caught the community by surprise, Bartlett told The Advocate.
“It’s just been one thing after another after another after another,” Bartlett told the newspaper. “As a community, you get to a point where you get hit in the gut so much, you learn to come together. Everybody is their brother’s keeper.”
