By the time Ryan starts tearing into musty drywall, he has already been up and at it for 10 hours. He has a few more to go before homework and heading back to a temporary apartment an hour away.

"I always think, like, it's tough what me and my family went through," he said. "We were still in the house and just thinking about that storm and as it's going on, the water rising quick -- it's going to leave a permanent mark."

Still, he's optimistic that life will look something like it did before, like all the days and nights before the storm swallowed everything.

"I'm learning that no matter what happens," he said, "not everything can slow you down and make you give up on everything."

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Poppy Harlow contributed to this report.