Communities facing the devastation of recent hurricanes hope for a quick recovery. But for the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, which was hit by Hurricane Ida in 2021, recovery is moving at a snail’s pace.
When the Category 4 hurricane reached southern Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021, it destroyed dozens of the tribal members’ homes and damaged the community’s grocery store, churches, and former school building. Most residents decided to rebuild, and they hoped to do so using techniques and materials that would better withstand future storms. But progress has been slow – the first homes weren’t rebuilt until 2023 – and now, three years after the hurricane, Kristina Peterson of the Lowlander Center, the nonprofit organization spearheading fundraising and volunteer recruitment efforts to help with the Pointe-au-Chien recovery, says only two houses have been finished.
Pointe-au-Chien tribal member Theresa Dardar was one of the few whose home survived the storm. She helped coordinate donations sent to the community immediately after the storm, and she serves on the board of the Lowlander Center. Yale Climate Connections talked with Theresa Dardar and Kristina Peterson about Hurricane Ida, the pace of the recovery, and what the community still needs.
Yale Climate Connections: Can you start by telling me a little bit about your expectations before Hurricane Ida actually hit, what happened when you evacuated, and how long you had to stay away?
Dardar: If you watch the news, you always have enough time to get out of the way. We were watching the news and so we knew from the forecast that we were going to get hit, so we had a few days to prepare, but we didn’t know where we were going, and we didn’t know that it was going to be a direct hit until we heard that it was going to be coming in on the Terrebonne-Lafourche parish line. Our community is divided into two parishes – separated by the bayou – and that’s where Ida came in.
So on Friday, we decided we were going to go to my brother’s house in Houma [14 miles north], and then my brother and his wife decided that they needed to [evacuate, too]. So the closest [my sister-in-law] could get a room was in Texarkana [400 miles away in Texas], and she only found one room. They left Friday, and we left Saturday night and got to Texarkana a little after three in the morning, and it was my brother, his wife, their granddaughter, me, my husband, and the two dogs in one hotel room.
We stayed until Tuesday, [and then] we went into Pointe-aux-Chenes, but there was a little water on the road, and [my husband] didn’t want to go through the water with his truck, so we [waited until Wednesday] and we rode with his brother in his brother’s old truck and went home.
When we got off US-90 on Bayou Blue, you could see the devastation. When I saw the devastation there, I figured my mind would just go on cuckoo because I thought, “I can imagine what our community looks like.” And it was bad. We lost almost all the homes, so we only had 12 with very little damage.
YCC: And what was it like seeing your home?
Dardar: It was very painful. It was like a war zone because there were no more leaves on the trees, everything looked dead, and houses were all torn up. My mother-in-law was 88 at the time of Ida, and she said they had never experienced a storm that strong. But with climate change, the water’s getting hotter and I think we can expect the storms to even get stronger.
YCC: When you first returned, what was the sentiment in the community? Were you considering moving elsewhere, or were you determined to stay and build back?
Dardar: Well, my house was one of the houses that survived, but we’ve never thought about leaving. Everyone in the community was determined to stay, and so they stayed with family until they were able to get a FEMA trailer.
Now, we do have an elderly couple [that] moved because the man said he was too old to keep rebuilding. And then two younger couples did end up moving, but it was because the rebuild was so slow.
Peterson: There are many different things caught up in that question of “Are you going to move?” Pointe-au-Chien is an Indian tribe that has been there for thousands of years. And when you’re asking about moving, it’s not just the people – it’s the attachment to ancestors; it’s attachment to the way of life, and the way in which the community receives its sustenance and its soul is by being there.
The other aspect is that when this tribe – or other tribes – are seeking federal recognition, they have to show a continuous connection to place. So to pick up and move is not only a disconnect to their ancestry and to their ancestors in place, in the way of life, but it’s also a disconnect to the possibility of ever being recognized.
Editor’s note: The Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe is recognized by the state of Louisiana but not by the federal government. It is seeking federal acknowledgment.
Dardar: A lot of times when reporters came after Ida, they asked, “Why do you stay?” And I always told them “Because we’re part of the land.” If you pull out a tree and you let the roots dry up, it dies. And we feel that that’s what would happen to us: Our spirit would die if we were to be removed from our land.
YCC: So as you started rebuilding, what were some of the considerations and the most pressing needs?
Dardar: Volunteers and money.
Peterson: It takes a commitment to get to Pointe-aux-Chenes. [And with] the devastation around it, it was difficult [to get to after Hurricane Ida], and volunteers went to easier places to access, and so the Pointe-au-Chein tribe received very few funds and no help in rebuilding [immediately after the storm].
Two years after the storm, six volunteers from the Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ, and the Presbyterians [came down and] started removing the debris and putting together a platform on the pilings that remained for the first house. We all felt strongly that if we could at least garner the funds to start the process, it would be like the field of dreams: If you build it, they’ll come.
We then started getting a few other volunteers, so we have two houses that are now completely built and under roof. And one of the people who came is retired from the Institute for Home and Business Safety, and he understood the need – not only for fortified – but beyond fortified [buildings]. So the homes that we are rebuilding will be fortified so the entire community will withstand wind pressure and storm surge.
YCC: Could you describe some of those building techniques?
Peterson: Hurricane straps are one very basic [technique]. The way in which roofs are put on, not with tresses but with rafters, the types of connections in those rafters, heavier beams, windows that are the highest stormproof resistance, the bolts for bolting down the house, the types of taping that are on the roof to keep the seams from leaking, an extra filter that can go over the entire roof before the shingles and or metal roof go on, hip roofs instead of other forms of roofs. So different designs that can take pressure and can withstand the winds and the type of pressure that would come from rain, wind, or storm surge.
YCC: Where does this stand right now? How many buildings have been rebuilt and how much is left to do?
Peterson: Well, after almost three years, we have two homes that are under roof. And we have many, many more yet to do. The money for Ida has disappeared, and so we’re trying to find foundations and other entities that will support the cultural survival of a Native American tribe that is not only rebuilding but rebuilding in an exemplary way that can be a goalpost for other coastal communities.
YCC: What has this long-term displacement meant for people’s lives? What has the impact on the community been that this is taking so long?
Peterson: Well, think about the kids. I was talking to one of the counselors in the Terrebonne school system, and she said that she saw children who went to as many as 14 different schools. When families have to couch surf to stay at different relatives’ homes, you have kids who then are displaced to different schools. And so it’s very, very difficult.
There’s been a rise and spike in death, maybe not directly from the hurricane itself, but because people start becoming sicker, and it’s difficult to get to doctors and to the resources they need for that. And it’s almost like being sick in the soul and the rest of the body then also starts wavering.
Dardar: Community members are on their properties in FEMA trailers now, but they stayed a long time with relatives before they were able to get one. It still is a hardship because people want to be in their homes and not in FEMA trailers.
Peterson: And being at home, too, is being in the whole community. It’s being able to see and talk to your neighbors. It’s that whole interconnection of feeding the heart and soul of the community. And when you’re fragmented like that, it takes a huge toll. The different buildings where people came together were hit hard. The local supermarket that was owned by one of the members was destroyed; that was a place where everybody went and found out what was going on. The school was hit. The churches. That takes a physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual toll on people.
YCC: Often after a disaster, any climate disaster, there’s a big flurry of activity in terms of volunteers and funding. But recovery takes a very long time, and several years out that attention goes elsewhere. So could you talk a little bit about some of the ways you’re now looking for volunteers and funding?
Editor’s note: If you’d like to donate to the community, you can do so here.
Peterson: We’re recruiting through our different networks, with universities, with friends, with faith-based groups, with community and civic organizations. We are putting the word out every place, and hopefully, there’ll be some folks that connect.
We need long-term volunteers. We need short-term volunteers. We need volunteers who can come in for a day to help with debris removal. Some houses have to be torn down 1724930477 because after almost three years, homes that [were] damaged [during Ida] became more exposed to the weather, so there’s more damage, and they’re more precarious. So the longer you wait, the more costly it becomes and the more complicated it becomes.
Every time volunteers come in, it means having to provide tools, lumber, and other materials for plumbing and electrical, which means that we have to raise that money in order to have those materials for the workers. It’s a very complicated, complex kind of process. So we need both the finances and the people.
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