Hurricane Katrina was a terrifying expertise for greater than 1,000,000 folks affected throughout the Gulf Coast area. Practically 1,400 folks died, most of them in New Orleans — and 20 years later, some communities are nonetheless struggling to get better.
The Nationwide Hurricane Middle says the most costly hurricane in U.S. historical past — greater than $201 billion primarily based on the 2024 Shopper Value Index adjusted value — induced widespread flood injury throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
On Dauphin Island, Alabama, the barrier island city’s west finish seashore was severed throughout Katrina. A 1.5 mile-wide hole was left behind. Greater than 300 houses have been destroyed on the island, and for a lot of of these houses, the land on which they stood was completely washed away.
Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, Dauphin Island has been shrinking and transferring much more from extra storms and sea degree rise. The island is now going through a dire existential disaster.
Photographs of Dauphin Island from 2004, 2005 and 2008 reveals the shrinking barrier island in Alabama.
Mayor Jeff Collier by no means imagined storms, massive or small, would batter the island so laborious. Some residents are nonetheless paying property taxes on heaps that are actually beneath Gulf waters — vacationers often swimming over prime of them.
Some residents’ houses are sitting in perilous positions, their pilings now located properly into the Gulf. The houses are nonetheless technically livable — vacationers even renting them out this summer time — however Collier says it’s solely a matter of time earlier than one other storm wipes out extra.
During the last 20 years, the city has rebuilt a few of its white sand seashores. Final yr, on the island’s east finish, the city was in a position to make use of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill settlement cash on a seashore erosion mission to push Gulf waters again about 350 to 400 ft, in accordance with the mayor.
However on a barrier island like Dauphin, fixed upkeep is crucial. Jillian Fairbanks visits the island often and has seen the erosion first-hand over time.
“Just about a year later, I can already tell that the sand has eroded, I’d say 30 meters or so at least,” Fairbanks mentioned. “It was still a shock to see that happen already in one year.”
Her dad and mom have lived there for 13 years. She says they’ve advocated for seashore restoration tasks for years to guard the city.
“It’s more calm, laid back, peaceful,” Fairbanks mentioned. “I’ll come here as long as it’s here.”
Photographs present how Hurricane Katrina eroded the seashore on Dauphin Island.
USGS
It can take tens of millions of {dollars} from a number of grant sources to protect what’s left, and Collier says that’s the largest problem.
Dauphin Island is planning to make use of extra oil spill settlement cash to assist pay for an additional seashore restoration mission for the island’s west finish, which is able to value $60 million. The mayor remains to be pursuing extra funding sources to make the mission attainable.
He’s additionally using assist from an Environmental Safety Company grant to improve the city’s stormwater runoff methods to assist mitigate road flooding throughout storms, even low-grade ones. As of April, Collier says the city had already spent greater than $420,000 on the $1.2 million mission.
As a result of these tasks want steady maintenance and oversight, Collier sought assist from a particular FEMA program. He mentioned a grant for a $250,000 mission would assist the city rent an engineering and design agency to create a specialised catastrophe mitigation plan.
The Constructing Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant, or BRIC, consists of investments in state planning and capability constructing, equivalent to $2 million in Alabama to help statewide constructing code implementation prices, in accordance with Derrick Hiebert, who oversaw this system.
He served as assistant administrator for the Hazard Mitigation Directorate at FEMA for the final two years.
“We selected over 1,900 projects. FEMA selected over 1,900 projects worth nearly $5 billion,” Hiebert mentioned. “This included $150 million over three grants to improve three canal basins in South Florida that are plagued by flooding.”
The West Finish of Dauphin Island.
He added the BRIC program was additionally funding a large flooding mitigation mission in Washington state.
“The North Shore Levy — $80 million in federal funding to a community that has suffered significant economic disruption in recent years,” he mentioned. “It was going to protect 3,100 homes and businesses, removing them from the FEMA-designated floodplain and reducing risk in that community.”
Hiebert mentioned it additionally helped another western communities with wildfire mitigation efforts and was first established with bipartisan help.
“It was established during the first Trump administration, after the passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, and it helped solve several long-standing challenges with local governments,” Hiebert mentioned.
In opposition to Hiebert’s needs, the Trump administration’s FEMA canceled this system in April, calling it “wasteful and ineffective.” In one other announcement, the company mentioned BRIC resulted in a “lack of concrete results.”
Hiebert mentioned he helps any administration’s skill to “evolve and adapt” and he doesn’t see adjustments to FEMA as a nasty factor, however he believes the cancellation of such tasks is “devastating” to the locations that want them.
“If the administration wants to change FEMA, or change the BRIC program to something different that looks a little different, that’s the prerogative. That’s good,” he mentioned. “These communities that were expecting these funds, that were counting on these funds for these real large-scale infrastructure projects, what hurts me the most is to know that some of them, or many of them, may not get built, and that these risks … don’t have another place to turn to address these risks.”
A heron walks alongside the West Finish of Dauphin Island.
Hiebert mentioned he give up his place in June, two months after this system was scrapped. A gaggle of 20 states final month sued the Trump administration, searching for to dam what they are saying was an unlawful termination of BRIC.
Earlier this month, a federal decide briefly blocked the BRIC funding reallocation, arguing the switch may result in “irreparable harm” to flood-prone areas. In the meantime, Collier says he has not heard any phrase from the federal authorities about subsequent steps.
“We’re kind of in a limbo situation right now waiting to see what comes out of that,” Collier mentioned.
Collier mentioned if it comes all the way down to it, he’ll pursue paying for the hazard mitigation plan out of pocket.
“Of course, it’s nicer when you have grant funds to work with, but at the same time, this is such a critically important thing that we need … If we can’t get the funding elsewhere, you know, we just have to just deal with it ourselves,” Collier mentioned. “So, one way or the other, we’re going to get our plan in place.”
Time is one thing Dauphin Island can not afford. Even with no main hurricane, the seashore is anticipated to proceed washing away.
Requested what retains him up at evening, Collier mentioned, “just the fact that we know additional hurricanes will eventually hit this area … knowing that there’s a clock ticking, that we only have a certain length of time in order to make differences and changes on the island before the next one hits.”
