Hurricane History

On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana has no history without hurricanes. But how does 2021’s Hurricane Ida stack up against some of the region’s other storms?

News Coverage

National and local news all covered Hurricane Ida’s buildup, landfall and aftermath. Each told the story in a different way. Here’s a sampling of various coverage of the Bayou Region as the storm unfolded. All Local National The Advocate 4WWL CNN WDSU Nola.com The Advocate HTVHouma NBC Houma Today CBS ABC The Advocate

Loss of Businesses

By Dex Duet, Features editor Hurricane Ida’s destruction put the bayou at a standstill. It halted the overall sense of normalcy, especially for business owners who had to deal with damages to both homes and businesses. Brenda Dardar Robichaux, the owner of Chez Felicite, a local wedding venue and bed and breakfast, was grateful to have her business after Ida. This wasn’t just because she had a building where she could do business again, but the building also became their new home. And now, with wedding season in full swing, she is back in business, working out of the house she is living in. The grounds have been modified to accommodate their new lifestyle. “Our clients suffered devastation to varying degrees,” she says. “They lost their homes and no longer had the resources to be able to host their weddings or events they had planned. We felt that we wanted to help the community, so we gave full refunds to anyone who could no longer host their weddings because of Ida’s devastation.” Another business owner, Janabeth Daigle, owner of Le Bijou Hair Salon and Day Spa, suffered a major hit from Ida. She lost her entire roof, and part of the ceiling caved in, forcing her to gut part of the business, rendering it unusable. With half of her business destroyed, Daigle is currently operating out of one of the last rooms left in the building. Her friends that she evacuated to came to the rescue after the storm to help her get back on her feet as soon as they could. She recalls the help by saying, “My friends from Mississippi came the following weekend. Six men, two women, three trucks, a trailer, a four-wheeler, chainsaws, a heart of gold, and christ-like people. They made it happen in seven hours and drove five hours back.” Acting quickly, Daigle started moving furniture and belongings around to prevent any further damage. She had help from the community and her loyal customers. Daigle, being a former teacher and cancer survivor, finds herself having to shift her mindset from giving to receiving. “When you’re a giver, you want to help people all the time, but when you have to sit back and receive, it’s not so easy,” she says. “It’s like inhaling and exhaling; part of giving is receiving. You cant an exhale without an inhale. Someone has to be a receiver for someone to be able to give.” Some businesses are vacant because the owner’s home’s damage forced them to leave. Divine Martin, a former Houma resident, recently moved to Colorado after his apartment complex was damaged by Ida. He left behind his family-owned business, Trap Seafood, and Wings, which has yet to open back up. Trap seafood is located on the east side of Houma and serves up authentic cajun meals. The restaurant has a small amount of damage and is undergoing renovation. “We’re currently in the process of remodeling and repairing what was damaged so we can open for business hopefully in the first quarter of next year,” he says. “We’ve been out of business since the storm hit on August 29th, so we’re eager to get back to what we do best, which is serving our #FoodForTheCulture back to Houma, LA.” https://youtu.be/bkXx_aFTlgAhttps://youtu.be/myE_-ZmOqg8https://youtu.be/ptR6K4cgYyU

Loss of Homes

By Mikaela Chiasson-Knight, Managing Editor A home is more than a place of residence, they are places to find security, make memories and build lives. As Ida left the Bayou Region, it took stability from a countless number of families in South Louisiana. With so many buildings damaged and destroyed, residents are left scrambling to find new places to live. The Houma Highlands Apartments on Hollywood Road in Houma are among the many residential homes that Ida damaged. Stevie LeBouf and her family lived in Houma Highlands and their apartment was significantly damaged. LeBouf was not even allowed to return home to retrieve what was left of the family’s belongings. The apartment management “told us we couldn’t come back because of the ‘unknown damage,’ but they didn’t tarp our roof until three weeks after the hurricane,” LeBouf says “So every time it rained, our belongings would get more water damaged.” Another resident, Divine Martin, lost his apartment and had to make the sudden decision to move with his family to Colorado. “The most impactful thing is just being away from all of our family and friends that we used to see on a daily basis, but we’re making due,” he says. In some places, displaced residents live in tents outside their damaged homes. Others, like Taylar Rhodes, have had to relocate completely to another area. The Rhodes home of over 50 years had significant damage, causing her family to move to Shreveport. “My entire life was upended — from home, to work, to friends and family. We didn’t just lose our house; we lost our whole way of living,” she says. “Now we are in a new city; we have to find new jobs and new friends and new things to do on the weekends. So in some ways, we did lose everything. And in other ways, we gained a second chance to start fresh.” Another Houma Highlands resident, Brynn Duck, was forced to leave her undamaged apartment and live in a camper on a friend’s property. Duck is unsure how long she will be living there due to the lack of available housing in the area. According to Duck, mostly every complex office she’s spoken to is damaged. “Due to something in the camper’s electrical wiring, we don’t have power directly from the camper, and we’ve had to run extension cords from the house into the camper,” she says. “I can’t shower in the camper because we don’t have hot water, so I shower at my gym and I do laundry at a friend’s house. Inside the house is my roommate’s mom, grandma, cousin, his cousin’s wife, and their two kids. His cousin’s family also lost their apartment because of the storm, and they can’t find a place to live right now either.” Duck also lost a place of employment, The Intracoastal Club, due to severe structural damage. The Club hopes to reopen in the next few months after remodeling the entire venue. Residential areas are not the only ones suffering from Ida’s damage. Josh Sons, Managing Partner of MOS Real Estate, has seen severe damage to his company’s commercial and real estate properties. Sons is in charge of multiple rental properties; he is also responsible for dealing with insurance adjusters and contractors. “One of our commercial real estate buildings was a total loss, and we had to move locations, and several of our residential homes had to be gutted,” he says. “[The hardest part has been] dealing with our tenants and residential properties, trying to meet their needs. The heartbreak around having folks relocate and you can’t do anything to help them makes you feel helpless. But we can’t have them living in an unlivable situation.” https://youtu.be/dPdxm7mngyY A Personal Story “My entire life was upended — from home, to work, to friends and family. We didn’t just lose our house; we lost our whole way of living.” – Taylar Rhodes, Houma Resident

Loss of History

A Personal Story: Losing Homes & History By Dex Duet, Features editor Dollie Duet, a native of Golden Meadow, Louisiana, lost most of her belongings during Hurricane Ida. Her home, her vehicle, and her sense of peace, all washed away with Ida’s devastating fury. She is currently staying between friends’ and family’s houses waiting for assistance. It’s been two months since she’s had her own place. With the uncertainty of insurance and the effectiveness of FEMA, she is unsure of what that next step will be. It’s hard for her, for the people that are helping her, and for her family. Dollie’s story is like so many throughout the Bayou Region. Almost everyone lost something or knows someone who lost something. And so many lost everything. But unlike the countless others, this one is personal. My name is Dex Duet. I am the features editor for this semester’s edition of Garde Voir Ci and the son of Dollie Duet. When I signed up for this position, I wasn’t aware that the focus of our stories would be our stories. It went from research on lost communities to the conditions and status of the place you grew up in and the people you love. I was eager to take on this story, but sitting at a table with my mother and watching her cry was jarring. Unfortunately, this was the first time that she had a quiet moment to sit and think about what happened. There are so many people without a voice and not just because no one will talk to them. It is hard for the words to come out when the recovery isn’t done. So, here I sit with my strong-willed mother, letting her tell her story. Dollie has lived her whole life in Lafourche parish. She is the only girl in a family of four boys, so being tough is something she learned at a young age. Growing up, Dollie was fascinated by her own culture. Culinary skills are what drive the people in South Louisiana and she has those skills. The Cajun-French culture even has its own French dialect, which Dollie speaks fluently. Her love of the culture and cooking landed her in Nicholls State University’s culinary arts program. She spent two years there, but being a single mom and pursuing a full-time culinary career eventually became too much and she dropped out to focus on her family. Dollie then bought a nice home in Golden Meadow and began living the quiet life she always wanted. Years passed and at the age of 61, she decided to go back to college to get her degree in business. She finished in May of 2021, three months before her world was turned upside down. On August 28, 2021, my mother and I ran from Hurricane Ida by hopping in a car and heading to western Louisiana. We stayed in a little camp that a family friend owns. All six of us were huddled up, waiting to hear any news about our homes and loved ones. Half of my loved ones stayed behind, which is common with my family. They aren’t afraid of much, but this scared them. We kept in touch with them until the storm hit, but then there were two days of ominous silence. No one knew if our homes were still standing or if our loved ones were safe. “While we were sitting there away from the storm, we had relatives that we were keeping in touch with down the bayou,” Dollie says. “The whole time we were communicating we were talking on the phone. She was taking pictures of what was going on. Then all of a sudden I hear her say, ‘oh my god the house is rockin’ now.’ Then communication shut off. We didn’t know if they were still alive or what had happened. Trying to get in touch with anyone at that point was near impossible. All we wanted to do was get back, but we didn’t know what we were going to find.” “Then all of a sudden I hear her say, ‘Oh my god the house is rockin’ now.’ Then communication shut off.” – Dollie Duet After what felt like ages, one of our cousins called saying everything was okay and our house was still intact. I’m not sure if the house just looked okay from the outside or if she was trying to spare our feelings, but the house was not okay. Our home, the place I grew up in, the place where my mother and I made so many memories, was gone. My mom loved that house. The house was 110 years old with another house attached to the side. That building looked twice the age of the main one. My mom spent years trying to figure out what the building was or how old it was, but many didn’t know. While having a conversation with a historian from South Louisiana one day, he revealed the unknown facts about the building. This building was the first place in Golden Meadow that sold bus tickets. There was even a popular rumor that the building floated there from a previous hurricane. “One day a gentleman by the name of Lany Boudreaux (long-time area resident and bayou history buff) said, ‘I know how old that house is. The store part of that house floated there from the Caminada hurricane in 1911. They added to it then built the house connected to the store. The store was a grocery store and later they made an ice cream parlor with it.’” Dollie continues, “The little window where you can buy the bus tickets is still there. I kept it there until the storm took it.” When my mom moved in, she completely remodeled it with her own two hands and no help. One of her favorite things to say to the men in her family was, “I redid that house from the ground up and none of y’all put a single

First Responders

By Dex Duet, Features editor Under Hurricane Ida’s mandatory evacuations, most families in the Bayou Region packed up and left. But law enforcement officers prepared and then stood ready to face the brunt of the storm and the aftermath. “We’re in the middle of the storm working and they [other officers] get reports back that their home is gone,” says Lieutenant Travis Theriot of the Houma Police Department. “And they have nothing and they’re looking at you and telling you they only have the clothes on their back and the bag that’s packed in their unit. They show you pictures and everything is scattered all over the yard and all you can do is console them and then you look at them and they just put on their game face and go back to work.” “They have nothing . . . they only have the clothes on their back and the bag that’s packed in their unit . . . Then you look at them and they just put on their game face and go back to work.” – Lt. Travis TheriotHouma Police Department During the storm, Theriot responded to the local powerplant that was being blown away. Debris fell into the building, hitting the employees inside. Theriot and his crew rushed over in a large vehicle to save the employees that were trapped in the quickly dismantling building. In three separate trips, the team pulled 17 men out of the powerplant and brought them to safety at the Houma Civic Center. “I was crouched down watching the metal fly off the building right over my head,” Theriot says. Even everyday people joined the efforts. Chad Fitzmaurice, a resident of Porter, Indiana, was visiting South Louisiana for the alligator hunting season. But his alligator trip turned into a multi-week effort to help others. “We were knocking on doors where people were literally living in one room of their house because the rest of their house was gone,” he says. “They had tarps up just trying to protect that one room so they can live in it because they had nowhere to go. There was nothing.” Help was needed during the storm, but after the storm passed first responders jobs were far from over. Some residents were still trapped in flooded houses. People needed food, water, medical assistance and shelter. Those who evacuated needed clear roads to return home. Tony Boudreaux, the Thibodaux Volunteer Fire Department’s fire chief, says their concern was to ensure safe and clear roads for first responders and those trying to begin the restoration of their hometowns. “We had to let the storm pass through,” Boudreaux says. “The next thing was to coordinate an effort to get the roads cleared so if we do have an emergency, our emergency services can get where they need to get.” In addition to clearing roads, the Thibodaux Volunteer Fire Department helped individuals assess and clean up their homes, made sure power lines were not a danger to passing cars and provided the community with much-needed essentials. And while the storm passes through in a couple of days, the aftermath, cleanup and recovery are long. “After a storm like Ida comes through, things typically move slowly for the most hardest hit people,” he says. “That is difficult to see.” While dealing with Ida was difficult, Boudreaux says there was still good. “While you’re out assisting the community, you see people helping each other,” he says. “Neighbors helping neighbors — those are the things that become positive. The storm is the negative, but everyone coming together to help each other is the positive part of all of this.”