In Battered La. Parish, Fears for the Future

The White House is deciding whether to rebuild Plaquemines Parish's levees. (By Alex Brandon -- Associated Press)

The threatened circumstances of this small town are obvious to any visitor. On one side are levees about 20 feet high holding out the Gulf; on the other side of the town, within view just a few hundred yards away, are similar earthen mounds holding out the Mississippi River.

Those levees will continue to provide some protection, but not enough to meet the flood insurance standards, which call for levees that would hold out water in a flood that has only a 1 percent chance of happening any given year. The Plaquemines Parish levees are as much as eight feet too low in places, officials said.

To people who have spent their entire lives here -- and there are many -- that vulnerability has drastically increased over decades, as the coastal wetlands that protected them have disappeared.

"This used to be a kind of paradise," said Malcolm Olds, 41, a native who had a home next to the river levee that was wrecked by Katrina. "We had crawfish traps all over, we could fish, we could duck-hunt."

Now, he says, "I'm scared."

His great-great-grandparents, he said, were buried in land that is now part of the Mississippi River. And on the Gulf side of the town, where there was once land is now water, where he finds oysters.

"I went to the state to get an oyster lease, and they said you can't have an oyster lease there -- that's land," Olds recalled. "But they were looking at maps and aerials from the '60s. It's all underwater now."

Without the protection of the land and marshland, scientists say, this narrow spit of land has become more vulnerable to the storm surges that accompany hurricanes.

Already, many people say living here has become difficult. The nearest movie theater is 75 miles away. Since Katrina hit Aug. 29, the nearest grocery has become a similarly long slog.

Combined with these hassles, the lack of levees good enough for flood insurance may be the final straw.

George Arnesen, 38, a commercial fisherman, is rebuilding the home he shared with his wife and two young children before the storm. He may be fortunate, in some respects, because he already has his building permits and can rebuild without worrying about new flood insurance rules. He was outside recently repairing the house, which took on 16 feet of water.

"It's going to cost so much to raise a house in the air," he noted. "There are limits if you're a working person."

Besides, he said, "when you're up in the air, you're only going to catch that much more wind in a hurricane."

Residents said they fear that the government is being shortsighted. They note the importance of the river to trade and of the oil industry off the coast.

But the outlook is not good. Congress has balked at the rebuilding bills. And in talking to reporters this week about the projected additional $4.1 billion cost of providing levees strong enough to meet flood insurance standards in the New Orleans area, Powell noted that 98 percent of the population could be protected with $2.5 billion. The unspoken bad news was that lower Plaquemines Parish, which constitutes the other 2 percent of the population in the area, would cost another $1.6 billion to protect.

Rousselle, who met with Powell recently with hopes of winning the funding, said he found him "sympathetic but noncommittal."

Whether the federal government should seek to preserve coastal Louisiana communities has been an issue since the storm. Shortly after Katrina hit, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) questioned whether it was wise to use federal funds to rebuild a low-lying, hurricane-prone city.

Locals such as Rousselle hope the case can be made.

"I don't think President Bush will abandon us," he said recently, a trace of doubt evident in his voice. "I'm just trying to remain optimistic."