Beyond Katrina

Storm report: Forgotten people

"Time and Tide" Isle de Jean Charles --Terrebonne Parish, La. (courtesy Matthew White)

This one's near and dear to the heart. I was very pleased to that Gannett's Dennis Camire penned an article focused on the Houma Indians and their struggle to preserve their way of life, their lands and to rebuild again in light of recent hurricane devastation. As Camire reports,"the problem is that the tribe has not fully recovered from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The tribe's members, many of whom used to depend primarily on fishing for their livelihood, are seeing their marshlands vanish into the Gulf of Mexico and are being battered with personal losses from storm after storm". The article which is publised at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana may be viewed here.

I want to take this time to do a  mention for Houma Indian Captain John Verret  who has generously helped me and and my colleague Matthew White  get up front and personal with coastal land loss and wetlands issues over in Terrebonne -  as have others there. As a result Matthew has quite a few  photographs taken in Isle Jean Charles (which is part of the article's focus), Dulac, Cocodrie and other parts of Terrebonne, here.  Matthew does plan to return soon to continue his documentation of  this fragile  ecological jewel.

   

Changing the landscape of Louisiana marshes

Upcoming long-term projects to rebuild dying marshes will alter the landscape of the coastal fishing communities, which need to start preparing

As Hurricane Ike's storm surge created coastal chaos, I couldn't help thinking back to conversations earlier this summer with Lafitte area anglers upset about the impacts of the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion Project. Speck fishing had been lousy in the northern part of Barataria Basin, and fishermen were convinced it was because Davis Pond had changed their brackish habitat into a freshwater lake. Continue>>>

Hurricane Ike destroys a number of Gulf platforms

HOUSTON (AP) - Federal officials say it appears Hurricane Ike destroyed a number of production platforms and damaged some of the pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico. Lars Herbst, regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, said Sunday that flyovers revealed that at least 10 production platforms were destroyed by the storm. Herbst stressed the assessments were preliminary, but the damage appeared far worse than that caused by Hurricane Gustav two weeks ago.

A Tribute to Louisiana's Coastal Parishes

Hazy Afternoon at Holly Beach, LA, Blue Sail, May 2008 (Courtesy Matthew White)

Ike/ Energy Infrastructure Report: Tweet from the Oil Drum

Ike is a massive human tragedy. refining side is bad too, but not nearly as bad as Iike with another 20mph. new updates: http://is.gd/2zdN          35 minutes ago from web          

Freighter crew safe after riding out Hurricane Ike

From CNN:

• Story Highlights
• Ship's crew of 22 endures night without power in Gulf of Mexico
  
• Coast Guard, Air Force had to abandon rescue because of poor conditions
  
• Authorities onshore find it too dangerous to respond to calls for help

Continue>>>

South La. rescue operations poised to begin

BATON ROUGE -- There's a good chance some of the hundreds of people who chose to ride out Hurricane Ike in southwest Louisiana will want to or should get out of flood-prone areas as the storm surge rises today, Gov. Bobby Jindal advised Friday. Ike pushed a huge amount of water in front of it, and the surge was expected to continue rising along the Louisiana coast this morning. Continue>>>

Ike's Eye 20 miles S/SE of Galveston

000
WTNT54 KNHC 130553
TCEAT4
HURRICANE IKE TROPICAL CYCLONE POSITION ESTIMATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL092008
100 AM CDT SAT SEP 13 2008

AT 1 AM CDT...0600Z...THE CENTER OF LARGE HURRICANE IKE WAS
ESTIMATED BY NOAA DOPPLER WEATHER RADAR TO BE NEAR LATITUDE 29.0
NORTH...LONGITUDE 94.7 WEST OR ABOUT 20 MILES...35 KM...
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS.  THE NORTHWESTERN PORTION OF THE
EYE SHOULD BE MOVING OVER THE GALVESTON AREA IN THE NEXT HOUR OR
TWO.

THE NATIONAL OCEAN SURFACE STATION AT THE GALVESTON PLEASURE PIER
RECENTLY REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 85 MPH...137 KM/HR.

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN

Ike's surge swamps lower St. Tammany Parish Louisiana

Stranded residents are hauled from homes in rescue boats

As Hurricane Ike swirled west on Friday, its storm surge swamped lower St. Tammany Parish from Madisonville to the state line east of Slidell and caused widespread flooding in other communities outside the levee system in the New Orleans region.

Ike wreaks havoc on Louisiana bayou communities

HOUMA — Sections of levees hundreds of feet long were overtopped or breached Friday in Dulac, Chauvin, Montegut and Pointe-aux-Chenes, and officials said there could be significant levee failures in those areas. Continue>>>