“Please, get Daddy’s Bible.” This was the request from my grandmother to my uncle and sister in August 2016 in St. Amant, Louisiana. The 2016 Louisiana floods devastated my hometown.

Since the 1750-60s (Acadian expulsion), my people have lived in south Louisiana, about 7 miles from the Mississippi river among countless sloughs and bayous. These people, Cajuns and Irishmen, settled a difficult landscape, and they settled where the water didn’t rise.

In 49 years, water never reached the driveway. In the 2016 floods, MawMaw and PawPaw lost their home. The parish chose to flood older settlements to save the new, over-developed areas with a larger population. Chest-deep water took my grandparents’ home. They never got to go back. My recently deceased brother-in-law’s casket floated away, kept within the cemetery only by a chain-link fence. My father lost a vehicle; my high school was completely flooded; the Cajun Navy were heroes.

I live in Saco now. I am on the city’s conservation commission and personally witnessed Camp Ellis after the recent storm. I know and understand the push for development, but lax planning and kowtowing to cranky developers who don’t get their way, doesn’t solve these very real issues. If anything, it leads to more flooded homes and traumatized families.

The Atlantic Ocean does not care about property values, AirBnB rentals, or the economic impact of a new development. I’m so very sorry. I know these property owners don’t want to leave. They would prefer to stay and rebuild. But they must understand — this will not stop.

Justin C. Hill
Saco

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