As natural disasters worsen and extreme weather grows more frequent, it’s led to more people being displaced across the planet. Sometimes, we call those people climate migrants. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in the last year alone, around 3 million Americans were displaced by natural disasters. But for some climate migrants, displacement isn’t always so immediate or apparent, but it is often tangled up in bureaucracy and a broken system.

Today on Louisiana Considered, we hear the first part of the latest episode of Sea Change, Flood by Flood, and explore what it means to recover after disaster. We travel to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where we look at how long it truly takes to be made whole — if that ever happens. Because three years after a deadly hurricane struck the city, people are still rebuilding their lives.

Reported by Stephan Bisaha and Erin Douglas. Hosted by Stephan Bisaha and Halle Parker. Edited and produced by Carlyle Calhoun and Greta Díaz González Vazquez. Our sound designer is Maddie Zampanti. Sea Change is a production of WWNO and WRKF. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX.

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