no, we're fine. raymond, what am i looking at now with this white mark? that's the 1973 marker where the water was at in '73. that's the highest it came. so we're about ten inches from the'73? about ten, eleven inches, yeah. grab that tree. now, how you wanna pull around? ten inches! did you get a picture of it?
you want to get a picture of it? yeah, please. ten inches, right on the button! that was a pretty good guess. estimated a lot higher. we walked on up just like house, house movers do and we blocked it and we made all the pillars for it and put it under. and since then, i've anchored it down so it can't float off. cuz in '73, it did float off. it got off of the pillars, went up, and the tree stopped it from going to thelake.
and when it came back down, thepillars came up through the floor. so we had to go in there after the water went down and cut holes in the floor to locate the pillars. and we had to put jacks under it, from inside the camp. jack it up, go from to the outside, drove the pillars out, and put them all the way around under the camp. but when i bought it, it was one foot off the ground. so i picked it back up. that's why i picked it up, to keep the water out of it. but since then, the water's been in it three times. this is the fourth time, right now. so, flood of '73, and when else? in '73...no, since i've owned it, the water's been
in that camp three times. this is thefourth time. '08 was one of them. and back in the '90s we had water in it. when was the other time? '02 i think it was. but we didn't get much water. two inches one time. ten inches one time. twelve inches one time. but now, we figure five and a half feet. when you bought the camp, it had almost all the way to the ceiling. that's right.
so that's eight feet. and it was a foot off the ground. so that would be nine feet from that marker. so that's how i got. we transferred this mark to my camp the last time we were there. and i got on the wall and figured, i put the five and a half and then i put six if when higher than this. and it'd be about six foot of water if it goes a foot higher than '73.
so we got all that figured out. so that that means you'll have to cut out thesheet rock. it's all plywood. take all the plywood out, junk it. all the paneling, all the insulation, junk it. we'll check the wiring. the wiring is copper, you know, but we'll probably have to change all the receptacles, all the switches. in other words, have to do the electrical over again. oh yeah, we'll have to redo all that.
alright, thank you. now, how deep's the water here to the bottom of your camp? did you say nine feet? right now, at least. got about nine foot of water. and why is your camp floating? because it has styrofoam all under it. and i figured the styrofoam when i built this camp between ten and ten and a half tons. and i got it in there.
we figured how much each block of styrofoamwould lift. and we got enough to put under it to lift it. and that's why it's floating today. what's the purpose of the rods on each corner? that's to keep the camp with this current they have from going downstream. next year, we're going to put some more on the front. those are, man, way in the ground. and the anchor is right on each corner
and it slides up on that pipe and right back down and sits back on the pillar. the sewer breaks it loose by itself. we don't have to worry about it. it comes apart. we take the hard pipe. we got union, break two of them loose, shut the valves off. that's it and you're home free. what about your power plant? oh we going to see it. the door's open on it. okay, what else you wanna know, don? well, have you ever seen a current like this before?
no. in '73, these boys came back to check that camp. i didn't come that day. he said the current had... the camp moved towards the lake. so the current was coming around here, he said, and moving it. but right now, we see the current's comingstraight at us. so, i think we're in fine shape.and what's this water known as?
is it part of grand lake? this is part of grand lake. this has always got water in it.there's a series of islands and all this is just backshoots behind the island. right, this is just a backshoot at the back of the island. that's why i got, i got a wharf down here with a boat shed that i put the boat under. but, right now look at it. it's underwater so... underwater completely. so you can get this big boat with a top on it under it. that's how high this water is.
don't forget about this. yeah, that's that pipe. this thing here is way, way off. now, what am i looking at? that is a winch that i pull my fish barrels out the water with. i would imagine it's off the water line right now. but when you're standing there, it's ten foot in the air. so it's ten foot from there to the pier, that's why i said the camp, you see,
is ten foot under. and then you got another six foot down. so you got about 16 foot of water right here, right now. with the camp, i'm amazed that it's still doing great. it's never been this high off the blocks, you know what i mean. and so i had proof that the pipes were working. we gonna go visit the power plant now. the building is right over there.
okay, what's the styrofoam?yeah, people would dredge out in the river. they had these big, round styrofoam pieces. right.you've probably seen them. well, that's what they used to float that pipe with. so that's why i went to uh...thibodeaux, louisiana. they had a place that was making those things, and that's where i bought them from. so you gave them custom specifications?so i split them in half. hang on, we got a little bump here. uh yeah, that tree is rotten. it's a bump!
alright, we coming to my power plant here. we have a wood thing right here we keep our wood under a building. a little shed like, right there. somebody opened the power plant door. take a picture of my power plant up in the air. we got a big grain shed under it. building is right there. what you need for me to do?nothing.
we got another power plant building. used to be my power plant right here. so that power plant building is underwater.it's six foot tall, to start out with, seven foot tall, and it's under water and that's what the motor might havebeen hanging up on? right that's what the motor... still out the water. how about that. outstanding. it's still out the water, ralph. give me time. i'll go slow.
back off a little bit. you see the power plant down there?it's barely touching the water now. the edge of it's barely touching. so will you be able to salvage thisbuilding?oh yeah, this is all treated wood. yeah, when i built this thing, we built it out of treated wood so we figured, you know... ...outstanding [inaudible] we picked it up to the rafters. yep, it's above water. now how big's your generator?that's a 15kw. it weighs about 700..seventeen hundred and sixty pounds or close to that weight.
right at a ton. and that was the purpose of the a-frame that we saw underwater? no, we have another a-frame that we built out of four inch channel. that little aluminum frame won't pick this thing up. that's why we had to put the boat on the bank. you know, we put the a-frame over it and raised it up and put it down. but the foundation was built for my power plant
and i raised it up in the air. this building here is off the ground a good two-and-a-half feet, okay? so, and the plant is up higher than the floor of this. we picked it up like a foot higher, but we knew the water was coming, so we raised the power plant up, we took that same a-frame, assembled it in the building,
put a come along on it and come along the power plant to the rafters. so that's what we had with that power plant. so we in fine shape there. so we're not going to have too much problems. mostly cleanup. so, you're happy.oh yeah. now that i see that sucker floating
with all my goods in there, you know. from the kitchen sink to the stove and the refrigerator are all in there. so if you were asking somebody to buildin the basin, first thing you would say say is build high, higher, and highest. you build high, real high, or either fix it where it floats with some guide pipes and you won't have any trouble. put your guide pipes high enough, though. get you a bench mark and go above it like i did. now, ralph, you wanna say that again? floating is the best thing to do?that's what i would think, if i was a...ralph, why don't you keep the snakes out of there?
he loves his snakes. that's the latch at the bottom. now i need something to put in to keep it...no, it ain't gonna come loose again. you saw how tight it was. i got something right back here. he wants to latch that door... see, we're not worried about water coming out of this thing. see, under the power plant, i have a screen and i cut a hole in the floor so the water would come in so you don't have to worry about the doors. you know, it won't hurt you. and it keeps all the critters out.
we got a latch at the bottom but it's three and a half feet below this. the next latch is going to be at the very top. right, exactly. but he's got it there. there you go, ralph. you got it now. it won't go anywhere, sure enough.you want me to swing your front around ya? yeah, unless i go... i don't guess we can through here.why don't you go around? we'll see his camp.let's go look at the other camp. i think...it breaks away and then it comes right back down.
okay guys, you got it? ...a little bit more, we would've been in trouble. that's why we put some extensions. we know now we got enough. i'm going to mark it, whenever it goes down, on my pipe, i'm going to put a line where the water was at. if it goes up higher than those pipes, we going to wait for it in morgan city. he's sitting up on the hill. his camp's about two, two and a half feet off the ground. but he's on a hill so that's why his camp doesn't have much water in it. he's got a good two foot. he's got about two, two and a half foot of water. he said, i'll call you. i said, i'll call you first. he wants to know if somebody [inaudible]
he can't get in there if he wanted to, to raise everything up, his mattress and everything. he could get in there by swimming.he's got about ten inches to go to his [inaudible].that generator shed's in pretty good shape. that generator shed, i'm going to tell you how high it is. going to reach up and touch the top of it, okay. so that's a good six foot off the ground, that generator shed. that's how much water you have under it. but i don't think it's going to get to that. i hope their refrigerator didn't float off. remember they just put it on top of there. it's probably hung up underneath there somewhere.yeah, it probably is, because it flopped over, i can tell you.
oh we're going to have you plenty. okay, that's something. we'll download them and your daughter.about the top of the ceiling, you see what i mean?that's right. it's six foot right now.are you seeing enough on your [inaudible]?yeah, that's plenty, ralph. i was scared it was going to get too far maybe, or get hung up. and guess what. it's sliding up beautiful, man. remember, it goes up slow, comes down slow. so you basically have streetlightsbetween these three?yeah. we got some wires strung out. well they go back-and-forth, you see.
i've got a backup for my power plant. i've got a thirteen kw. but we wired transfer switches so if i have a problem out here at night, i walk over there and fire his off, flip two switches, and i have power again. she is rolling around the corner too. that's why i got that strapped on the top of the other camp pulling it back so it don't move totally. well, we don't want this one to move, for sure.no. that's anchored down. remember, we anchored that down good. how'd you anchor it?you know those hurricane anchors for travel trailers?
yes. those with some stainless steel straps that he fabricated.it's down with stainless steel. it ain't going nowhere. after the hurricane of '08, that roof was gone. that other roof over there, that silver roof, that's all brand new. that was gone. all the insulation was gone. we had to redo the whole roofs. put new insulation, new tin, new plywood.