Allison Plyer, chief demographer at the Data Centre, a data analysis non-profit in New Orleans, which tracked the city’s recovery after Hurricane Katrina, says coastal residents who do stay often do so because they have no choice.
“Many homeowners have a fair amount of equity in their homes,” she says. “To simply abandon a home without rebuilding or selling it, they would have to walk away from that equity, which in many cases is the majority of their accumulated assets.”
Hunter, the mayor, is hoping all of his constituents can rebuild their homes.
“The city of Lake Charles is going to be here in ten years. It’ll be here in 100 years,” he says. “If we don’t get supplemental aid, what will happen to the most vulnerable? The underserved neighbourhoods? The city will get through this one way or another, but what’s going to happen to some of our residents who are the most vulnerable?”
Roishetta Sibley Ozane, a single mother of six, counts herself among the region’s most vulnerable constituents. She lost everything to Laura, as she did to Rita in 2005. She and the kids still live in a FEMA trailer just west of Lake Charles. She co-founded and runs the mutual aid network, The Vessel Project, which supplies food, clothing and other essentials to other hurricane victims.
“Our low-income, predominantly Black, single moms, Latinx, they’re struggling,” she says. “They’re trying to decide if they pay rent or feed their children. They lost everything.”
Despite the hardship, the threat of climate change, and the lack of federal aid, Ozane’s staying.
“We know that climate change is happening,” she says. ”If we don’t have people like me who are speaking up about what’s going on and trying to ensure our voices are heard, I feel like southwest Louisiana could be wiped off the map.”
Lake Charles, just 30 miles from the Gulf Coast, could one day be on the coast: The eroding Louisiana coastline is disappearing at the equivalent of a football field every hour, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A long road to recovery
Founded in 1861 and once a hideout for pirates, Lake Charles today owns the nation’s 11th largest port and the region, with a network of gas and oil pipelines, is the beating heart of southwest Louisiana’s petrochemical industry. Lake Charles is also home to three luxury casino resorts, and the two industries generate billions of dollars for the local economy and a reliable supply of jobs.
Before the storms, Lake Charles was one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation.
In their aftermath, Lake Charles lost nearly seven percent of its population, according to a New York Times analysis of U.S. Postal Service change-of-address requests for 2020. It was the largest out-migration from any urban area in the country during the pandemic year.
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