Plenty of people don't realize that - not even New Orleans, 'cause they don't give a about us. MCCAMMON: Alexie says he doesn't understand why the government wouldn't want to give his community the same protection.ī ALEXIE: Without the bayou people down south, there is no New Orleans. He says the levee system fails to protect the bayou communities outside New Orleans.īENNY ALEXIE: What made New Orleans is the seafood that's cooked in it, which comes from the bayou people down south. MCCAMMON: Benny Alexie is a local fisherman, and he agrees with Kerner. KERNER: Putting the river levees along the coast without any plan to feed the coast, letting tens of thousands of oil companies dredge and wreak havoc on our coast and let saltwater intrusion destroy our coasts - when the federal government, they put the giant levee systems around all of us and then put the largest pump in the world, that's the government saying, we don't want you there anymore. MCCAMMON: He's primarily talking about decisions made by the federal government. It's also because of man-made decisions - bad decisions. KERNER: The reason why we're in this position is not only because of global warming.
MCCAMMON: Kerner says this pump, which pushes water away from New Orleans toward his town, is one of many factors putting Jean Lafitte at risk. On the final hour, it just overtopped it and just flooded us. So it builds up here, and then it levels out toward my community.
MCCAMMON: The pump station is just a short boat ride from Jean Lafitte, home to generations of Kerners. TIMOTHY KERNER JR: We'd be in trouble if they - (laughter). RUSSELL: Oh, you just hope that you ain't here when they turn them on. How do you know when it's safe to be here? This giant pump station, which looks like a concrete wall built across this section of water, is called the West Closure Complex. Kerner and a local tour guide have brought us to look at one part of the federal levee system built in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to protect New Orleans. He's the mayor of a small town called Jean Lafitte. On this day, though, the water is calm as we skim along on an airboat with Tim Kerner, Jr. SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: I'm Sarah McCammon on the bayou south of New Orleans, where just weeks ago, Hurricane Ida slammed ashore, its 150-mile-an-hour winds causing death and devastation across the region.
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