If you are looking for a new rabbit hole, go no further than Isles Dernieres in Lousiaiana. Commonly known as the last island, the islands are a sober reminder to nature's fury. It was Seaside before there was a Seaside until a nasty hurricane killed over 200 people and literally destroyed the island.
WAFB (CBS-BR,La) produced a short documentary about the island's destruction in 1856.
If video does not play, click on this link to watch it.
Smithsonian Magazine reported:
The Houma Ceres published some articles on the disaster.
Isle Derniere, 24 miles long and at points a mere mile wide, lay five miles south of the Louisiana mainland in the Gulf of Mexico, southwest of New Orleans off Terrebonne Parish. A mix of beaches, dunes and marsh, it stood about five feet above sea level. In the 1840s, wealthy Louisianans built the first of 100 summer homes on the island. Visitors came by steamboat to swim in the sea, paddle out on excursion boats, walk the beaches, explore the island by horse and carriage, and twirl on a carousel. Muggah’s Hotel, the largest structure on the island, included a restaurant and ballroom and offered bowling and billiards. Isle Derniere was advertised as a summer resort, and it’s unlikely that anyone lived there year-round....
The never-named hurricane hit Isle Derniere with full force at about 3 p.m. By then, it was the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, with winds up to 150 miles per hour. “It seemed all the aerial currents in creation had been turned upon us,” recalled Reverend R.S. McAllister of Thibodaux, Louisiana. “Fiery lightning almost constantly illumined the heavens.…The Gulf upon one side and the bay upon the other were advancing upon us....
Isle Derniere, split in two by the hurricane’s waters, was never inhabited again. Later storms eroded it further, and by 1988, 78 percent of its former land mass was submerged. Today, its remains form the Isles Dernieres chain—five islands, three of which make up Louisiana’s Terrebone Barrier Islands Refuge, which is home to nesting waterbirds. Rest of article.
13 comments:
the louisiana marsh and barrier islands have been washing away since the 30s when the mississippi river was leveed up and the oil companies began cutting canals from the open gulf up into the brackish water marshes causeing the salt water intrusion which in turn killed all the vegetation.
this is the biggest environmental disaster going on right now in the united states. 90% of everything that swims in the gulf is spawned in the louisiana marsh , and when its gone the entire ecosystem of the gulf will collapse .
its a cruel irony that every school kid can tell you about ''save the rainforests'' but none have ever been taught about the tragic death of the cajun coast. another example of how the next generation is being taught to worry about ecosystems on the other side of the world or in another hemisphere, rather than right here in the united states.
Because of global warming (a liberal fantasy?) and coastal flooding this generation will have a front row seat to watch many islands and peninsulas
disappear. Their children will never see much of "coastal" Louisiana or Florida.
Darn those liberal fantasies.
Have you seen maps of the globe from before we started to liberally warm it? The dinosaurs must’ve produced some major biologically devastating farts. They just wouldn’t listen.
The climate change fight has nothing to do with this post.
The island was only 5 feet above sea level. It was a sitting duck for a major hurricane. It's days were numbered.
Stick to the subject of the post.
And much of New Orleans is below sea level. Mankind is pretty stupid when it comes to building where we shouldn't, such as Last Island. And most of New Orleans.
to 8;25....................you don't know much about history do you?
things were quite a bit different in the 1850s. those people were not ''stupid'', they were a product of their time.
way back when, the rich in new orleans ranoff to summer homes in places like this to escape the yellow fever epidemics .
Big fan of the historical KF post. It’s a nice break to gain insight on variety of topics; that is, until the comments break into a political debate filled with absolutisms. Keep them up. If you get a chance visit all six of the Mississippi barriers
Islands. Camille drastically changed the coast any one of these could vanish with the right storm.
A man ahead of his time...what's the name of that Georgia congressman who predicted islands (some countries) sliding into the sea. And another democrat predicted the same fate for California.
Bonus Question: A barrier is a device, object or thing that impedes movement. What do the Mississippi barriers impede?
I fish the lake pelto area out of Cocodrie a good bit. Its sad to see the marsh and those islands disappear. You have Isles Dernieres and the Timbalairs(east & west) out there. There has been some restoration work going out there last time I was out there. I know they've done some work on whiskey island.
@6:40am
Bonus Question: A barrier is a device, object or thing that impedes movement. What do the Mississippi barriers impede?
Answer: The Kraken. Otherwise, all of the coastal residents would have been eaten long ago.
the stupidity of the comments on this site really rise to a new level when history is mentioned, and it moves into the stratosphere of stupidity when you combine history with an environmental issue. 5;25 and 8:25 are perfect examples.
^;40, it was Hank Johnson (D-Georgia). In this case, the "D" clearly stood for dumbass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q
KF, if you really want to go down a rabbit hole, look at the fight going on between sportsmen and commercial fishermen and the posting of tidal lands big oil companies and landowners. They pay little to no tax and post fishable and navigable canals and lakes and run people out threatening violence. They claim a rule that if it was land when the state incorporated, they have the right to post it and keep people out. They are putting up locked gates that aren't marked. With the marsh the way it is, and LA, its shaping up to be a fight. There's a Facebook page called Louisiana's posted paradise. It's quite informative. All the way to the islands was dang near inhabitable lands and now its open water.
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