The Louisiana coastland home to the U.S.’s first climate refugees
Pointe aux Chene native Mel Guidry still lives steps away from where he played as a kid, but nowadays, one can only swim there. Like much of this area of coastal Louisiana, where man’s degradation of natural protections has exacerbated the effects of erosion and storms, the yard was swallowed by water. In Isle de Jean Charles, a smaller community to the south, more than 90 percent of the original land mass is gone, prompting the first relocation due to climate change paid for by U.S. tax dollars.
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- Emray Naquin, 82, looks over the bayou on Isle De Jean Charles on May 6, 2017. Naquin waits for shrimp to appear, which usually occurs after sunset. For over a century, the American Indians on the island fished, hunted, trapped and farmed among the banana and pecan trees that once spread out for acres. But since 1955, more than 90 percent of the island’s original land mass has washed away. Channels cut by loggers and oil companies eroded much of the island, and decades of flood control efforts have kept once free-flowing rivers from replenishing the wetlands sediments. Some of the island was swept away by hurricanes. What little remains will eventually be inundated as the sea level rises. A report of 13 federal agencies highlighted the Isle de Jean Charles and its tribal residents as among the nation’s most vulnerable. (Amir LEVYAMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Mayia and Aden Brunet play with a cat they found on the island on May 6,2017. In the 1950s, there were more than 80 families on the island of Isle De Jean Charles. Today there are only 20-30 families left on the island. (Amir LEVYAMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An overview of Pointe aux Chenes bayou near the Isle de Jean Charles on May 9, 2017. (Amir LEVYAMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Women return from a picnic on a Levee in Isle De Jean Charles at sunset on May 6, 2017. (Amir LEVYAMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Emray Naquin, 82, shows a clock hanging on a tree in Isle de Jean Charles on May 6, 2017. (Amir LEVYAMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Lance Billiot, 36, walks on a bridge that leads to his house on Isle de Jean Charles on May 8, 2017. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Kids playing ball in a lake in Pointe aux Chenes on May 7, 2017 near Isle de Jean Charles. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Gas pipeline signs are seen in Pointe au Chene near Isle de Jan Charles on May 6, 2017. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Faye Danos smokes a cigarette in her house on Isle De Jean Charles on May 8, 2017. Faye is against the relocation of the island residents.(AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Howard, 15, and his cousin Reggie Parfait, 13, bait a fishing hook in Isle De Jean Charles on May 8, 2017. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Faye Danos holds a squid she caught with her net on Isle De Jean Charles on May 7,2017. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Mel Guidry, born and raised in Pointe aux Chene, opens the gate that leads to the levee near his property on Pointe aux Chene on May 7 ,2017. Mel says things don’t look the same as they did when he was a kid. He says he used to play behind the house, an area now covered by water. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Brent Verdin sails his boat in Pointe Aux Chene bayous while his granddaughter, Brooklyn looks through the binoculars on May 7, 2017, near Isle de Jean Charles. (AMIR LEVY/AFP/Getty Images)
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