NASA estimates that Louisiana has lost almost 750 square miles of its coastal wetlands since 1984. In a report published in February, researchers predicted that three quarters of Louisiana’s wetlands could be underwater by 2070.
In many U.S. coastal cities, sea level rise is exacerbated by land that is slowly sinking due to fossil fuel and water extraction. By 2050, the sinking phenomenon could put over 500,000 extra people at risk of significant flooding.
A stormy upbringing
Anna Dupont, 21, one of the few young people left in Cameron Parish, loves to listen to her parents’ stories about old Cameron.
Before Hurricane Rita, the community was vibrant and tightknit. The town held big events like crawfish boils and barbecues, and Cameron residents took pride in their high school football team.
“If I had a time machine, I would go back to Cameron before 2005 to see what it was like,” she said. “They always talk about how great it was.”
Dupont grew up fishing and bird-watching in the vast wetlands surrounding her old house. Her friends, whom she had known since kindergarten, used to come over and hang out after school. Sometimes they would get burgers before basketball games at her favorite spot — T-Boy’s Cajun Grill, a nearby restaurant that’s now an empty lot.
Dupont calls Cameron ground zero for climate change. Before she graduated high school, the storms had already destroyed her home twice. Hurricane Laura made landfall in her senior year of high school, forcing Dupont and her family to evacuate. Dupont recalls getting lost when they returned to Cameron Parish — there were no street signs or buildings left as landmarks.
For months after Laura, Dupont and her family lived without power in several camper trailers on her property. Some of her friends stayed with her, many left town. Though Dupont’s home was eventually rebuilt, most of her friends and their families who lost their homes ended up moving away for good.
“I’ll just be driving and I’ll look around and see all the concrete slabs where houses used to be, where my friends used to live,” Dupont said. “This feeling of loneliness, it just takes a toll on you after a while. Because you know that they’re not coming back. You’re stuck here without them.”
Despite her happy childhood, Dupont watched her friends and classmates who grew up in unstable homes muddle through their youths. Many of her peers and their families grappled with mental health issues, and some used drugs and alcohol to cope with loss and grief shaped by the hurricanes.
“It seemed like after Hurricane Rita, everyone just lost hope,” Dupont said. “And whenever you lose hope, I mean, the devil is knocking at your door just waiting for you to fall into his grasp.”
The majority of Cameron Parish residents left after Rita in 2005, but some families rebuilt because they did not want to leave Cameron, Dupont said. More people left after Hurricane Ike three years later, and the final straw for many of Dupont’s neighbors was Hurricane Laura.
“Of course, parents are going to get into fights of ‘Should we stay or should we go?’” Dupont said. “Should we keep living here and just have to rebuild every five years?”
A lifeline
For the people still living in Cameron, the planned expansion proposed by Venture Global LNG is a mixed blessing. The project, a massive export terminal termed CP2 LNG, was slated for completion in 2026, with construction beginning in the spring of last year.