Posted on 03/18/2006 4:22:43 PM PST by deport
By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer
LAFITTE, La. - Once the salt water is in your veins, Louisiana's coastal folk say, it's hard to give up the lifestyle of moonlit shrimping trips, the town "fais do-do" dances and afternoons spent on the bayous angling for catfish.
But since last year's catastrophic hurricanes, this swampy land defined by Cajuns, cypress and tupelo gum forests, bayou-side saloons and, more recently, subdivisions may have become too vulnerable for that lifestyle to continue.
Even before the devastation caused by Katrina, Louisiana's swampy coast had been sinking by as much as 2 inches a year. Along with that subsidence, the area is even more susceptible to flooding because last year's hurricanes damaged vast tracts of wetlands — already shrinking because of man's activities — that used to buffer the area from storms blowing in off the Gulf of Mexico.
All of those factors will be reflected in new Federal Emergency Management Agency flood-vulnerability maps due to be released soon that are the basis for flood insurance rates.
The maps will likely make the insurance more costly, force residents to spend heavily to raise homes out of flood plains to qualify for coverage, make many other homes uninsurable and make lenders less willing to loan money for construction in flood-prone areas.
That new reality may threaten the state's coastal population and its heritage of shrimp fishing, alligator hunting, fur trapping and oyster harvesting.
Some of the roughhewn people down here won't leave willingly.
"You've got earthquakes, you've got fires, you've got volcanoes, you've got tornadoes in tornado alley," said A.J. Fabre, an outspoken leader among shrimp fishermen in Lafitte, about 30 miles south of New Orleans. "Where are you going to have everybody? In Missouri?"
Nearly every house in the area, most of them built on slabs, was flooded by Hurricane Rita. Now, families live in trailers as they rebuild.
"It's a quiet community. Virtually no crime. Kids steal a couple of bicycles," Fabre says.
But the future is gloomy. Fabre's place, a small brick house he inherited from his grandfather, has been condemned because of wind and flood damage. The only thing left of a shrimp processing plant there is a concrete slab, and the old family dock is barnacled, broken and useless.
With no flood insurance, Fabre isn't sure if he'll be able to rebuild. He and his wife might have to demolish the place and buy a mobile home.
He insists he is not defeated and lashes out at politicians, importers, the federal government.
"The fight has just begun," he said.
But many of his neighbors and friends aren't so sanguine.
"We're doomed," said Jimmy Terrebonne, a 46-year-old boat builder. He tells his children to get an education and get out of the fishing trades.
As for himself, he said, "I can't do anything else. I don't have an education. I ain't leaving until it's gone. When the land's gone, I'm leaving."
Many coastal experts believe life along the coast is going to change dramatically with the new flood maps.
"Where we had subdivisions in the marshes, they will not come back," said Shea Penland, a coastal scientist with the University of New Orleans. "I can't believe they're sustainable."
"There are going to be some significant changes across the board," said Butch Kinerney, a FEMA spokesman.
For one thing, much more is known since FEMA last calculated the area's flood vulnerability in 1984 about the area's rate of subsidence.
Last year, the National Geodetic Survey issued a report saying the area was sinking by a half-inch to 2 inches a year, and that was as of 1995.
"When they built the levees, it wasn't below sea level. It was dry land. Now it's dry land only because of the levees," said Roy Dokka, a Louisiana State University subsidence specialist.
About 1,000 homes damaged by Rita's storm surge in the heavily Cajun region southwest of Lafayette called Vermilion Parish might need to be raised to be eligible for insurance, said Robert LeBlanc, the parish's emergency preparedness director.
Younger people might leave, LeBlanc said.
Many others, however, are determined to stay.
"People like where they live, they're content," said Kimberly Chauvin, the wife of a shrimper who is thinking of raising their already-raised home up to 10 feet higher. "I wouldn't want to move to the city, not at all."
Delaware will only hold so many people.
What about scorpions?
The ballpark.
Well, depends on where exactly you're talking about in New Mexico; there's significant earthquake hazard in the Albuquerque area...and there's been fairly recent volcanic activity (from a geologist's perspective) in many areas of New Mexico. Also, the Valles Caldera in New Mexico is a junior-grade Yellowstone.
Fires?
I hope you put in for your FEMA subsidy. 'Cause you know they were supposed to know about it, do something right away, and pay for your lifestyle (whatever that may be) indefinitely.
Just like our little Northridge shaker a few years back...
The Northeast--there's a slight blizzard danger (though it comes with the added bonus of having four seasons), and places like New Hampshire and even New York City are quite safe.
Emeril is photogenic and glib---but he is a Portugese from Massachusetts---not Louisianian.
Do you live in New England? I remember when we got 3 feet of snow on April 1.
You must not live here in the south.
A lot of us are not originally from here, but that is not a requirement. You are allowed to join your neighborhood and become a southerner no matter where you're from.
I thought he handled it well visiting Chef Paul, and others on a chef-to-chef level that had nothing to do with geography or national origin.
I'm wondering why you felt the need to point all that out. What did he ever do to earn your negative views?
No, not now. I live in Texas now - to get away from the snow! But it was in New England!
Born and raised in South Louisiana--spent fifty years (of fifty-nine) living there, but not there now. I know what REAL South Louisiana cooking is all about.
"I'm wondering why you felt the need to point all that out. What did he ever do to earn your negative views?"
Because he made his "rep" on Louisiana cuisine, and basically passes himself off as a native (because "Emeril" sounds French). I had the same gripe with Justin Wilson, who passed himself off as Cajun, with not a drop of Cajun blood. It smacks of fakery.
New Mexico has already had 2 FEMA declarations THIS year. (Both for fires) http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema
Looking at 2004, there is one for flooding and a couple for fire. The only one I saw for 2005 was for Katrina. Here's the 2004 list: http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema?year=2004
My Grandmother lived on a farm there in the early 1900's and with hunting she always said it was a blast.
oof!, damn.
Yes, and most of them have been too busy doing so to play "your hurricane got more attention than my hurricane." That's been mostly left to people out of state who were nowhere near the path of either one of them.
-Dan
Over 90 tornadoes hit here in Missouri last weekend.
Those are the people who will stay, just like they have for over a hundred years. They are probably glad to see the others go. Those folks living up on the bayous know the land and how to live and survive on it.
Louisiana's coastline has been eroding for decades.
I've seen floods, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts, and blizzards in Eastern New Mexico.
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