ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — When the water started rising on Michael Labourdette's property on Highway 433 in St. Tammany Parish Tuesday, it came with a watchful eye.
“It rose pretty quickly, but we're kind of use to it so we kind of knew what to expect,"Labourdette said.
He's lived here for seven years, right along the bayou, fourteen feet in the air.
“It's kind of expected when you buy on the water you kind of expect you're going to have hurricane days," he said.
With the major threat from Hurricane Sally no longer a concern, homeowners are thankful.
“It's a blessing to not have a direct hit for sure,” Mike Cahill said. “We knew it was coming.”
Cahill has lived in his Coin de Lestin neighborhood for 21 years and knows hurricane preparation is a way of life.
"We prepared for it, lifted everything up, moved the cars out of here and hope for the best,” he said.
St. Tammany Parish leaders prepared for days, staging resources and putting recovery crews on standby. Thankfully, Parish President Mike Cooper says that won't be needed.
“We can wake up knowing that we're not in recovery mode and having to go through the de-stress of recovery,” Cooper said.
It's low lying areas where parish leaders are focusing. Some neighborhood streets and property are underwater. In the Palm Lake subdivision, Slidell police officers were writing tickets to drivers for creating wakes across flooded streets.
Whether from wakes or bayous, all that water is reason for concern.
“You just hope you don't get water in the homes because nobody wants to deal with that anymore," Labourdette said.