One night in the summer of 2016, Jayden Foytlin awoke to the sound of her older sister, Grace, banging on her bedroom door, yelling that the house was flooding.
“I thought she was messing with me,” says Jayden, now 15. “It wasn’t until I stepped out of bed and into ankle-deep water that I realized it was for real.”
It was the start of a historic flood that ravaged much of Louisiana, including Rayne, the town Jayden’s family lives in. An unprecedented amount of rainfall led to heavy flooding; 13 people died, more than 30,000 others had to be rescued, and more than 109,000 homes—including Jayden’s—suffered damage. Officials deemed it a 500-year flood, meaning there is a 1 in 500 chance of a flood of this magnitude occurring in any given year.
“I felt shocked and a little numb,” Jayden says.
And that was only the beginning. Less than a year later, Rayne flooded again. This flood wasn’t as disastrous, but it strengthened Jayden’s resolve to do something about what she believes is the cause of the storms devastating her town: climate change.
One night in the summer of 2016, Jayden Foytlin awoke to the sound of her older sister, Grace, banging on her bedroom door. She was yelling that the house was flooding.
“I thought she was messing with me,” says Jayden, now 15. “It wasn’t until I stepped out of bed and into ankle-deep water that I realized it was for real.”
It was the start of a historic flood that ravaged much of Louisiana. It hit Rayne, the town Jayden’s family lives in. An unprecedented amount of rainfall led to heavy flooding. Thirteen people died and more than 30,000 others had to be rescued. More than 109,000 homes, including Jayden’s, suffered damage. Officials deemed it a 500-year flood. That means there is a 1 in 500 chance of a flood this size occurring in any given year.
“I felt shocked and a little numb,” Jayden says.
And that was only the beginning. Less than a year later, Rayne flooded again. This flood wasn’t as disastrous. But it made Jayden want to do something about what she believes is the cause of the storms devastating her town: climate change.