
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving over 1800 people dead and causing billions of dollars of damage. It was dramatic and destructive - but Katrina has been described as 'like a cold suffered by a cancer patient'. The cancer is the erosion of the coastal wetlands of Southern Louisiana, a slow motion environmental disaster that has continued almost unabated since Katrina. Caused by the taming of the Mississippi and oil and gas exploration, a football field of coastal land washes away every hour, and with it the homes, places and livelihoods that have sustained the storied Cajun culture. James Fletcher travels to Bayou Lafourche and the town of Leeville to get to know one community facing the reality of losing their past and their future.
By BBC Radio 44.7
7575 ratings
Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving over 1800 people dead and causing billions of dollars of damage. It was dramatic and destructive - but Katrina has been described as 'like a cold suffered by a cancer patient'. The cancer is the erosion of the coastal wetlands of Southern Louisiana, a slow motion environmental disaster that has continued almost unabated since Katrina. Caused by the taming of the Mississippi and oil and gas exploration, a football field of coastal land washes away every hour, and with it the homes, places and livelihoods that have sustained the storied Cajun culture. James Fletcher travels to Bayou Lafourche and the town of Leeville to get to know one community facing the reality of losing their past and their future.

7,608 Listeners

378 Listeners

891 Listeners

1,061 Listeners

5,461 Listeners

1,802 Listeners

968 Listeners

592 Listeners

1,747 Listeners

1,041 Listeners

2,120 Listeners

2,085 Listeners

477 Listeners

107 Listeners

45 Listeners

40 Listeners

403 Listeners

744 Listeners

235 Listeners

161 Listeners

74 Listeners

3,201 Listeners

718 Listeners

1,032 Listeners