Wendell Curole’s family has been part of the Louisiana coast for five generations, but as he explains, hurricanes have forced the family to move north on several occasions. Originally, the family lived on Chenière Caminada, a small fishing island, but in 1893, a hurricane ripped through it, killing an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people.

     What was left of Curole’s family migrated to Leeville. Unfortunately, in 1915 a Category 4 storm, touched down near Grand Isle, leaving 275 people dead, and Leeville in shambles. Curole’s family relocated this time to the area of Cutoff, Louisiana and Golden Meadow, Louisiana.

     The Curole family is tired of moving. As the director of the South LaFourche Levee District, Curole thinks its time this country realized that when a hurricane hits the Louisiana coast, it’s not just a matter of insured, beachfront property being destroyed.

     “We’ve been retreating in all coastal Louisiana,” Curole says. “People have been retreating from the coast. Yet, we’re not condos on the beach. We’re there producing oil; fisheries — 30 percent of the nation’s fisheries in the lower 48 states comes from Louisiana; we build ships. So we’re producing for the rest of the country.”