Tag Archives: Pointe-aux-Chenes
Louisiana: Young fishermen face uncertain future after Hurricane Ida
Devin Verdin kept his boat tied near one of the camps along Bayou Grand Caillou during Hurricane Ida. Despite the widespread destruction, Verdin remains certain he’ll remain a shrimper. Along with Evan Solet and Elise Garibotte, Verdin was heading up to David Chauvin’s Seafood Company to gather ice as they prepared to go shrimping Tuesday night. The company is one of few in Dulac able to operate since Ida hit Aug. 29. Seth Billiot said he has tried to apply for help from FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration but was told he doesn’t qualify. >Click to read< 08:16
After Hurricane Ida: Louisiana’s struggling seafood industry is teetering
The Category 4 hurricane that struck Louisiana late last month fractured some parts of the industry even worse than 2005’s Katrina, which cost seafood businesses more than $1 billion. No one yet knows how many boats, docks and processors were lost because of Ida’s relentless, 150-mph winds. Vessels that made it to the safest harbors fared the best, yet even some of them were destroyed by the storm’s fury. Unable to speak for a decade since cancer surgery, Dale Williams gets by on disability payments of $1,300 a month. Living in a mobile home at Port Sulphur on the west bank of the Mississippi River, he supplements his income by catching shrimp with a little boat he parked in his front yard for Hurricane Ida. Ida’s Category 4 winds flipped Williams’ trawler on its side, bending the frame and tearing nets,,, The goal is to get back on the water by October, he said, either with the damaged boat or another one that fared better. >click to read< 10:44
