Eroding Coast=Eroding Economies

By Ariella Cohen

In a commentary released this week by the Equity and Inclusion Campaign, Courtney Howell and Diane Huhn from Bayou Grace Community Services urge Congress to fund coastal restoration in southeastern Louisiana. Their argument? That a safer, healthier bayou ecosystem means less need for disaster relief and a stronger local economy — and a stronger local economy means less reliance on federal assistance.

Photos by Karen Gadbois

The community of Isle de Jean Charles has already begun to pay the price of coastal erosion. The tiny spit of long-settled land is gradually sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. For the families that live and earn livelihoods fishing on the tiny spit of Terrebone Parish, the island’s slow death is devastating. Following Hurricane Gustav, I visited the island with colleagues from the New Orleans Institute and United Houma Nation. In an article for New Orleans City Business, I described what we saw:

“Five days after Gustav’s winds sent water from the Gulf of Mexico surging onto the narrow spit of marshy land, freshly washed-up, dead fish line the entrance to the narrow island, their silvery backs sparkling in the sun. Abandoned horses, dogs and cats wander in the mud. Lining the island’s only road are severed trailers and the mud-caked debris of wooden homes reduced to sticks by racing winds and a pounding, seven-foot storm surge.”

We found houses that had been thrown onto their sides by the storm’s 120 mph winds. Homes toppled into deep layers of thick, oily post-diluvial mud from the Gulf of Mexico.

The fast-eroding island is not protected by the federal levees that protect other vulnerable coastal communities and will never be, according to the current expansion plans for Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Protection system. Oil pipelines cut into the wetlands surrounding the narrow strip of marshy land have sped up erosion and killed off once plentiful fishing supplies. Residents can tick off on their fingers the half-dozen tropical storms to hit the island in the last decade. Most agree that the fierce winds of Gustav caused the most damage.

“Sometimes you look at it and say how do we pick up the pieces,” says United Houma Nation member Chris Chaisson. “You say, why doesn’t the government buy these people out? But understand this is an Indian community, and it is our land. I’m trying to hold back the tears. We are the bumper zone for the region and look around at the price. All my people are devastated.”

Gustav left families without homes, fishermen without boats, kids without toys and schools without functioning, unflooded classrooms.State and federal agencies spent millions getting Isle de Jean Charles and surrounding communities back up and running. Now they face another hurricane season without adequate protection.

In their commentary, Huhn and Howell say that without reliable federal funds for the Corps to perform coastal restoration work, this twinned cycle of environmental and financial loss will continue to put the future of the bayou in peril while still costing taxpayers in the band-aid approach now used to avert outright humanitarian crisis.

“If policymakers took a more holistic approach to restoration, they would recognize that protecting the coast would reduce the constant need for federal dollars to rebuild communities,” the commentary says.

Indeed. The piece is worth a read.