Josephine Roberson positions a chalk line along the top of a sheet of plywood as Nolan Derouen flicks the taut string and imprints a fuzzy red stripe across the board. They slice the wood to size, carry it into Betty Hines' living room and nail it to the ceiling. Hines works at the back of the room, straining from the rungs of a ladder as she attaches tiles to the plywood with the aid of one of Derouen's assistants. Heavy rains, excessive groundwater and years of neglect in southern Louisiana's sugarcane region have led to creeping decay in Hines' home. Now,...
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