Twenty years ago on Friday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish as a strong Category 3 hurricane. The storm's eye came onto land near Buras, destroying that community and several others, including Triumph, Pointe à la Hache, and Port Sulphur.
In the two decades since, the parish's landscape has changed literally and figuratively, and leaders are still trying to adapt to life after Katrina.
"When you go to south Plaquemines Parish now, it's nothing like it was pre-Katrina," Plaquemines Parish President Keith Hinckley said. "There's a saying that it'll never be what it was. It's going to be what it'll be in the future, and that's what we're trying to do right now. We're trying to create jobs in the middle of our parish."
Hinckley says Katrina's devastation caused the parish's population of around 23,000 to shift mostly to Belle Chasse. In addition, Hinckley says Katrina wiped out jobs and businesses south of Belle Chasse. It's a problem Hinckley says he's working to address, but bringing businesses and residents back to lower Plaquemines Parish may be easier said than done. Hinckley says a lack of wifi service and gas utilities as well as federal insurance regulations may hinder development in that part of the parish.
According to Hinckley, the parish government is working to get grants to expand wifi access in South Plaquemines. He also says his administration is working to lower property insurance in the area in hopes of recruiting residents and businesses to relocate south of Belle Chasse.
"It's my understanding that some residents (are building) 15-18 feet in the air, and they're still having to pay $3,000 or $4,000 for flood insurance," Hinckley said. "We're trying to get certain levees certified and get them in the system so we can work on getting these base flood elevations down so our residents don't have to build 18 feet or 22 feet up in the air. That's a challenge for anyone. Heck, I don't think a young couple with young kids would want to be 22 feet up in the air."
Hinckley says his goal is to bring in and retain businesses and industries that will not only help the parish grow--not just immediately, but also years down the line.
"What we're trying to create in Plaquemines Parish is business and industry that is here and something for our children and grandchildren to stay here and stay at home and not have to leave Plaquemines to go get a job," Hinckley said. "That's the ultimate (goal), to keep our children and grandchildren and future generations (here).
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