Coastal Restoration
By Kelsi Chapman, Podcast Editor
Island Water Quality
By Brittany Chaisson, staff writer Much of Louisiana’s coastal waters are polluted, but Grand Isle’s location at the mouth of the Mississippi River and its human inhabitants make its waters particularly susceptible to contamination. Experts say that agricultural runoff and marine debris are the leading cause of water pollution on Grand Isle’s coast. “The thing that we think about at Grand Isle every summer is the hypoxic zone,” says biologist Dr. Gary Lafleur. Dr. Andrew Willis, another biologist, says “It’s nothing that farmers are doing wrong, it’s just the nature of things.” “It’s nothing that farmers are doing wrong, it’s just the nature of things.”— Dr. Andrew Willis, biologist Dr. Willis explained that this fertilizer-contaminated water from the northern United States empties all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico where it collects along Grand Isle’s coast. As the water from the Mississippi flows into the Gulf, it floats above the denser salty seawater. This causes a separation where the freshwater and saline water meet, which prevents oxygenated surface water from oxygen-poor water on the bottom of the Gulf. These events create a hypoxic zone. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, hypoxic zones are becoming more frequent as human inputs of these nutrients increase. “When it comes to the water quality for fisheries and human health…the biggest source is from malfunctioning home sewage systems and camp systems,” says Andrew Barron, a member of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. This malfunction can happen after bad storms when power outages cause water treatment systems to lose pressure. This loss of pressure prevents contaminants from entering through the cracks of pipes. “The biggest issue is the high concentration of nutrients that lead to the formation of the area of hypoxia,” says barrier island researcher Willis. “This low water dissolved oxygen is bad for sea life”. The excess nutrients in the water cause an overgrowth of algae on the water’s surface. This area of deoxygenated water is called a “dead zone”. The dead zone causes hypoxia in small sea creatures like shrimp in crabs, which quickly kills them. Larger marine life, like fish or shellfish, are not able to find a proper habitat and food, so their numbers deplete. This depletion in the fish population can negatively affect the local economy, which relies on the fishing industry. A dead zone creates a phenomenon locals call a “Jubilee.” Lafleur explains that it is called a “Jubilee” because of the “drunkenness” caused by the upward movement of oxygen-poor waters, which forces fish and crustaceans from the bottom of the hypoxic zone ashore. “Sometimes you can see crabs and speckled trout, almost acting as if they’re drunk,” says Lafleur. “They’re not dead yet, but they’re not swimming well.” In this “drunken” state, it is much easier to fish without netting. Because hypoxia doesn’t pollute or poison the fish, they are still consumable. The marine life of Grand Isle is also harmed by marine debris such as oil and human waste. “We’re still feeling the effects of the BP oil spill, which was more than 10 years ago,” says Lafleur. “After the BP oil spill, it appeared that the oil just disappeared from view, it sank to the bottom offshore and it can stay in the sediments offshore”. Lafleur says that every time a storm has come over the last ten years, sediment has been stirred up, and oil returns to the shoreline. When this happens, organisms that burrow in the sand along the coast get contaminated. This contamination spreads when sea life or birds consume the contaminated organisms. A popular tourist destination, Grand Isle attracts thousands of visitors to its beaches each year Human waste such as plastic bags and trash can pollute the island’s water. Tourists and offshore oil rigs both to Grand Isle’s pollution. “The physical material, the trash, the garbage is intimately connected to the water quality,” explains Barron. “All of the water around Grand Isle receives quite a bit of debris.” When trash enters the Gulf it becomes marine debris. Land surveyors find that there is a constant supply of this debris which harms the sea life who consume it. “Methods of industrial work create factors such as an agricultural runoff, oil spills, and marine debris, which all contribute to the harmful consequences on those who live and fish on the coast.” Loading…
Hurricane Ida
By Alaina Pitre, staff writer Being on the front lines of the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane season is especially busy for Grand Isle with evacuation almost always mandatory. While many hurricanes have impacted the island, Category 4 Hurricane Ida was one of the worst to hit Louisiana’s coast and directly hit Grand Isle. The storm made landfall August 29, 2021, with 150 mph winds and storm surges reaching over 10 feet, according to the National Hurricane Center. About 75 people stayed on the island to ride out the storm. “All hell broke loose – I have never been in a war setting but that is what it felt like,” says Jimbo Adams, a Grand Isle resident who rode out the storm at the island’s fire station. “I have never seen anything like it and I hope I don’t again – it was total destruction.” “All hell broke loose – I have never been in a war setting but that is what it felt like… it was total destruction.”Jimbo Adams, resident Under a mandatory evacuation, most residents left. “We were rushed, Ida was supposed to make landfall Monday or Tuesday, instead it made landfall Sunday,” says Darleen Taylor, who evacuated to Addis, Louisiana, with her husband and five pets. “We had to hurry.” And when people were allowed to return, the journey was difficult and the island wasn’t the same. Taylor says her family couldn’t come home, “We had to stay in Addis for four months.” Her home was deemed unlivable and so she and her husband and pets are living in a FEMA trailer while making repairs to their home. While Adams says a lot of residents have not come back to the island, many have and are working to repair the island. To help, several Grand Isle-based non-profit organizations have secured grants and other aid. “People keep asking me what is the future and I really don’t know,” says Bob Stewart, vice president of the nonprofit Friends of Grand Isle. “It will come back. It may take a while, but we are doing everything we can.” https://gardevoirci.nicholls.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ida-animation.mp4 storm stories
Grand Isle’s Hurricane History
grand isle hurricanes 1855-present By Alaina Pitre, staff writer As a barrier island, many storms have hit Grand Isle. The following are a list of major hurricanes, categories 3-5, that have affected the island since 1855. 1855 Category 3 Unnamed Winds: 125mph 1856 Category 4 Last Island hurricane or Great Storm of 1865 Winds: 150 mphFatalities: 200 1860 Category 4 Unnamed Winds: 150 mphFatalities: 47Damage: $250,000+ 1893 Category 4 Cheniere Caminada hurricane or Great October storm Winds: 130 mphFatalities: estimated 2,000Damage: $5 million 1909 Category 3 Unnamed Winds: 120 mphFatalities: 400+Damage: $11 million 1919 Category 3 Unnamed Winds: 100 mphFatalites: 34Damage: $12.5 million 1926 Category 3 Unnamed Winds: 115 mphFatalities: 25Damage: $6 million 1964 Category 4 Hilda Winds: 140 mphFatalities: 38Damage: $126 Million 1965 Category 4 Betsy Winds: 140Fatalities: 81Damage: $1.42 billion 1974 Category 4 Carmen Winds: 150 mphFatalities: “several”Damage: $162 million 1985 Category 2 Elena Winds: 125 mphFatalities: 8Damage: $1.3 billion 1992 Category 5 Andrew Winds: 175 mphFatalities: 65Damage: $27.3 billion 2005 Category 5 Katrina Winds: 175 mphFatalities: 1,836Damage: $125 billion 2008 Category 4 Gustav Winds: 155 mphFatalities: 122 direct, 41 indirectDamage: $8.31 billion 2020 Category 4 Laura Winds: 150 mphFatalities: 47 direct, 34 indirectDamage: $19.1 billion+ 2021 Category 4 Ida Winds: 150 mphFatalities: 107Damage: $75.25 billion
Island Flora & Fauna
by Brittany Chaisson, staff designer
The Island’s Environment
by Alexis Casnave, staff writer While many people enjoy Grand Isle’s natural beauty, it doesn’t exist without threats from factors such as storm damage. The community of Grand Isle works diligently year-round to ensure the island remains alive and well. “The work being done on Grand Isle is through the efforts of the town, the Garden Club, and the Nature Conservancy doing their best to restore the natural side of the island as people are rebuilding their homes and their businesses,” says Jean Landry, Program Manager at the Nature Conservancy in Grand Isle Landry and other Conservancy team members work together to maintain the island and preserve native plants such as the iris. Louisiana Irises have become scarce due to road and building developments around the state. The flowers have been rescued from areas in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish and moved to Grand Isle, where they flourish due to the island’s climate. Due to its water-and-wetland-cleaning properties and ability to absorb toxins, the iris is significant to the ecology of the island. Landry says there are around 2,000 irises planted throughout Grand Isle. While irises play an important role in Grand Isle’s ecology, they do not act alone. The island’s oak trees are also integral facets of its ecosystem. “When people go for the beach, they’re sometimes missing the real ecological gem of the island, which is the Cheniere Forest,” says Gary LaFleur, associate professor of biology and director of Nicholls State University’s Center for Bayou Studies. “When people go for the beach, they’re sometimes missing the real ecological gem of the island, which is the Cheniere Forest.” — Gary LaFleur The word “cheniere” derives from the French term meaning “full of oaks.” The Cheniere Forest is home to oak trees up to 200 years old. These trees are instrumental in the survival of Grand Isle and its wildlife. Birds exhausted from migrating over the Gulf of Mexico use oak trees as temporary shelter. The oaks also provide shelter for other wildlife like bobcats, frogs, land crabs and box turtles. The uprooting of over 20 oak trees since Hurricane Ida leaves room for potential invasive plants like Chinese tallow trees and air potatoes to grow in their places. “These forests are adapted for a bad hurricane every ten years, but they are not adapted for a bad hurricane every year,” says Dr. Lafleur. If the frequency of hurricanes continues to increase, it could hurt the chances of survival for the oaks and the ecology surrounding them. Marine debris also poses a threat to sea life as trash is mistaken for food, endangering animals like seabirds and turtles. A more recent environmental issue due to Hurricane Ida is the clogging of sewage and drainage systems. Sand and debris filled and clogged drains, resulting in standing water on the roads. This has affected 97 streets throughout the island, and residents attempting to keep the sand that has blown onto their property prolongs the issue. “Last week we dug out a drainage ditch and the owners had a lot of excess sand on their property, so when we had hard rainfall, all the sand we dug out washed back into the drainage ditch so we now have to dig out again,” says Christopher Hernandez, Grand Isle’s Town Supervisor of Highways. Hernandez says he expects the process to take six months to a year to complete due to a shortage of employees and equipment. “We ask everyone to please be patient, and we will get to it one way or the other,” says Hernandez. “We will soon have several other crews joining to help.” While the environment in Grand Isle has taken a beating over the years, hundreds of people continue to contribute to the preservation of its natural beauty. Landry says, “It’s the green space that we need so we can get away from daily pressures and just enjoy the beauty of nature.” flora & fauna grand isle See more
Island Storms in the Media
Gathered by Victoria Savoy, photo editor Hurricane Ida is not the first, nor will it be the last storm to hit Grand Isle. As a barrier island, Grand Isle has been the target of many storms through the years. National and local media have covered these storms, leaving a record to tell the story of Grand Isle’s inseparable history with storms. Hurricane Ida Past Hurricanes Hurricane Ida All Local National NBC The Guardian Fox 8 WWL TV Good Morning America CNN WDSU CNN USA Today Nola.com WALA TV WDSU Daily Advertiser Houma Today WDSU Houma Today The Advocate Previous Storms October 6, 1893 September 22, 1909 August 17, 1915 September 25, 1956 September 25, 1956 October 2, 1956 September 13, 1965 September 7, 1974 September 8, 1974 August 8, 1984 July 19, 1997 September 20, 1998 September 17, 2005 September 28, 2005 November 11, 2005
Storm Stories
A podcast series about hurricane experiences on Grand Isle.
An Inland Barrier
By Jonathan Eastwood , Features Editor Inland South Louisiana communities like New Orleans owe a lot to barrier islands like Grand Isle. “[If] Grand Isle goes, Bourbon Street’s gonna have eight feet of water,” Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle says. “It’s coming.” “[If] Grand Isle goes, Bourbon Street’s gonna have eight feet of water. It’s coming.” — Mayor David Camardelle Grand Isle is one of many barrier islands that are made of sediment deposited by the Mississippi River. The islands’ position at the edge of the incoming tide prevents storm surges from devastating land further inland. But just as the waves build up barrier islands, they also tear them down. On August 29, 2021, Grand Isle was devastated by Hurricane Ida. But the direct hit to Grand Isle also helped keep storm surges from destroying inland Louisiana. Grand Isle resident Shane Holder tended to his RV park weekly until it was covered with several feet of sand. “All of this used to look like a golf course – I mean I mowed two or three times a week,” Holder says. “[Now] it’s deep under sand all the way across to that house.” The National Weather Service reported that the levee breach caused overflow up to 10-11 feet on the west end of the island and five to six feet on the east end. The surges removed some low-lying structures from their supports and stranded more than 200 residents in nearby Lafitte and Jean Lafitte. Barrier islands like Grand Isle serve as more than just protection against storms. They also form a separation between estuaries and open gulf waters. The mix of fresh water and salt water along with calmer conditions in the estuaries prove vital to many species and environmental functions. “The shrimp are dependent at certain times of coming up into the estuary with the grasses, with the calmer and slightly fresher conditions, and then later going out into the gulf,” Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Darin Lee says. Barrier islands form not when a delta is building from a river’s deposit of sediment, but rather when sea water starts washing the sediment away from the coast. Because of man-made canals and levees sediment is no longer being deposited in the Grand Isle region, endangering the existence of Grand Isle and other nearby islands. “If left to their own devices at this point, the answer is ‘no – they will not come back’,” Lee says. “There will be no new delta formed and no ability for these barrier islands to rebuild.” Mayor Camardelle wants to place rocks in the water to protect the island from storm surges and to rebuild the coast. “You can see where it was built – where the rocks make the little V – the sand’s building up . . . I could put all the rest of the rocks for about 50 million dollars and I could break the surge – about 12 [to] 15 feet of water,” Camardelle says. Placing rocks is not as easy a solution as it seems, however – for multiple reasons. Rocks will simply manage the existing sediment on Grand Isle and prevent its loss, meaning sand will still need to be pumped to Grand Isle occasionally. Additionally, barrier islands form in chains as an interdependent system. Sediment from one island gets washed away and deposited at another island. Rocks would prevent another island from receiving the sediment it needs to exist. “If you put rocks at Grand Isle then it affects, maybe, Grande Terre,” Lee says. “It is not always going to solve your problems.” Grand Isle’s role as a barrier island leaves it to protect inland Louisiana by taking the impact of storm surges, regardless of Mayor Camardelle’s steps to lessen the impact of future storms Grand Isle will Disappear darin lee Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority