“Fortunately, we’re not in a flood district, but regardless, you should have all your critical papers, your mortgage statements, deed, surveyor’s report and insurance in a safe place in your house. Have your copies in a sealed plastic envelope. Something happens, you just grab that bag and be gone.”   This is the advice of Graham Weatherspoon, former  New York City police detective and  now broker with Broadband Realty.    
In a situation like in the 4th and 9th wards of New Orleans, where the area has been washed away and may be completely landfilled. “The surveyor’s report with longitude and latitude data will be critical to anyone claiming ownership.”
Weatherspoon is a member of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Real Estate Board. 
Founded in 1937, the Board is one of the oldest organizations of minority real estate professionals in the country.  Like many Black professional organizations, it has its roots in the age of segregation when Black professionals were kept from joining white-controlled organizations.
“You really have a documentation nightmare in New Orleans”, says organization president, Richard Flateau of Flateau Realty. Expressing one of the trade association’s goals of educating the public and its members he says, “It is definitely in a homeowners interest to have safe copies of their deeds, mortgage…As a trade association, our goal is to educate and inform our membership.”