Back in 2017, I went on a solo vacation, driving from Atlanta to Houston in four days. That's when I discovered how much I loved Mobile and when I drove all the way to the end of the Mississippi delta at Cocodrie, Louisiana. I loved that drive and treasured my memories of the people I met down there.
This weekend, I took one of our son kittehs to Louisiana and, after our swamp tour on Friday, we drove down to Cocodrie. In 2017, it was bright and beautiful. I saw colorful houses on stilts with docks in the channel wherein sat shrimp boats, most in very good repair.
Ida changed all that. Here's just one photo from that trip.
Hurricane Ida marched up Louisiana Route 56 from Cocodrie to Houma, blasting everything in its path. Some of the platforms had been wiped clean, the houses scrubbed off of them and blown to bits. The residents had cleaned the place up by the time we arrived, but the state hasn't been able to dispose of the debris just yet, so it sits in piles out in front of everyone's house.
This being Louisiana, it's not the first hurricane they've seen. The houses that survived the assault have blue tarps over the holes in their roofs and in some cases, the homeowners have started to rebuild. There was a USMC flag along with an American flag on one house with graffiti painted on what was left of the wall facing the road saying, "Semper Fi. We will rebuild. Cocodrie strong."
Even in the devastation, these people were beautiful.
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