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Coleen Perilloux Landry | profile | all galleries >> Beauty of the Wetlands and our Need to Preserve It Gallery >> Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes After Hurricanes Gustav and Ike 2008 tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes After Hurricanes Gustav and Ike 2008

These two small villages, if they can be defined as such, sit at the mercy of the Gulf of Mexico in the southern part of Louisiana in Terrebonne Parish. "Terrebonne" means good earth in French.
Isle de Jean Charles has been inhabited for many decades by Native American Indians of the Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees and the United Houma Nation. They make their living by fishing, hunting and trapping and have taken care of themselves. Their land is valuable land and the government has an interest in it, but not an interest in the people who inhabit it. Only the oil that is there.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 dealt a severe blow to Isle de Jean Charles. The stalwart people rebuilt and regrouped. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike dealt an even more severe blow in September 2008 and many of the houses were swept away by wind and water. The proud inhabitants have only asked that a levee be built to protect them from storm surge.
On the day these photos were taken there was no evidence of any kind of outside assistance. Residents had cleaned up their road on the island as best they could and many were picking up the pieces, few pieces that they are.
I will show the images just as I saw them. Sad indeed.
In a nation that is supposed to be so rich, nothing is being done to help the descendants of the people who were inhabiting Louisiana long before Christopher Columbus discovered America.
A Proud People
A Proud People
One of the remaining houses
One of the remaining houses
Everywhere is the cracked, dried mud left behind by hurricane waters
Everywhere is the cracked, dried mud left behind by hurricane waters
Someone's purse carried by the flood waters
Someone's purse carried by the flood waters
Someone's television
Someone's television
How Ironic
How Ironic
Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana
Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana
Even in desolation there is beauty
Even in desolation there is beauty
Only structure intact except for the water and mud inside
Only structure intact except for the water and mud inside
A homeless houseboat in the marsh.
A homeless houseboat in the marsh.
All gone
All gone
Not a yard sale
Not a yard sale
This land is your land, this land is my land......
This land is your land, this land is my land......
Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor
Houses all destroyed but the oil industry remains
Houses all destroyed but the oil industry remains
Devastation Everywhere
Devastation Everywhere
Intrusion of Salt water from Gulf of Mexico Kills Live Oaks
Intrusion of Salt water from Gulf of Mexico Kills Live Oaks
No Bridge to Get Home
No Bridge to Get Home