"In lower Plaquemines Parish, some fear they are river diversion's 'collateral damage'".
"When Franck Labiche moved to Happy Jack in 1969, the houses, nestled on a strip of land between two canals, were built on the ground.
“Back then, it never flooded,” the 75-year-old business owner said, sitting around a table with other property owners ahead of a weekend crawfish boil.
Five decades later, most of the hamlet’s 80 houses reach toward the sky, elevated more than 10 feet. That’s because Louisiana’s coastal loss and rising sea levels have induced more routine flooding even on days without a storm. Water blown north by a strong southerly wind laps from canals over docks and roads, even gurgling up from the ground as the water table rises."
Halle Parker reports for the New Orleans Time-Picayune May 16, 2021.