HuffPost Profile picture
11 Oct, 10 tweets, 5 min read
In the placid days leading up to Hurricane Ida, Charlie Walker was not afraid.

The longtime resident of Grand Isle, the only inhabited barrier island on the Louisiana coast, was no stranger to storms. huffpost.com/entry/louisian…
Walker watched his neighbors’ cars, laden with precious belongings, snake their way off the island. Soon, he was one of just about 100 of 1,500 full-time Grand Isle residents left behind. Then Ida gathered strength. huffpost.com/entry/louisian… Image
Meteorologists were predicting it would make landfall as a Category 4, with a much higher storm surge. Others left on Grand Isle were starting to sense that there was nothing to do but let fate run its course. huffpost.com/entry/louisian… Image
When the storm rolled in on Sunday morning, resident Rick Smith laid down on his bed. For 12 hours, he didn’t break eye contact with the framed portrait of Jesus Christ that hung on the opposite wall. huffpost.com/entry/louisian…
Grand Isle was barely recognizable after the storm. Downed power lines and telephone poles crisscrossed the main road in enormous tangles, and entire buildings were gone. Huge lakes of seawater stretched the width of the island. huffpost.com/entry/louisian… Image
At the same time, Louisiana’s barrier islands are already being threatened. They’re experiencing some of the fastest relative sea-level rises in the world ― nearly three times the global average, according to NOAA. huffpost.com/entry/louisian… Image
Their disappearance is a great concern for scientists, politicians and anyone else who understands the vital role barrier islands play in protecting coastal communities. huffpost.com/entry/louisian…
“They’re sometimes described as speed bumps,” said Torbjörn Törnqvist, a geology professor said. Without them the impact of hurricanes on the mainland, including New Orleans, will be much worse. huffpost.com/entry/louisian… Image
Of course, for residents of Grand Isle, serving as a hurricane “speed bump” has obvious drawbacks. They’ve endured decades of destruction, and they've always rebuilt.

That is, until Ida.

Read the full story:
huffpost.com/entry/louisian…
All photography by @kitracahana.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with HuffPost

HuffPost Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @HuffPost

14 Oct
It’s been one month since Brian Laundrie’s family members say they last saw the 23-year-old, who is a person of interest in his girlfriend Gabby Petito’s death. Here’s what we’ve learned.
huffpost.com/entry/brian-la…
The FBI searched his family home.

Federal agents took several of Laundrie’s items as evidence and returned again nearly a week later, reportedly to collect samples of his DNA.
huffpost.com/entry/brian-la… Image
A warrant is out for his arrest.

About a week after Laundrie’s parents reported him missing, federal officials indicted him for the unauthorized use of a debit card to make withdrawals of more than $1,000 during the period that Petito went missing.
huffpost.com/entry/brian-la… Image
Read 7 tweets
13 Oct
Meaghan Mulholland is still dealing with several wide-ranging symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19 over a year ago. The long-hauler’s health issues have put a strain on her marriage ever since. huffpost.com/entry/long-hau…
"I don’t feel very fun these days. I feel the furthest thing from it, in fact; I feel like a burden,” Mulholland writes of her relationship as she continues to experience near-daily headaches, joint pain, a racing heartbeat and fatigue. huffpost.com/entry/long-hau… Image
Mulholland says her husband has no choice but to be Super Dad. “He is the one working full time as our family’s breadwinner while also shuttling the kids to activities and appointments, cooking meals and handling all the other mundane tasks that keep a household functioning.” Image
Read 6 tweets
13 Oct
When Bryan Glant tested positive for COVID-19 in December 2020, a guard at Monroe Correctional Complex told him he had 10 minutes to pack up his essential items. huffpost.com/entry/medical-…
He stepped into his isolation cell — a dirty, dimly lit cement box with only a deflated mattress and a non-working TV welded to the ceiling.

“I was in the hole,” Glant wrote in an account of his experience.
huffpost.com/entry/medical-… Image
In some ways, the COVID unit was worse than “the hole,” a term used to describe solitary confinement in prisons and jails.

Glant was locked in his cell for several days straight, shaking with pain from his COVID symptoms. huffpost.com/entry/medical-…
Read 7 tweets
23 Sep
A New York woman who is suing Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, for defamation and witness intimidation detailed how the couple harassed her in an emotional appearance on “The Real” this week. huffpost.com/entry/nicki-mi…
Jennifer Hough accused Petty of raping her at knifepoint at home in Queens, NY, in 1994, when they were both 16. Petty subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted rape and served several years in prison. He was released in 1999.
huffpost.com/entry/nicki-mi…
Petty was arrested in March 2020 after failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California. In August, he accepted a plea deal, and earlier this month, pleaded guilty to the charges. huffpost.com/entry/nicki-mi…
Read 6 tweets
22 Sep
⚡️ Britney Spears’ life is getting the documentary treatment without her explicit permission once again, but this time Netflix is at the helm. huffp.st/6oOxm14
Directed by Erin Lee Carr, the documentary will reportedly “center around Spears’ highly-unusual conservatorship, and will feature key figures in Spears’ orbit,” according to Variety. 📸: Getty Images huffp.st/6oOxm14
While Britney Spears has publicly thanked her fans for their support, she’s been less than enthusiastic regarding the documentaries about her life, blasting them as “so hypocritical” given how “they criticize the media and then do the same thing.” huffp.st/6oOxm14
Read 4 tweets
22 Sep
We have officially entered fall, and many of us have made travel plans, or hope to soon. But what does the COVID variant situation mean for the state of travel? HuffPost asked experts for their predictions. huffp.st/6pA5TrH
“All summer long, there was steady momentum towards a return to normal-ish demand for travel, particularly domestically. But in the last couple of months, this momentum has sputtered out,” Willis Orlando, a specialist at @scottsflights, told HuffPost. huffp.st/6pA5TrH
International trips will continue to be less popular. “Consumers are seeing that even vaccinated people can get the virus, which, while you can avoid hospitalization in most cases, people still don’t want to get stuck abroad…” Brian Kelly, founder of @thepointsguy, said.
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(