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| In Louisiana, the Water Gives, and Takes Away | In Louisiana, the Water Gives, and Takes Away |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| VENICE, La. — The end of the earth was farther away than usual. | VENICE, La. — The end of the earth was farther away than usual. |
| The only lights in the Venice marina were the full moon and the running lights on Acy Cooper’s shrimp boat, the Miss Marla Kay, one of a tiny fleet that had made the eight-hour trip down the Mississippi River on Friday. Mr. Cooper and the other shrimpers had weathered Hurricane Isaac on their boats outside of New Orleans. Their arrival here in Venice, the first time they have returned since the storm, roughly doubled the community’s population. All but a handful of Venice’s few hundred residents were still scattered elsewhere. | The only lights in the Venice marina were the full moon and the running lights on Acy Cooper’s shrimp boat, the Miss Marla Kay, one of a tiny fleet that had made the eight-hour trip down the Mississippi River on Friday. Mr. Cooper and the other shrimpers had weathered Hurricane Isaac on their boats outside of New Orleans. Their arrival here in Venice, the first time they have returned since the storm, roughly doubled the community’s population. All but a handful of Venice’s few hundred residents were still scattered elsewhere. |
| Saturday morning revealed a town largely spared, but rearranged. A shrimp boat sat on the side of the road. Huge steel diesel drums were scattered like Lincoln Logs. Telephone poles were bowed so low that people riding in the back of a pickup had to duck. | Saturday morning revealed a town largely spared, but rearranged. A shrimp boat sat on the side of the road. Huge steel diesel drums were scattered like Lincoln Logs. Telephone poles were bowed so low that people riding in the back of a pickup had to duck. |
| “The water gives, the water takes away,” Mr. Cooper said. “That’s just the way it goes. It doesn’t have to do it so often, though.” | “The water gives, the water takes away,” Mr. Cooper said. “That’s just the way it goes. It doesn’t have to do it so often, though.” |
| Venice sits at the end of the road in Plaquemines Parish, the marshy stretch of the southeastern tip of Louisiana that was the first landing point of Hurricane Isaac and the scene of perhaps its most thorough destruction. The storm surge overtopped levees and inundated whole communities, stranding scores of people in their homes, some in their attics. A middle-aged couple drowned in their kitchen. The floodwaters even dug out the gravestones. They also cut the parish in half, severing South Plaquemines communities like Venice from the rest of Louisiana. | Venice sits at the end of the road in Plaquemines Parish, the marshy stretch of the southeastern tip of Louisiana that was the first landing point of Hurricane Isaac and the scene of perhaps its most thorough destruction. The storm surge overtopped levees and inundated whole communities, stranding scores of people in their homes, some in their attics. A middle-aged couple drowned in their kitchen. The floodwaters even dug out the gravestones. They also cut the parish in half, severing South Plaquemines communities like Venice from the rest of Louisiana. |
| Up in Belle Chasse, the parish seat in the suburban sprawl just outside New Orleans, evacuees from South Plaquemines were boarding buses for a six-hour trip even father from their homes, to the northern Louisiana city of Shreveport. | Up in Belle Chasse, the parish seat in the suburban sprawl just outside New Orleans, evacuees from South Plaquemines were boarding buses for a six-hour trip even father from their homes, to the northern Louisiana city of Shreveport. |
| Aleen Barthelemy, 53, watched them leave, planning to find a hotel so she could return to her home in the little Plaquemines community of Phoenix on the east bank as soon as the road opened. | Aleen Barthelemy, 53, watched them leave, planning to find a hotel so she could return to her home in the little Plaquemines community of Phoenix on the east bank as soon as the road opened. |
| “Call me crazy,” she said, answering the obvious charge. “I don’t want to be nowhere else. If this happened a hundred times, I’m going to move back a hundred times.” | “Call me crazy,” she said, answering the obvious charge. “I don’t want to be nowhere else. If this happened a hundred times, I’m going to move back a hundred times.” |
| She was born and raised there, as were her father and grandfather. “You know that 40 acres and a mule thing? That’s how that started,” she said. It’s country there, slow-paced and familiar, and it is worth the trouble. | She was born and raised there, as were her father and grandfather. “You know that 40 acres and a mule thing? That’s how that started,” she said. It’s country there, slow-paced and familiar, and it is worth the trouble. |
| In recent years, Plaquemines Parish has seen nothing but trouble. | In recent years, Plaquemines Parish has seen nothing but trouble. |
| In 2005, Hurricane Katrina first hit Louisiana outside of Venice, leaving it under 10 feet of water. Mr. Cooper returned shortly afterward, moved his boat onto the bank of the river and quickly left again, as Hurricane Rita was on its way. After Rita he came back again, slept on his boat and went back to shrimping, eventually bringing his family and living here for months off the power grid. Less than three years later, it was Hurricane Gustav’s turn. | In 2005, Hurricane Katrina first hit Louisiana outside of Venice, leaving it under 10 feet of water. Mr. Cooper returned shortly afterward, moved his boat onto the bank of the river and quickly left again, as Hurricane Rita was on its way. After Rita he came back again, slept on his boat and went back to shrimping, eventually bringing his family and living here for months off the power grid. Less than three years later, it was Hurricane Gustav’s turn. |
| But people here know storms. Nothing quite compared to the kind of anxiety that came with the BP oil spill in 2010, when it appeared for a moment that this way of life was over completely. Even today shrimpers are still chatting over their radios about lawyers and settlements, and whether an odd-looking fish is an anomaly or presages some unforeseen oil-related disaster. | But people here know storms. Nothing quite compared to the kind of anxiety that came with the BP oil spill in 2010, when it appeared for a moment that this way of life was over completely. Even today shrimpers are still chatting over their radios about lawyers and settlements, and whether an odd-looking fish is an anomaly or presages some unforeseen oil-related disaster. |
| People in Plaquemines have generally had family here for generations, working in self-reliant trades like ranching, shrimping, oyster harvesting or running service boats for the oil industry. Aside from his father, who is also a shrimper, Mr. Cooper has answered to a boss for just one and a half months of his life, when he worked in the cleanup of the oil spill. | People in Plaquemines have generally had family here for generations, working in self-reliant trades like ranching, shrimping, oyster harvesting or running service boats for the oil industry. Aside from his father, who is also a shrimper, Mr. Cooper has answered to a boss for just one and a half months of his life, when he worked in the cleanup of the oil spill. |
| But the virtues of autonomy and remoteness that keep people here can turn into liabilities as quickly as a change in weather. | But the virtues of autonomy and remoteness that keep people here can turn into liabilities as quickly as a change in weather. |
| In the worst-flooded areas of Plaquemines, holes have been punched in levees so that the floodwaters can drain when the tides go out. But that is a complicated process and may take several days. Getting power will take much longer, with major electrical lines down in the marsh, and the only roads up and down the parish still under water. One shrimper said he expected power to return around Christmas. | In the worst-flooded areas of Plaquemines, holes have been punched in levees so that the floodwaters can drain when the tides go out. But that is a complicated process and may take several days. Getting power will take much longer, with major electrical lines down in the marsh, and the only roads up and down the parish still under water. One shrimper said he expected power to return around Christmas. |
| On Mr. Cooper’s trip home down the Mississippi River, there were signs every few miles of what had happened that week: marooned cattle being herded on the levees, a barge run aground, the damaged roof on the palatial home of the parish president, Billy Nungesser. | |
| It is a long trip. Plaquemines extends out into the Gulf like an arm, with the Mississippi running veinlike up the middle, stretching from Belle Chassedown to the narrow, splayed fingers where the river ends. Venice sits a little below the wrist. | It is a long trip. Plaquemines extends out into the Gulf like an arm, with the Mississippi running veinlike up the middle, stretching from Belle Chassedown to the narrow, splayed fingers where the river ends. Venice sits a little below the wrist. |
| Isaac’s flooding, which filled up bowls formed in places between the locally constructed levees on the Gulf and the federally built levees lining the Mississippi River, was most severe in the community of Braithwaite a little way down on the east bank, and around Pointe à la Hache on the west. There is only one way to get to Venice, now, and that is by boat. | Isaac’s flooding, which filled up bowls formed in places between the locally constructed levees on the Gulf and the federally built levees lining the Mississippi River, was most severe in the community of Braithwaite a little way down on the east bank, and around Pointe à la Hache on the west. There is only one way to get to Venice, now, and that is by boat. |
| Mr. Cooper sat at the wheel and talked about how long his family would be able to live down here, or how long there would even be a Venice to live in. Over the last 80 years, a chunk of south Louisiana the size of Delaware has dissolved into the Gulf, as the marsh has been cut up by canals, starved of replenishing sediment by the walling-off of the river and eaten in large bites by hurricanes. | Mr. Cooper sat at the wheel and talked about how long his family would be able to live down here, or how long there would even be a Venice to live in. Over the last 80 years, a chunk of south Louisiana the size of Delaware has dissolved into the Gulf, as the marsh has been cut up by canals, starved of replenishing sediment by the walling-off of the river and eaten in large bites by hurricanes. |
| The long arm of Plaquemines has grown thin in sections. Mr. Cooper navigates based on a map created in 1983, and quite often he is traveling over areas that appear green on the map, meaning that they were land not that long ago. The less land, the less protection from hurricanes. And the one kind of frontier independence that Plaquemines residents could do without is the fact that the parish sits mostly outside the federal flood protection system built to protect New Orleans and other parts of south Louisiana. | The long arm of Plaquemines has grown thin in sections. Mr. Cooper navigates based on a map created in 1983, and quite often he is traveling over areas that appear green on the map, meaning that they were land not that long ago. The less land, the less protection from hurricanes. And the one kind of frontier independence that Plaquemines residents could do without is the fact that the parish sits mostly outside the federal flood protection system built to protect New Orleans and other parts of south Louisiana. |
| “My lifetime, my kids’ lifetimes, we ain’t going to be here no more,” he said. “How much can you take?” | “My lifetime, my kids’ lifetimes, we ain’t going to be here no more,” he said. “How much can you take?” |
| The shrimpers spent the night on their boats in the dark harbor. After the sun came up on Saturday, Mr. Cooper went to check on his trailer. He used to have a house, but he and his family are happy here. How long would a house really last down here anyway six, seven years before it was washed away? | The shrimpers spent the night on their boats in the dark harbor. After the sun came up on Saturday, Mr. Cooper went to check on his trailer. He used to have a house, but he and his family are happy here. How long would a house really last down here anyway six, seven years before it was washed away? |
| On the drive, the few men who were left traded news out of the windows of their trucks: Cypress Cove marina got it bad; so did Dean Blanchard’s dock. Mr. Cooper found his truck, which was waterlogged. But his house was not in bad shape. Trees were down, a boat trailer had been shoved around in the yard and a freezer full of meat was defrosting not yet to the point of ruin. But it was here, and it was home. | On the drive, the few men who were left traded news out of the windows of their trucks: Cypress Cove marina got it bad; so did Dean Blanchard’s dock. Mr. Cooper found his truck, which was waterlogged. But his house was not in bad shape. Trees were down, a boat trailer had been shoved around in the yard and a freezer full of meat was defrosting not yet to the point of ruin. But it was here, and it was home. |