Today, we bring you three stories exploring what it really takes to be ready for the next big storm. But at their core, these stories are about something deeper: the determination to keep living here on the Gulf Coast, and about the choices we’re making that will decide whether that’s possible.
This episode was hosted by Carlyle Calhoun, Eva Tesfaye, and Michael McEwen. Eva and Michael reported the stories. Carlyle Calhoun is Sea Change's executive producer. Emily Jankowski is our sound designer, and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.
Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Sea Change is also supported by the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
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TRANSCRIPT
Over the last month, we’ve been bringing you stories about how Hurricane Katrina’s impacts are still felt across the Gulf Coast. And while experts agree we’re better prepared to face a big storm today than we were 20 years ago, being prepared isn’t like crossing a finish line—it’s an ongoing journey.
I’m Carlyle Calhoun, and you’re listening to Sea Change.
Today, we’re sharing three stories exploring what it really takes to be ready for the next big storm. But at their core, these stories are about something deeper: the determination to keep living here on the Gulf Coast, and about the choices we’re making that will decide whether that’s possible.
First up: New Orleans levees. Ask anyone in New Orleans, and they know: Hurricane Katrina was such a devastating disaster because of the catastrophic failure of the city’s’ levee system. And in the storm’s wake, a lot of changes were made to make sure another disaster of that scale doesn’t happen again.
But, coastal reporter Eva Tesfaye brings us a story about how politics could be undermining the city’s most important protection against the next storm.
Eva takes it from here.
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Ambi
I’m standing on what’s been called the Great Wall of Louisiana. Picture wetlands and water in every direction. Giant flood walls made out of concrete and steel rise out of the swampy waters of the Intracoastal Waterway, east of New Orleans.
We're gonna go ahead and walk up the ramp, and the ramp that we're gonna walk on is actually all drivable.
Stacy Gilmore is leading a tour. She’s a public information officer for the organization tasked with making sure this massive levee system is working properly.
You'll see the entire structure is drivable for maintenance reasons.
We’re in the middle of it all on Lake Borne Surge Barrier. It protects the city against storm surges up to 26 feet from Lake Borne. It includes three gates — which are usually open for boats to travel freely. The giant walls are dark grey and rounded, like two huge dams, that can move to make one big barrier and stop surge waters from inundating the city.
Buzzer noise
When activated, a loud buzzer goes off to let everyone know the barrier’s gates are closing. The two sides rotate inward coming together to stop the flow of the water. It’s slow moving, taking about 20 minutes to fully close. A couple of fishing boats in the water will have to wait to pass.
GILMORE: this whole area with this water flow, they gotta make sure if the water gets to a certain point, they close the gate. So it doesn't even have to be a hurricane.
The surge barrier is the largest of its kind in the world and the center piece of New Orleans’ $15 billion levee system built after Hurricane Katrina. This system is what keeps the city safe from flooding.
New Orleans levees go back over 150 years. Before Hurricane Katrina, there was a series of smaller levee boards overseeing their small part of the system. The boards were politically appointed, and after the disaster, they were widely criticized by environmental groups and residents. A Los Angeles Times investigation found evidence of reckless spending, poor maintenance and oversight.
DAVIS: they were viewed as, you know, systems that, you know, could be run by maybe good hearted but unskilled individuals. And we paid a price for that.
The Army Corps of Engineers’ failures still take most of the blame for the horrors of Katrina, including in a 2006 report from the corps itself. But that year, Louisiana voters supported a constitutional amendment reorganizing the levee boards — with the goal of preventing such devastation from happening again. There are now just two boards, under one name: The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authorities. There’s one for the East bank, and one for the West bank.
The Army Corps built the massive, complex system of levees. But the flood authorities are the ones who maintain them – and actually close and reopen the valves and flood gates during a storm.
The new legislation also created professional requirements for the people who serve on the boards.
That’s essential for overseeing and maintaining the levee system, says Tulane’s Davis.
DAVIS: It does require that you have talented staff. It does require that you, you know, don't assume that just because somebody built it, that it will continue to operate.
Ruthie Frierson is the founder of Citizens for One Greater New Orleans, a group that advocated for levee board reform after Katrina. – and a move away from mostly political appointments. Here’s Frierson in an interview with WDSU the year after the storm.
Frierson: We’ll have one board that is reformed with people with expertise who have one focus: levee board safety only
BUT 20 years after Katrina, former board members, experts and community groups worry that the board is returning to an era of politics and favoritism, instead of focusing on preventing another disaster.
He quickly appointed Roy Carubba to run the east bank board. That’s the one tasked with protecting most of the city of New Orleans. Shane Guidry, an advisor for Gov. Landry, approached Carruba for the role and Carubba has said he reports to Guidry.
Carubba, a civil engineer, had been on the board for less than a month before becoming president.
Since then, his tenure has been controversial and full of upheaval.
Carubba’ and Guidry clashed with other board members and staff over their policies — including an unexpected focus on policing.
By April, just five months in Carruba’s tenure, — Four board members had resigned.
One was Roy Arrigo. He says he left because he felt the board was getting distracted from the essential function of flood protection. He says he couldn’t even get some of his questions answered by the authority’s staff.
ARRIGO: I could no longer come to the meetings informed on the issues because when I would ask questions of the department heads, they would say, well, you know, Roy, we've got a, an order that any, any inquiries, we can't answer it, and any inquiries, we gotta go to the board president.
Because of the turnover, the board didn’t have a quorum to vote on its emergency plan before hurricane season started on June first — it approved it later that month.
And it’s not only board members who are leaving.
The authority has lost more than 25 staff members since Carubba was appointed, according to documents provided by the authority. That included several in key positions, on the critical action team tasked with responding to a storm.
The most public departure was Kelli Chandler, the top staffer in charge of the authority. And the board has been slow to search for a replacement. For Arrigo, the former board member, that’s a serious mistake.
ARRIGO: we were being led. Into hurricane season, uh, not having an executive director. The executive director position is extremely, extremely key and important.
Then, the Governor replaced some of the outgoing board members with people who have no background in flood protection.
At a June meeting, Carubba defended his and the governor’s actions.
CARUBBA: The governor put me here for three reasons to make sure nobody floods, to make sure our police department was restored to its full capacity, and to make sure no one at this agency was doing what he called self-dealing.
Carruba has made allegations of favoritism and discrimination. A survey by the legislative auditor found that some staff experienced or witnessed discrimination in 2022, which the authority says it has addressed.
Board members and critics have pushed back on the claim of self-dealing, including Blair duQuesnay, the chair of Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans. That’s the group that pushed for levee board reform. She says Carruba’s claims have been exaggerated.
DuQuesnay: even if those accusations that he made at that meeting are true, they don't add up to like massive. Like catastrophe, in my opinion.
Now, Carruba has been demoted.
Last month, Gov. Landry replaced him as president with Peter Vicari, a businessman. Landry had already chosen Vicari over an engineering professor at UNO to serve on the board. Vicari had attended one meeting before he became board president.
All this turnover on the board — and on the authority’s staff — makes DuQuesnay nervous. It comes as budget cuts under the Trump administration have created uncertainty over how often the Army Corps of Engineers can do its inspections of the system. Making authority’s inspections all the more important. DuQuesnay is worried that instability now could weaken the levee system for the storms to come because of the loss of that expertise.
DuQuesnay: losing decades long experience in key positions, multiple positions, uh, is gonna have an impact for a long time.
Tim Doody was president of the flood authority board for 7 years. He says in the long-term, the turn over and the lack of flood experts on the board — could impact the maintenance of the levee system.
The board often has to approve maintenance and repair projects. And Doody worries about the board not seeking out ways to constantly improve the system with new technology.
DOODY: We've become complacent after Katrina. This type of, uh, turnover would've been just completely inconsistent with our mission. Now it's just commonplace. So the government was supposed to have removed politics from board service, and it seems to me like that's exactly where it is right now.
This is all about politics and nothing about flood protection.
He says even an engineering marvel — like the great wall of Louisiana — needs vigilant oversight, if it’s going to keep protecting the city for the next 20 years.
In New Orleans I’m Eva Tesfaye.
POST STORY INTERVIEW WITH EVA
CARLY: Eva, Wow. So much changed over the last year at the flood authority. What was your experience like reporting this evolving story?
EVA:Carlyle, It was difficult because as I was reporting this story it felt like news was constantly breaking because the authority is in such turmoil right now. People were resigning, fighting at board meetings. I went to go interview the board president, but found out when I got there that he’s just been demoted earlier that day. I kept thinking I had it figured out and something else would change. Even now, I’m sure there will be more changes at the board.Some more positions still needs to be filled. The story is not over yet.
CARLY: Listening to your story, it makes me think of the upheaval we’re also seeing at federal agencies, and the larger politicization of science. Is that something that came up in your reporting?
EVA: Yeah, I think the most obvious example of that is the governor bringing his friend Shane Guidry into the decision-making. He’s not a flood expert or engineer, he’s the CEO of a marine transportation company, he was not elected, and yet he seems to have a hand in reshaping the levee authority.
And I think it’s also evident in who Landry is choosing to fill these board positions, Some of them are lawyers and businessman, some of them are engineers but not specifically tied to flooding So critics are saying the board is losing that scientific flood preparedness expertise.
And it’s especially notable that’s happening right now 20 years after Katrina, when there was a clear change that the majority of Louisiana voted for, to politics out of the boards overseeing the levees, and now it seems like the board could be going back to that era.
CARLY: And this isn’t the only way politics is impacting preparedness…you also looked at a federal program that Louisiana was relying on to help the state prepare for future storms.
EVA: Yes. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. Also called BRIC. That program actually started during the first Trump administration but he’s now decided it’s wasteful and got rid of it earlier this year. It funded projects that help prevent damage from disasters, before they happen. And Louisiana was supposed to receive over $720 million. So I reported on what that means for New Orleans’ and future storms 20 years after Katrina.
CARLYLE: That story’s coming up after the break.
RW SIGNED OFF
8:18
INTRO: Climate change intensified hurricane Katrina, according to the research nonprofit climate central. 20 years later, scientists have found climate change is making hurricanes even stronger.
5 years ago the Federal Emergency Management Agency started a program to fund projects that help prevent damage from disasters, before they happen. Louisiana was supposed to receive more than $720 million.
Then the Trump administration cancelled the program.
The coastal desk’s Eva Tesfaye reports on what that means for New Orleans’ preparedness for future storms.
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Rain AMBI
On the day I visit the Vietnamese community in lower Algiers known as Hung Dao, it’s raining.
Which is fitting because I’m here to learn about the community’s struggles with flooding. The neighborhood is suburban, with cute houses and nice gardens. But there’s also a lot of abandoned infrastructure like buildings, gas stations, bridges…
NGUYEN: junks, uh, trash and you know, abandoned houses.
That’s John Hoa Nguyen, he’s one of the board members of the Hung Dao Community Development Corporation. It’s a nonprofit in the neighborhood trying to improve recreation and access to culture. He says whenever it rains heavily for more than 30 minutes he starts to see flooding. The problem is made worse by houses sinking due to subsidence.
NGUYEN: Every time we have heavy rain, you can see the, e water is go up to almost to the curb of the street
The land used to hold low-income housing that was damaged by Katrina. Now, it’s an overgrown lot protected by a metal fence.
Tap Bui is with another nonprofit partnering on the project, Song Community Development Corporation,
BUI: we have a lot of, um, overgrown and invasive species of like, trees, shrubs, plants. after they demolished the apartments, um, they did leave the foundation.
So there's some foundations labs here. Um, it's currently gated because there was some illegal dumping and it still continues to be illegal dumping on site. As you can see with some like sofas and trash that we have here.
BUI: why don't we transform this 10 acres into. You know, a stormwater park or something around hazard mitigation, but also honoring what past, uh, visioning and design that the residents already had around cultural preservation and identity.
Almost a year ago, they found out they got the funding.
But then a few months later, the Trump administration cancelled the program. They called tt wasteful and said BRIC was more concerned with political agendas than helping people affected by natural disasters.
The Governor's Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness says FEMA hasn’t yet specified which projects will lose funding.
Here in New Orleans, Austin Feldbaum from the city’s the hazard mitigation office says the city already started working on some of these projects.
FELDBAUM: Our stance right now is to keep moving, um, knowing that ultimately the city might be on the hook for, for the cost of the study.
Feldbaum says he was excited when BRIC first rolled out, which was actually under the previous Trump administration.
Like other FEMA programs, he says it was still slow, bureaucratic and clunky, but it made it easier to fund projects like Hung Dao Gardens.
He says it boosted the money they could spend, encouraged community involvement and justified projects with multiple benefits, not just hazard mitigation.
FELDBAUM: it was important because it was proactive and forward-looking. Being a pre-disaster mitigation program means you're not waiting around for something bad to happen before you fix a known problem. And I mean, that's where we need to be getting,
Alessandra Jerolleman, is the Director of Research at Loyola’s Center on Environment, Land, and Law. She studies hazard mitigation and climate adaptation. She says it’s not just BRIC being cancelled that worries her.
JEROLLEMAN: our expectations about federal assistance are kind of up in the air.
Losing grants from the Inflation Reduction Act will also impact the city’s efforts to prepare for climate change,she says. And FEMA itself is at risk.
JEROLLEMAN: And there's a lot of discussion and debate right now about whether or not, uh, we will or won't have a fema. Whether or not we should or shouldn't have a fema, right?
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy — who has been wary of criticizing the Trump administration — has said BRIC and other FEMA programs are vital for Louisiana. He spoke about it on the Senate floor in April.
CASSIDY: preventing homes from flooding that if they do flood, will cost the federal taxpayer billions of dollars. That's not waste. That's good planning.
Loyola professor, Jerolleman says local governments are already on the hook for so much of the impact of increasing extreme weather, like flooding.
JEROLLEMAN: The climate is changing. We're going to see more events that we don't expect.
Jerolleman says the federal government still has a major responsibility to help protect its citizens.
JEROLLEMAN: This nation needs a New Orleans, it needs a city at the base of the Mississippi River, and, and we're all in this together, so having. Federal mitigation funds, being able to support the places that are most at risk is really, really valuable.
Stormwater services are mostly run by the New Orleans Sewage and Water Board and funded by property taxes. But — certain properties don’t pay property taxes — including churches, universities or the Superdome. A fee would be a way to get them to contribute to maintaining the city’s drainage system. Jessica Dandridge-Smith is the executive director of the Water Collaborative.
DANDRIDGE: We have to make our own money some kind of way, and a fee is a reliable source.
The group has done numerous studies and surveys on how to implement the fee equitably and hopes to put it on the ballot in local New Orleans elections this fall. The money would go towards making up the New Orleans’ Sewerage and Water Board’s deficit, but some of it would also go towards green infrastructure and community resilience projects.
(take beat)
BUT BRIC funded projects throughout the entire state. For a total of $721 million dollars. There was money for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana to improve evacuation routes and for Ascension Parish to strengthen electrical infrastructure.
Dandridge says, by not investing in those kinds of projects, the federal government is basically forcing residents to leave Louisiana.
DANDRIDGE:, whether it be Orleans Parish, whether it be Acadiana parish, whether it be, you know, slidell or Plaquemines parish. Nowhere in Louisiana will be a safe place to live
Back in Algiers, Nguyen says he’s hoping that the Hung Dao garden project makes the neighborhood both safer and more pleasant. He wants to stop young Vietnamese Americans from moving away.
NGUYEN: So this is not a desirable location for young people to stay. So in order for us to regain our population, we had to do something else better.
To sustain their community, he says they need all the help they can get, and that includes local, state and federal governments.
In New Orleans, I’m Eva Tesfaye.
CARLYLE: The population of New Orleans was starting to decline before Katrina, but Katrina forced out about half of the city’s population... many of those people haven’t returned. And as Eva’s story pointed out, people are still leaving the region today.
And that’s not just a Louisiana problem. We head next to Gulfport Mississippi, where a group of historic Black communities are fighting to stay where they are. Coastal reporter Michael McEwan brings us a story about how large scale development, made them more vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina, and continues to threaten their future.
Here’s Michael with the story.
In Turkey Creek, about 6 miles from the waters of the Mississippi Sound, Derrick Evans is walking me through a historic wood building that doubles as his office. It’s the only building left from a once sprawling timber plant that dates back to the 1900’s.
EVANS: “This is the former paymaster’s office, first of the Yaryan Naval Stores Company of Gulfport, Mississippi, then of the Phoenix Naval Stores Company.” (:15)
…Big timber companies. Through the decades, the city of Gulfport sprang up around them and other industries — and around this community, one of the coast’s first communities for African-Americans freed from slavery: Turkey Creek.
“And over time, their ability to extract from the interior of the state is really what got all of this development, urbanization and growth going. Right here, in and around Turkey Creek, this little Freedmen Settlement at the intersection of these bayous” (:18)
Turkey Creek is named after a 13 mile stream that traces a crooked east-west route parallel to the Gulf, draining thousands of acres along its path through swamp, wood and wetlands before meeting Bayou Bernard.
It was founded by a group that included Evan’s fifth great-grandfather, Sam Evans, after a trip made on foot after emancipation in Northern Mississippi.
EVANS: “Without literacy, without money…without much of anything except for faith, family and hope that if you cooperated, worked hard and utilized your freedom – your earned freedom – that you could prosper and grow.” (:20)
As a stream, Turkey Creek is home to bluegill, largemouth bass, gar and crappie, a coastal nursery for shellfish species, and a stopover for migrating birds along the Mississippi Flyway.
EVANS: “Like a Garden of Eden with native fish, wildlife, plants, in a place that’s both ocean and freshwater that’s just…really god’s country.” (:15)
When Katrina made landfall in 2005, Evans says few evacuated, believing they wouldn’t flood so badly. But the storm surge came in with catastrophic intensity previously unseen – described by some residents as “a 30-foot wall of water and debris.”
Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor at the time, would come to describe it in biblical terms — as he did at a Mississippi GOP meeting in June.
BARBOUR: “It looked like the hand of God had wiped away the coast. Like a nuclear weapon had been dropped in the Sound.” (:10)
Evans’s mother and the descendants of other Turkey Creek founding families nearly drowned in their homes, he says. Many had to punch holes in ceilings and be rescued by boat, residents told me. They were initially unsure why this storm had been so bad
But as post-Katrina recovery began, many in the surrounding neighborhoods of North Gulfport turned their minds to the pre-storm development of surrounding wetlands, forest and waterways – what was previously natural flood control.
Evans and others in the area believe that the paving over and development of the land exacerbated Katrina’s destruction.
“That – not Katrina and the height of its storm surge, or the category of storm, is what explains the water that was up to my mother’s living room ceiling.” (:11)
Amid the overall strengthening of hurricanes in a warming Gulf of Mexico, commerce and residential development has since moved further from the coast; and into North Gulfport, in some cases, virtually surrounding historic Black communities, including Turkey Creek.
AMBI
Further ‘upstream’ along Turkey Creek itself, to the west, sits the Forest Heights Missionary Baptist Church. African American residents have been baptized here for decades. And Sunday service still draws crowds.
I’ve been reporting on North Gulfport and its historic African-American communities since the spring of 2023. On a cold morning last February, I met Kenneth Taylor in the church’s pews.
He was one of the founding deacons of Forest Heights Baptist Church, and a member since 1976, presiding over many of those baptisms before there was even a church.
TAYLOR: “ This hadn’t even been built.” (:05)
Taylor said then, it was all wetlands. He died a few months after I interviewed him, but he told me about this community’s history and how the flooding has gotten worse.
Forest Heights dates back to the 1960’s, named for civil rights activist Dorothy Height. It was founded by the National Council of Negro Women and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development It is one of the country’s first home ownership developments for low-income families.
But — like neighboring Turkey Creek — development has dramatically changed the area in recent decades. In the late 1990’s, the area saw a quick succession of a large outlet mall, hotels and big box retail centers just a five minute drive north of Forest Heights, along a major I-10 interchange. Think Waffle Houses and a Wal-Mart
Taylor and other residents say it drastically altered the hydrology of the wetlands surrounding their neighborhoods, turning them from flood absorption into flood delivery.
TAYLOR: “All the water from all those concrete slabs had to come this way – come to the creek. That’s the only place it could come.
Tracts of wetland or forest that had previously absorbed water were now defined by impervious surfaces like concrete and asphalt.
Taylor points especially to an outlet mall built over a section of swamp that he said now diverts water toward his community.
TAYLOR: “Sometimes with innovation and moving, the engineers don’t do the right surveys and things and it causes problems for other areas. That’s what it caused for this area.” (:20)
Katherine Egland is a community climate activist from Forest Heights. She says her community's flooding is the result of decades of racist policies that have made African-American communities more likely to be surrounded by industrial development, and under-protected from climate change and natural disasters. Currently, the community is surrounded by areas zoned for industrial or commercial use.
EGLAND: “And it’s not a stretch to see what they were going through then, and what the Turkey Creek residents are going through now. When we talk about Black history, we’re experiencing it right here.” (:11)
Racial and environmental justice organizations estimate African Americans are 75% more likely than the average American, to live in areas near commercial or industrial sites, and African Americans breathe air that’s more polluted than White Americans.
Katrina was an inflection point for Egland’s work.
The extent of flooding was jarring. Months after the storm, she recalls being miles away from Forest Heights, and still being able to smell rotting raw chicken in the air, meant to be exported from the port but left to rot near her community.
EGLAND: “When I returned after we evacuated, I went just near that area; I was nauseated the smell was so bad. I was in another area of town and I could smell it all the way in Magnolia Grove.” (:15)
Post-Katrina, Coastal Mississippi has boomed, including Gulfport.
But Egland and others say that success has made flooding worse for the Black communities of Forest Heights and Turkey Creek.
EGLAND: “We’re looking at that type of history currently, in the way these the communities are basically have come under siege from projects and development.” (:14)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun a project to raise the existing levee protecting Forest Heights– which promises to bring some relief. But the corps hasn’t said when this will be done.
And Egland says the stress is taking a toll, as people battle mold in their homes from constant flooding.
EGLAND: “ they’re afraid if there’s a hard rain, and they go to bed, their cars will be flooded out. I know they’ve been awakened in the middle of the night and told to move their cars because of the flooding.” (:19)
Some residents have considered leaving entirely.
BUT Both Egland and Evan in Turkey Creek, are trying to prevent that. Their solution? Better regional planning across the city of Gulfport.
Evans is leading a group that’s come up with a detailed plan — and even hired an urban planning firm to help.
In May, both were joined by residents for a community input meeting near Forest Heights. There, Evans presented a community-driven plan to make their neighborhoods safer from storms and climate change.
The goal was to get buy-in from those who know their community best.
EVANS: “Well, there are a lot of ingredients to what makes coastal urban planning good. One of them is a very very strong and healthy, engaged input from impacted community members who have lived experience.” (:21)
One major part of Evans’ group’s plan is halting development on remaining wetlands –natural flood mitigation.
The plan calls for returning some land to its natural state, removing pavement and transitioning some abandoned industrial lots to create a centrally located urban greenway.
But Evans also wants local officials to build a new section onto existing roads that would act as a central evacuation route to Interstate 10. I reached out to Gulfport’s mayor, city council and county representatives multiple times for this story. None agreed to interview requests.
Currently, Evans says, evacuation routes are already gridlocked in traffic on a normal day – let alone when a storm is coming.
EVANS: “If we don’t get a hold of this, this is a worse nightmare than hurricane Katrina waiting to happen. And I’m not trying to be dramatic at all, we went through that and I’m not trying to play anything cheap or light. The next evacuation of that scale, getting out of here, is um…it would really just be impossible.” (:25)
For both Evans and Egland, this is a fight they are only the latest in their families to wage. For generations, their larger community has worked to preserve the natural environment and, in turn, their own cultural heritage.
“Number one, this is not our first Reconstruction. This is not our first mandate, and opportunity, and challenge to envision a future that sustains this community going forward, as well as other communities nearby who need to thrive and survive together.” (:23)
And Evans says the only way to achieve that is to balance growth with the needs of the people who have been here from before Gulfport's earliest founding.
EVANS: “Everything is here because the streams and the wetlands were here before. And development is a good thing, as long as it allows whoever’s there, and going to be there, to stay there sustainably, and safely, and hopefully in community.” (:17)
After a couple more rounds of community meetings, Evans plans to present his group’s community masterplan to city and state officials. AND he hopes to convince them to take action.In New Orleans, I’m Michael McEwen.
POST STORY INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL
CARLYLE: Michael is here to tell us more about the story. So, you mentioned you’ve been reporting in North Gulfport for years… What first drew your interest to the area?
My reporting in this area of Gulfport really began back in 2023. I’d heard about a proposed military storage facility along Turkey Creek that residents nearby consider sacred. They were mainly worried about the project filling in close to 4 acres of wetlands, and about losing even more natural flood control as a result, which really piqued my interest. And climate change was top of mind for all of them.
And I began to see this much larger story about how development , in many forms, has surrounded and impacted these communities for decades now.
CARLYLE: Yeah so What happened with development in this area after Katrina?
Even this far north from the coast, about 6 miles, the damage was widespread after Katrina. But developers saw that as a blank slate, really an opportunity to spur development in their own vision. The city of Gulfport often worked with them to make that happen, either through promotional tax breaks or marketing the land itself as open for development… basically acting as real estate boosters in hopes of spurring post-storm recovery.
What we see now virtually surrounding the communities of Turkey Creek and Forest Heights is sprawling commerce and residential development, gridlock traffic, and worsened and pretty constant flooding on lower land where these historic communities are.
CARLYLE: Wow. Hurricane Katrina reshaped the Gulf Coast in so many ways…some are more obvious, like the new bigger and stronger levee system, but a lot more are like the story you just shared, Michael, where it wasn’t just the storm itself that forever changed landscapes and communities, but what happened in its aftermath.
MICHAEL: Yeah and we are on the frontlines for even more intense hurricanes, and also sea level rise and erosion. And people I talk to all across the coast are asking big questions about how their communities can adapt, and if they can even stay.
CARLYLE: But as we saw in these stories, those questions can compete with other priorities – whether it’s political influence or targeted economic development – that complicate reaching solutions before the next big storm arrives..... and sometimes, leaving the situation on the ground even more precarious for those who want to remain in their home.
Thanks for listening to Sea Change. This episode was hosted by Carlyle Calhoun, Eva Tesfaye, and Michael McEwen. Eva and Michael reported the stories. Carlyle Calhoun is the executive producer, Emily Jankowski is our sound designer, and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.
Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Sea Change is also supported by the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
