A week after Hurricane Laura hit the Gulf Coast, folks are trying to pick up the pieces of their communities. Some updates: The Advocate documented the after effects of a 10-foot storm surge in Cameron, Louisiana. Here's aerial photos of damage across the region. Buzzfeed looked at the deaths of at least 11 people from generator fumes after the storm, including Rosalie Lewis, the first Black woman postal service supervisor in Louisiana, and her husband and three other family members. This week, an intense heat wave has spread across areas of Louisiana and Texas. More than 300,000 still don't have power.
We're still in a pandemic, still seeing instances of police brutality across the country, and now about to be in the throes of election season. This week, I'm eager to share our new story this week that focuses on some positive news: How coastal Louisiana tribal leaders are working on a more immediate, affordable potential solution to land loss along the coast and in the wetlands. They're trying to backfill canals dug by oil and gas companies, which are causing water to overtake many of their sacred mounds and other sites. Christine Baniewicz, who is from Louisiana, spent the last month speaking with the tribes and the biologist they're working with to get funding for this project. The goal is to preserve 15 or so sacred sites in the area. Read it here.
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Traditional Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe, at her father’s grave in Dulac, Louisiana.
Photo by Julie Dermansky
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Still, far more money, in Louisiana and across the region, is being put towards major projects like sea walls, sediment diversions, and levees. Most spending by the federal government goes towards large-scale events like major hurricanes — not proactive work to prevent damage. And federal money spent on disasters is minute compared to the military or other defense spending. A recent Bloomberg analysis of preparedness grants from FEMA shows the agency spends far more on counter-terror than natural disasters. Last year, more than $1 billion in FEMA grants were for counter-terror preparation and only $315 million were for natural disaster readiness.
We are armed with so much information about how to protect places we love. And we're so lucky indigenous communities are continuing to share their knowledge, despite the seemingly insurmountable hurdles of getting these projects funded and supported. I loved this quote, from Rosina Phillipe, a citizen of the Atakapas-Ishak/Chawasha, who also calls south Louisiana home. “They just see it as a resource,” she said. “But you are dependent on this resource. It’s not dependent on you.”
—Lyndsey Gilpin, Founder, Editor, Publisher
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The New York Times has an interactive piece about how redlined neighborhoods across the country, home to Black residents, are some of the hottest parts of town in the summer, with few trees and too much heat-trapping pavement. Meanwhile, white neighborhoods are much cooler. They use Richmond, Virginia, as an example.
Adam Harris wrote for The Atlantic on the Black mayors leading Southern cities like Jackson, Atlanta, Charlotte, Little Rock, and Birmingham — and how they're using their power in office, as well as their power in the streets, to enact long-demanded changes. “Until we move from being the governed to the governors, the same problems will persist in new generations," said Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
100 Days in Appalachia published a Q&A with Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-director of the Highlander Research and Education Center, about racism as a public health crisis and the work of Highlander over the last several decades.
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News flying under the radar
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Alabama regulators will allow Alabama Power to increase a monthly fee on solar generation by 8% to $5.41 per kilowatt-hour. Critics, who have long been trying to get regulators to stop this monthly fee, say the change will cut customers’ potential savings in half.
This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is poised to expand the boundaries of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the Texas coast, home to colorful and healthy coral reefs. But to make sure that happens, the plan needs to stop offshore oil drilling and commercial fishing industry interests.
Many folks in Appalachia are wondering what four more years of President Trump would mean for the coal industry since his promises to put miners back to work have mostly been unfulfilled and Republicans have left miners out of their re-election pitches.
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Replanting roots in a Southern food desert
Farmers, activists and city planners nationwide are pivoting in light of the pandemic’s impact on food access. In Mississippi, that also means restoring a fraught connection with land. Read the story.
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‘They deserve to be heard’: Sick and dying coal ash cleanup workers fight for their lives
Hundreds of workers fell ill after cleaning up the nation’s largest industrial disaster without proper protective gear. At least 51 have died. Twelve years later, they’re still asking for medical and financial help. Read the story.
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P.S. I'm going on a break next week, so it'll be a short newsletter.
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