Joshua Sarvaunt picked up coffee and breakfast at KD’s Diner in Lake Charles around 8:30 a.m. Monday before heading one door over to work on inventory at Lucky Pierre’s bar. Within the hour, West Prien Lake Road and Ernest Street, the intersecting roadways where both businesses sit, were flooded. Sarvaunt, a bartender at Lucky Pierre’s for the past 14 years, spent the next two hours watching as the steady downpour caused floodwater to continue rising.
By 11:25 a.m., water had reached a step that leads into the shotgun-style bar. Less than 10 minutes later, water began seeping into the bar’s front entrance. He laid down towels to try and block more water from coming in, but he turned around and noticed water coming in from the bar’s back entrance.
The bar had 6 inches of water by 11:55 a.m. Sarvaunt was in disbelief.
“Never has water entered the building,” he said.
Sarvaunt walked over to KD’s, a long-standing establishment in the city. More than a dozen patrons, a few of whom are in their 90s, and a handful of employees were trapped as water had made its way inside the diner. Cars stuck in the parking lot were shaking from wakes caused by large trucks driving fast down Ernest Street and West Prien Lake Road.
“I wanted to be in misery with my fellow community,” he said. “We were all just sitting there in disbelief looking out the window asking, ‘Is this really happening?’ ”
The water surrounding Sarvaunt’s car in the rear parking lot was 2 inches from the door, he said. He called a friend for help and left KD’s around 2:30 p.m. With water up to his waist and debris floating around him, he walked north along Ernest Street to a gas station at the roadway’s intersection with 18th Street. He rode to his friend’s home, where he has stayed since January while work to repair hurricane damage continues at his home.
Another hit
The water damage was yet another blow to Lucky Pierre’s, which had been closed since last July because of statewide COVID-19 restrictions. It reopened March 21, just over two weeks after Gov. John Bel Edwards allowed bars to open with capacity and curfew limits. Edwards lifted those limits March 31.
“Business has been really good; people were ready to get out,” Sarvaunt said of the March reopening. “Just when you think things are moving in the right direction, a flood stops your income again.”
The bar also suffered damage from Hurricanes Laura and Delta’s landfall last year. Repairs included a new roof, air conditioning system and carpet.
Sarvaunt is two weeks out from moving back into his home in the Gulfgate subdivision near the McNeese State University baseball field. The flooding was roughly 7 feet from his home, he said.
“I just had my floors put in and sheetrock done,” he said.
Both Lucky Pierre’s and KD’s remain closed since the flood. Sarvaunt said there is no timeline for reopening, but crews are working to get the bar dried out and cleaned so it can start serving patrons as soon as possible.
The stress of the flood, two hurricanes, a winter storm, plus the approaching Atlantic hurricane season, is overwhelming, Sarvaunt said.
“We can’t catch a break,” he said. “People in Lake Charles are saying what if this happens again?”