March 4, 2022, was the day that gave me nightmares for weeks. Workers were at our house rebuilding from the storm damage we had because of hurricane Ida. A category 4 is something I had never gone through before. Our little community is on the north shore of New Orleans, far inland from the coast. This is an area that typically is never hit by a category 4, by the time a hurricane hits the coastal land the storms have considerably slowed down by the time it comes this far inland. Not this time. We had two very large trees slam into the side of the house, causing major structural damages. The effects could be noticed throughout the home with large cracks in the sheetrock. When the workers removed this exterior wall (pictured below) the studs were bent and twisted.

The workers left for a break time & I was busily refinishing our front door, excited that all of the work was finally making progress. We had lived with the damages from the hurricane for months now and to see everyone coming together to do the repairs was a really good feeling. I decided to take a break for a few minutes and sat down on the sofa with a fresh glass of iced tea, a was watching the fire in the fire place. Then, All of a sudden, I heard tiny popping noises above my head in the attic. My heart started racing thinking, this is weird. Suddenly, the air conditioner turned on, and black smoke began to pour from the vents! I yelled out to my husband “SMOKE”!!! Within 90 seconds out whole living area was filled with black smoke. I ran outdoors to call 911. It seemed like 10 minutes before they arrived, but it was probably less than that.

The firemen were awesome. They did all that they could do to protect our belongings. They even took my kids photos off of the refrigerator and placed them in the garage. The entire attic had to be sprayed with water and most of the ceiling removed. The chimney had caused the attic to catch fire and we were totally unaware of what was happening until the air conditioner clicked on. I am thankful that it was set to turn on, because usually in early March it’s still set to heater mode. I am thankful we were awake, many times we build our fires at night before bed time, we close the screen then go off to sleep.

The fire inspector determined that the fire was cause because of a “builder’s error”. He said that the wood should have NEVER been placed around a chimney the way this one was & that it was miraculous that we and our children were not caught in a house fire years earlier.

Our home has been gutted and currently we are waiting on the rebuild to begin. It has not been easy to find someone that is equipped to do this much restoration.

Some of my paintings were totally destroyed and many prints & supplies. I was fortunate to save the portrait commission I was working on at the time. I look forward to the day when the studio is all restored.