By Saturday morning, the road leading into the Palm Lake subdivision in south Slidell had been turned into a boat launch.

A flotilla of kayaks, pirogues, canoes, motorboats, and even a paddleboat floated on the waters that had innudated the subdivision for the second time in two weeks.

“By now, you just have to have a sense of humor about it,” said Palm Lakes resident Rebecca Stubenrauch. Even though Hurricane Ike did not make a direct hit anywhere along the Louisiana coast, it’s high winds and storm surge gave Slidell and the surrounding area a lot problems with rising waters.

“We were blessed this time,” Subenrauch said. “The water only came within 8 inches of our door.”

Both Palm Lake and Camellia Drive took on a lot of water last week when Hurricane Gustav roared through the area.

Residents on the adjacent Camelia Drive weren’t so lucky. Anthony Darby said that he and his family evacuated their house by 9 p.m. Friday because the water was getting high.

“It was four feet deep in the streets,” Darby said. He and his wife Sammi had to evacuate their disabled son by boat. They were lucky in that they could stay at a relative’s home in a dry part of Slidell.

Slidell police and city workers spent most of Friday evening evacuating people by boat from Palm Lake and Camellia Drive.

Saturday morning, Bayou Liberty Road had turned into a parking lot and was closed to traffic. Bayou Bonfuca had overrun its banks, flooding the road and adding more woes for the residents, as they waited in their cars for a chance to get into the neighborhoods to see if their houses were flooded.

According to one policeman standing guard at the Palm Lake entrance, more houses were flooded this time than during Hurricane Gustav.

Saturday, Parish President Kevin Davis released a statement saying he had toured flooded areas, but did not have a number of houses that had been flooded. But the two neighborhoods were not the only casualties of Ike’s storm surge.

Starting in the south along Lake Pontchartrain, Rat’s Nest Road was awash with lake waters along with debris from Hurricane Gustav that came through the area last week.

The debris had been piled up along the road, but Ike’s winds, and rising lake waters washed the debris onto Rat’s Nest Road.

At one point in the road, the debris had formed a small levee and water was pooled behind it causing vehicles to move slowly through the combination of flood waters and debris. St. Tammany Parish had to close off the road to traffic.

Carr Drive that runs east off U.S. Highway 11 was also closed to traffic as lake waters rushed into yards and houses and over the road.

Some roads in Eden Isles saw flooding as the water in the many canals started to rise because Ike’s storm surge pushed up lake waters.

The water got extremely high at the intersection of Oak Harbor and Marina Drive. Sheriff’s deputies had to close of Marina Drive because passing cars were causing water to wash into houses.

Down the road from Palm Lake, waters came up and covered Bayou Liberty Road, forcing parish officials to close the road from Carroll Road to St. Genevieve Church, including the Bayou Liberty Bridge.

The Coin du Lestin subdivision just off Bayou Liberty Road took about four feet of water, according to resident Deana Berke, who called by phone to report that she couldn’t get to work. Though her house was elevated, and did not get any water, Berke said that she could see several houses take water from her vantage point.

The situation to the east of Slidell was just as dire for some residents along U.S. Highway 190 East. Parish officials had to close Indian Village Road to traffic, as well as the highway from Apple Pie Ridge Road all the way to U.S. Highway 90 in the Rigolets.

Several houses on U.S. 190 East took on water. One resident who did not want to be named, said the storm surge pushed water into the Pearl River which overran its banks and flooded into the Honey Island Swamp which rose itself and flooded the highway and the streets around it.

Slidell Mayor Ben Morris said that there was a “handful” of power outages reported around the city, which is an improvement from Hurricane Gustav when most of the city lost power.

Residents of Palm Lake and Camellia Drive reported that, amazingly, they had not lost power.

“We even still had Internet,” Darby said, whose house had eight inches of water.

In the middle of town, the overflowing Bayou Bonfuca covered half of Heritage Park. The bayou’s waters also washed into Chamalé Cove subdivision to the west of Heritage Park, leaving roads impassable.

Police blocked off the entrance to the subdivision. The mayor’s house is in Chamalé, and he went home Friday night by boat to his house which was an island in the waters.

Officials were concerned because the storm surge would not stop rising until 9 p.m. Friday, and Morris warned residents to be wary of rising waters, and take the necessary steps to secure their property and keep themselves safe.

By Saturday morning, the waters had receded a bit. But because of prevailing southerly winds, a lot of the water was not able to flow back into the lake.