How Climate Change is Devastating Louisiana High School Sports

“As long as there’s one grain of sand to put the American flag, I’m staying,” Camardelle, 65, said in an interview at his home last Saturday, hours before the island became inundated.

But no matter how often schools are built and rebuilt, no matter how persistently stadiums and gyms are repaired, no matter how many billions are committed to strengthen levees and restore depleted wetlands and reduce carbon emissions, the water and wind of fierce storms will continue to scour the way of life in southern Louisiana and raise urgent and sobering questions about the future and risk and adaptation.

Scientists have been persistently urging people to consider moving inland from the fragile coast.

“A big issue is when do you accept defeat” and not rebuild and let the water have its way? said Jill C. Trepanier, a hurricane climatologist at Louisiana State University. “That is very difficult for humans to do.”

She said she visited Grand Isle recently and thought, “I don’t understand how people live here.”

The narrow barrier island, seven miles long, serves a vital purpose, blocking storm surges and helping keep New Orleans, 50 miles to the north, from becoming beachfront property. Grand Isle is a renowned birding habitat; a popular getaway for fishing, crabbing and shrimping; and a respite from a faster paced life for its 1,400 permanent residents, who live in homes and camps, some of them opulent, built high on pilings.

“It’s like growing up and still living with your family without living in the same house as your family,” said Frazia Terrebonne, 57, the secretary at Grand Isle School, who has lived on the island most of her life.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/sports/louisiana-high-school-sports-meet-a-mighty-opponent-climate-change.html