Impact of coastal erosion through Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Historically, a group of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw people has lived on the Isle de Jean Charles.

Since 1955, the community has shrunk by 98% because of coastal erosion in Louisiana. Coastal erosion is accelerated during eventful and high impact storm seasons.

Louisiana has the barrier islands of it’s gulf coast. They, along with natural wetlands play a crucial role in protecting coastal communities from storms and erosion.

“My dad told me whenever he was a child, he’d be able to walk to a lake that was a little bit west of the island. He told me as a young man, he’d walk there without getting his feet wet. When I came along, as a kid, we was going by boat over there,” said resident of Isle de Jean Charles, Chris Brunet.

The Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project was one of the first of it’s kind to move an entire community due to climate change.

Louisiana received $48.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to relocate the families on the island.

A total of 37 families moved off the island in the Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project. In the past, 300 families called the island home.

“20 years ago, the Corps of Engineers and the Terrebonne Levy District said, it was going to cost $190 million to include us in the Hurricane Protection System. They said, for that much money, the island wasn’t worth it. Us as a community, had to make the decision to live somewhere else because we were impacted by the environment. I now live 40 miles inland from where I was originally raised. Water is and will always be part of our lives. Everything about me and how I think comes from Isle de Jean Charles. This new place is nice but it’s just a place I was relocated to,” explained Brunet.

The Natural Resources Defense Council Estimates that by 2067, 1.2 million people are at risk of coastal flooding in Louisiana.

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