String of Delta Villages 'Gone'

LA Times ^ | 9/8/05 | David Zucchino, Times Staff Writer

[BurbankKarl]

Empire and 10 other towns spread over 57 miles are now under 10 feet of water.

"They're gone. They don't exist anymore," Deputy Sheriff Arceneaux said Wednesday as he guided a Reno skiff over oil-fouled waters — the only way into Empire and points south. His journey took him by his former trailer, which he couldn't see because it was submerged in churning floodwaters.

This string of fishing and oil towns was the first inhabited area on the Gulf Coast to be hit by Hurricane Katrina. The parish took the full brunt of the storm, with thousands of homes and businesses either flooded or obliterated by high winds or storm surge.

Up and down Highway 23, the narrow ribbon of asphalt that winds through the bayous, shards of brick and frame houses litter the flat countryside.

Mattresses and curtains and trousers are strung in the limbs of the few surviving trees. Fishing and pleasure boats are stacked three high in the swamps. Massive barges were dumped atop levees that were overwhelmed by the storm.

"We got boats in trees down here," said Darryl Couvillion, a contractor who was piloting his boat to Empire, about 60 miles from New Orleans, on Wednesday to check on the town's damaged canal locks.

[Crimson Elephant]

Actually the term "village" isn't very common in the South, so I suppose you can make the case it IS unusual...although the term "fishing village" is used....I suspect that's where it comes from.

Also, technically, a population of 25 thousand is a city...New York City actually shouldn't be called a City, its a megalopolis. People from Los Angeles or Chicago would call a 50k population a "town" but its not...its a city...a town is a lot smaller. NY, LA, Chic, Philly et al have gone past what a "city" is. I can't remember the cutoff for the terms though..but it doesn't take much to be a "city". I guess I'm going to have to use a search engine and refresh my memory from the class I took on this 10 years ago.

[Rocket1968]

I grew up on a Maine island. There are two municipalities on the island. One is referred to as a town, the other as a village. There is a distinct difference in the size (and services provided) of each.

[MineralMan]

Those definitions vary widely, from state to state. Illinois, apparently calls some pretty large cities "villages." It's part of their state structure, I guess.

In any case there was nothing insulting meant by calling those little towns in LA villages. It's just a turn of the phrase.

And those were fishing villages, to be sure.

[NC28203]

>>>a town is a lot smaller.

In NY state, a town is actually a civil division and in no way relates to the number of people living within it. I'm a former resident of the Village of Lakewood and the Town of Busti. Counties are broken-up into townships, sort of like states are broken up into counties (or parishes). Here in NC, they don't seem to have such distinctions. Federalism at work.

[Miss Marple]

Delta Dawn, What's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say, you were leavin' here today,
And goin' to your mansion in the sky?

[tom paine 2]

Thank God!

[pops88]

LOL! Me, too. I have to confess, I miss Justin cooking..."and add a little Tabasco...(as the bottle is completely emptied.)"

[Thinkin' Gal]

if they begin calling towns villages it will be the multicultural name for what were once called towns

And don't let those townships slip under the radar! "TWP" is globalist code dontcha know...

[texasbluebell]

I assume that those that lived here were mostly fishermen who usually know enough about the sea to get far away from an approaching storm. Unlike others.

Not sure if this is the same area, but there were reports last week than quite a few of the shrimp fishermen were lost out on their boats, they had tried to sit out the storm and save their boats out on the water.

[Cheburashka]

I live in the Village of Skokie. IL.

[Bar-Face]

You caught that too. Down here we do not have "villages" we have "communities".
For example, the community of Mooreville has a crossroad with a four way stop and 5 or 4 stores. It AIN'T no durn "village"! It is a community.
So there!

[jmc813]

Way too sensitive, there, mindspy. We've always had villages. They're nothing more than small towns, mostly unincorporated and without much commerce. Maybe a general store of some kind.

Here in Northern Jersey the rich yuppie towns think it's cute to refer to themselves as "villages" even though they have plenty of commerce and a municipal government almost identical to the traditional borough setup.

[conservative in nyc]

Yikes. The only good news is that the Plaquemines Parish's largest CDP, Belle Chasse, isn't under water. There's a Naval Air Station there that's being used for the relief efforts. About one-third of the parish's population lives there.

[Quick Shot]

No, the tabasco factory is over on the west side of the state near Lafayette. South of Abbeville. But yes it did survive because the storm hit the other side of the state.

[PLK]

Just a guess: it's an Eastern thing, most likely those in the original 13 colonies. They like that kind of stuff.

[bert]

....towns built on a delta mud flat - That is to be expected that they would be erased.....

Think Bangladesh

[Conservative Firster]

This set of images made available Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the same area of the Chandeleur Islands, approximately 100 kilometers east of New Orleans, La. The top image, taken in July 2001, shows narrow sandy beaches and adjacent overwash sandflats, low vegetated dunes, and backbarrier marshes broken by ponds and channels. The bottom image shows the same location on August 31, 2005, two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Louisiana and Mississippi coastline. Storm surge and large waves from Hurricane Katrina submerged the islands, stripped sand from the beaches, and eroded large sections of the marsh. Today, few recognizable landforms are left on the Chandeleur Island chain. (AP Photo/USGS)