Environment
Schools in 13 parishes are closed after Hurricane Laura
School system in 13 parishes have stopped their school year due to Hurricane Laura, said Cade Brumley, Louisiana schools superintendent, at a Louisiana House education committee meeting Friday. Calcasieu Parish, for example, have closed their schools until further notice because 97% of their school facilities suffered “substantial damage,” according to their Facebook page. Once power […]
A burning chemical plant may be just the tip of Hurricane Laura’s damage in this area of oil fields and industry
By John Pardue, Louisiana State University Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana’s oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake. The burning BioLab facility sent dark smoke and chlorine gas into the air over the […]
Hurricane Laura damage means it will be weeks before Southwest Louisianians can return home
Thousands of people won’t be able to return to their homes in Southwest Louisiana for weeks because they won’t have reliable access to power, water and sewer services, state officials and health experts said this week. The situation is especially dire in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, which were hit directly by Hurricane Laura. The storm […]
Hurricane Laura Recovery: Numbers that help you understand what’s going on
The following are some figures that should help the public understand the impact of Hurricane Laura on Louisiana. 600,000 people face water restrictions — or have no water at all. There are 74 water systems in Louisiana — affecting about 180,000 people total — where there is a “water outage” due to Hurricane Laura. That […]
Hurricane Laura destroys, but volunteers rally to help Lake Charles survive
LAKE CHARLES — On Saturday, much of southwest Louisiana remained without electricity, water, food and other essential provisions in the wake of Hurricane Laura. While state and federal governments were still mobilizing assets, many residents turned to volunteers for help. Thousands of vehicles waited in long lines at a single distribution point in downtown Lake […]
Photo Gallery: New Orleans remembers those lost to Hurricane Katrina 15 years later
Robert Green lost his 3-year-old granddaughter and 73-year-old mother when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. Fifteen years later, Green spoke to a socially distanced crowd at a healing ceremony in their honor. “Our spirit didn’t die that day, Green said. “Our spirit has been lifted by all the people who came, […]
After Hurricane Laura makes landfall, crews battle chlorine fire at BioLab plant in Westlake
In the destructive wake of Hurricane Laura, emergency responders and hazmat crews spent most of Thursday battling a chemical fire at a chlorine plant in Westlake in Calcasieu Parish. The BioLab facility, located on Interstate 10 near Lake Charles, sustained unspecified damages as Laura struck Cameron and Calcasieu parishes early Thursday, causing the plant’s chlorine […]
Additional unemployment benefits to come next week, Gov. Edwards said
Gov. John Bel Edwards held his second of two weekly press conferences at the Louisiana State Capitol. What follows is a brief summary of a few of the many topics the governor discussed. Two named storms may make landfall by next week Louisianans who remain worried about the new threat posed by the novel coronavirus […]
Rise St. James fights Formosa, but elected officials don’t
The people in St. James Parish who are fighting against the planned construction of a $9.4 billion manufacturing complex planned by Formosa Plastics have waged that fight without the support of any elected officials. No Republicans, who have traditionally been friendly toward big business, have supported them as they’ve tried to keep a project worth […]
Formosa agrees to defer major St. James Parish construction until February
Formosa Plastics will not proceed with any major construction on a $9.4 billion plastics manufacturing complex it plans for the west bank of St. James Parish before February, according to a stipulation agreement it signed with the plant’s opponents Thursday. Those opponents had complained to a federal court in Washington, D.C., that Formosa should not […]
Louisiana’s congressional delegation can’t stop the Great American Outdoors Act
WASHINGTON — Major environmental legislation sailed through Congress Wednesday while the nation’s political leaders were stuck in intense negotiations over the contours of a fifth coronavirus relief package. The bill would provide $9.5 billion over five years to pay down the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog and provide permanent funding at $900 million per year […]
How many burial sites are on the land where Formosa Plastics plans to build?
Rise St. James and Formosa Plastics don’t agree about what’s going to happen in the future. The environmental justice group says air, water and soil quality are already awful in St. James Parish, and, if Formosa Plastics is allowed to build a $9.4B manufacturing complex on the west bank, the environment will become even more […]