Grand Isle? Is it still there?

[Stratusxpeye]

I have heard tons of information on all these places but have not heard anything from or about grand isle. Does anyone think its even on land anymore? I was just wondering havent heard anything about it. Thanks all. This is sickening

[Stratusxpeye]

nobodys heard anything from grand isle?

[Innotech]

its completely underwater according to osme people I know who live around htere.

[EDR1222]

The report I heard I believe was from MSNBC, but I am not positive. It said that most of the area is also experiencing severe flooding.

[Rob Beaux]

Complete overwash. no real land from the Leesville bridge south. Fourchon has some dry land by its an island. Highway 1 is covered with water south of Golden Meadow.

[Mightygator]

From another forum a frequent.

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=388076

[Mightygator]

These are from Venice

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=388094

[cjrciadt]

Looks like the Everglades not an outlying parish or community.

[scostorms]

So that Leeville bridge, its such a large bridge. Was there towns on the other side? Is the ground gone, or flooded?

[evalea]

I'm in a state of information overload, but this is what I know.
Grand Isle is still there, not clear on how much is left, but there was eavesdropping done on the coastguard, and immediately after the storm, it was reported all you could see was pylons, there was a good 20ft of water overlying the island.
It appears that much of the water has subsided, enough so that I heard, even though there is a kink in the bridge so that its not safe, someone went over it today and checked the island out. Which means at least some of the road is semi-passable, they were saying although you couldn't get to it by car, you could by foot and a bunch of people were going out there this afternoon to see the lay of the land. There is no word on the 5-7 people that are said to have stayed.
Cigars Marina had been moved by the storm to where the old bridge was. The fire station had about 7 foot of water in it, the old shell station was gone, there are reports of houses gone, some still there. Information is coming in drips and drabs, from locals getting themselves down there via boat/jet ski etc.

[evalea]

just saw a report on wwltv, 1/3 homes gone. LA 1 is not under water, but some of the homes off LA1 still are. The main power grid supplying the island is now a tangled mess of steel. Some patches of really severe damage, looks like tornados spawned in areas. There are pictures on the baton rouge advocate site of romes and I think ricky's marina - both still there, but severely damaged. Bridgeside marina is virtually destroyed, as is cheramies landing. Lots of damage in cheniere as well.

[evalea]

More information:

Pictures from Houma Today

Article from Dallas Morning News

Island community all but vanishes in hurricane's wake

12:55 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2005

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

LAFOURCHE PARISH, Louisiana – The line of trucks idled impatiently in the muggy heat as residents waited their turn at the checkpoint blocking traffic into Grand Isle.

They wanted to see what was left of their resort homes. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, there wasn't much.

"I know most of these folks, and they just want to check on their things," said Kelly Besson, civil defense director for Grand Isle. "When they get on the island, they're going to see nothing."

When Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast 50 miles to the east, its fierce winds drove 12 to 20 feet of water across Grand Isle, the only inhabited barrier island in Louisiana. Twelve sections of the causeway bridge connecting the island to the mainland were moved sideways 4 feet by the hurricane's force.

More than 80 percent of the homes on the island were washed away, Mr. Besson said, many of them stripped to the foundations. The remaining homes all suffered significant damage.

Grand Isle, known for its fishing and recreation, is home to about 1,500 year-round. Summer visitors swell the population to 20,000.

By Sunday, as Katrina bore down on the coast, all but five people had evacuated the island.

"I've lived here 30 years, and I never left the island for a hurricane before," Mr. Besson said. "But I left for this one."

All five survived the storm and have been accounted for, Mr. Besson said.

Mr. Besson and the mayor, David Camballe, were the last people to leave the island Sunday evening. Monday afternoon, they returned, having to walk across the damaged bridge.

"The place is just devastated. That storm just tore us up," Mr. Besson said. "There is still 5 feet of water standing in parts of town. And so much of the really nice summer homes are just gone. It's going to take a while for us to rebuild. But we will. We're going to survive this."

David Chaisson, waiting at the check point, said he didn't know what to expect. His wife and family left the island Saturday. He left Sunday evening.

"They tell us everything's gone, that anything on the ground the water just took away," Mr. Chaisson said. "I want to see if I can salvage anything, if there's anything left."

The damage caused by Katrina on the southern end of Louisiana wasn't limited to Grand Isle. A few miles away, Port Fourchon, a major oil transshipment facility, was shut down by storm damage.

"Sixteen percent of the nation's oil supply and 30 percent of the imported oil comes through the facility at Port Fourchon, and it sustained considerable damage," said Windell Curole, general manager for the South LaFourche Levee District.

"But the good news is that Katrina didn't hit us head on," he said. "If the eye of the storm had hit us directly like we feared, instead of 50 miles to the east, we wouldn't be talking here today."

Katrina hit South LaFourche Parish hardest.

The northern part of the state, with its farms and sugar cane fields, escaped with relatively minor damage – uprooted trees, overturned highway signs and billboards and roofs stripped of shingles.

The entire county, population 109,000, is still without power or safe drinking water. It will be at least two weeks before a semblance of normalcy returns, Mr. Curole said.

"As terrible as it is for us – and we'll have economic scars from this storm for a long, long time – we just have to look at the terrible damage done to the rest of Louisiana and other gulf states to know how lucky we are."

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com

[alicia-w]

La. Island Residents Spared
Wednesday, August 31, 2005


GRAND ISLE, La. — Survivors took shelter in trees, coffins rose out of the ground and most of the homes on this spit of sand bordering the Gulf of Mexico (search) were torn apart by winds and waves. But nobody died.

"One good day. No fatalities," said Police Chief Euris Du Bois (search).

The muddy beach was littered with a TV set, a rocking chair, a child's plastic dinosaur.

Fortunately, nearly all the island's 1,200 residents evacuated long before the storm blew ashore, heeding the warnings of state officials and the door-to-door knocks of the local police.

"We know everybody who lives on Grand Isle. We know who stayed. Some we convinced," said Du Bois. Five or six he persuaded by speaking of how much their children or grandchildren would miss them.

Five others stayed in their camps, only to flee their homes when the storm blew their homes apart. Three took shelter in the town hall, and two "took to the trees," he said. In the town's cemetery, a half-dozen vaults and coffins emerged from the rain-soaked ground.

The damage, while bad, was a relief, given how hard the island has been hit by past storms, such as Hurricane Betsy (search) 40 years ago.

But he and other officials looked with worry across Barataria Bay toward other bayou communities in Plaquemines Parish, where officials who flew over said much of the land was under water and news still hadn't been heard on how people had fared. And they talked with fear of New Orleans itself, where rescue units were still plucking people from water-flooded homes.

Still, hundreds were homeless, power and water was out and the two-lane bridge that led to the island had shifted on its foundation, allowing only a careful, worrisome crossing that was sure to slow the help needed, said Mayor David Camardelle.

"I got people here who don't got nothing," he said.

He won promises of help from Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., who spent the day zooming from town to town, visiting emergency operations, sheriffs and mayors, gathering information on the most pressing problems.

Melancon, a freshman in a district that stretches from east and south of New Orleans all the way to the edge of Baton Rouge, ticked off the owners of homes and camps. "It's weird how some of 'em are OK and some of 'em are devastated," he said.

"Basically," Melancon said, "the Lord spared them."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167920,00.html

[evalea]

Of the five people who survived on Grand Isle - 3 of them made it to the community center (a very solid building) and were found inside.

2 others, Roy, and Mike the Monkey (yes, really, that's what everyone calls him), were found 'up a tree'.

I kid you not. I'm so glad they are alive so I can bust a gut laughing over it

[JQ Public]

So how many people stayed if only 3 survived?

[soonertwister]

So how many people stayed if only 3 survived?

Five stayed and all survived. Three went to the community center, and two climbed trees and hung on for their lives.

That's out of an estimated year-round residency rate of 1,500 people. If all of the disaster areas had 99.7% evacuation like Grand Isle, we wouldn't have the tragedy we are facing today.

[USCG_Hurricane_Watcher]

Any word on the US Coast Guard Station and assigned personnel there? Good friend of mine is the commanding officer, LT Bill Gibbons; we haven't been able to raise him yet...

[artist]

you might check out wwltv.com in their forums - they have different parishes set up as well as people reporting in, etc. also on this site - The states site ) there is info on missimg persons etc. Good luck.

http://www.loep.state.la.us/

[artist]

also check out the Red Cross site as they ahve a list of those that are now registered and a place for you to register for those that are missing.

http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina/locate

[cajungal]

just saw a report on wwltv, 1/3 homes gone. LA 1 is not under water, but some of the homes off LA1 still are. The main power grid supplying the island is now a tangled mess of steel. Some patches of really severe damage, looks like tornados spawned in areas. There are pictures on the baton rouge advocate site of romes and I think ricky's marina - both still there, but severely damaged. Bridgeside marina is virtually destroyed, as is cheramies landing. Lots of damage in cheniere as well.

First I read that Bridgeside Marina is gone. I stayed there for the Tarpon Rodeo a couple of years back. Lots of memories there.