Louisiana floods: The return of high school football is tonic for a ravaged city.
DENHAM SPRINGS, La. — In 23 years of coaching football, Dru Nettles never had to deliver a pep talk like this.
Most of his players and coaches on Denham Springs High School’s football team lost homes when floodwaters ravaged their city in suburban Baton Rouge. Their battered school remains closed, but the team has a season-opening home game to play in two weeks.
Before they practiced Wednesday for the first time since the floods, Nettles sat them down on the purple logo at midfield and asked if they had seen aerial photographs of their inundated school.
“If you look at the back of campus, the one thing that didn’t go underwater was this logo,” Nettles said. “Awesome sign right there that this ‘DS’ was shining ... to give people hope.”
The promise of Friday night football is tonic for a city at the epicenter of the catastrophe. Even the most modest signs of recovery are lifting weary spirits in Denham Springs, where flooding damaged an estimated 90 percent of homes and businesses.
Block by block, garbage trucks equipped with metal jaws are scooping up mounds of rancid debris from curbs and yards. Postal workers are delivering mail again. Insurance adjusters are inspecting gutted houses. A fast-food restaurant reopened near the interstate that had been underwater.
“Everybody is trying so hard to get back to normalcy as much as they can. Yes, we are seeing progress. Every day, we finally see another business come back online,” said Denham Springs Mayor Gerard Landry.
But he fears it could take years for this city to fully recover after more than 2 feet of rain fell in the area over a three-day period two weeks ago.
“The devastating thing is that so many people didn’t have flood insurance,” Landry said. “In most parts of this city, it was not required.”
A football game at Denham Springs High School can draw thousands. The stands are bound to be filled when the team plays its first game Sept. 9.
Nettles said about a dozen of his 90 players couldn’t make it to practice Wednesday — understandably, given how many have wrecked homes.
“Nothing you experience out here is going to be any tougher than you’ve had,” Nettles told his players.
An assistant coach was surprised to see defensive end Ryan White take the field. His family lost a home. His father lost two business properties. They’re moving to New Orleans, but the 16-year-old wanted to practice with his team one last time.
“These are my teammates and my brothers,” he said. “It’s hard leaving them, especially after what we’ve all been through together.”
Team captain Dillon Boyle, a free safety, said he has helped gut seven homes, including three belonging to his family. Returning to practice, even in punishing summer heat, was a welcome diversion.
“I wouldn’t say it felt normal, but I’d say we feel like more of a team now,” he said. “Being with my friends again is a big relief.”
The school’s band rehearsed Thursday for the first time since the storm. Band director Andrew Hunter said many of them arrived an hour early.
“Just beating us to the door, ready to go. Hugging each other. Catching up. Talking about how many feet of water they got in their homes,” Hunter said. “That’s what we talk about now.”