Renauld Portier pushes his pirogue through Hurricane Ike’s floodwaters along La. 56 in Chauvin. Portier has lived in Chauvin his entire life and says seeing floods like this is nothing new to him.
A sheriff’s officer from Tuscaloosa, Ala., left, helps a woman exit a bus at Dumas Auditorium. Many elderly Bayou Towers apartment residents were forced to wait outside and on buses for hours before arriving at Dumas, where the Red Cross had cots and blankets waiting for them.
Chester Welch, 84, left, and Anna Gaubert, 71, wait at the curb outside the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center. Before Gustav, the two friends evacuated with other residents of the Bayou Towers, public-housing apartments for the elderly and the handicapped. When their shelter in Alabama closed, they were forced to come back home to find they didn’t have a place to stay.
Rusty Hebert stands in front of his Chauvin home. Hebert, who cooks meals each day for the neighborhood, said he hadn’t heard of any looting in the area but thought the signs would keep people away from his house.
Phillip McAlliser takes a nap inside The Terrebonne Parish Council Chambers a day before Gustav made landfall. The room where the Parish Council meets was used by local law enforcement to rest or sleep.
After arriving at the storm shelter at Dumas Auditorium in Houma Mary Eunice, 78, left, and Annette Crouch, 89, quickly set up their cots and laid down to rest.
Hilda Thomas talks about having to wait outside at the Civic Center after being dropped off from being evacuated in Alabama. “We’re out here on our own. No food, no money,” Thomas said. “We’re out here like we’re just thrown away.”
Louisiana National Guard memebes unload cases of water to hurricane victims outside the Civic Center on Wednesday, Sept. 3. Each car received two boxes of food and two cases of water.
Gov. Bobby Jindal listens to concerns Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph has about drinking water, debris removal and other issues after the storms during a meeting at the EOC office in Matthews on Sunday, Sept. 14.
A fallen tree bisects a trailer in east Houma as seen during a helicopter tour of hurricane Gustav damage.
Donald Nixon stands amid the remains of his carport on Isabel Street in Houma. Nixon and his uncle, Karl White, 49, tried to weather the storm inside the house but fled into a nearby building when winds ripped off the roof with what sounded like an explosion. “This was like some T.V. (expletive), for real,” Nixon said. “I ain’t never been that scared in my life.”
Volunteers form a line to pass sandbags to the top of the Chauvin levee to stop water from going over before Hurricane Ike made landball. “We’re trying to plug it up and give it a good fight,” said Lt. Mike Ledet of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Darrell Domangue, 43, stands outside his Chauvin home Thursday, Sept. 11 as waters from Hurricane Ike start to rise around his house. “All I can do is sit here and watch,” Domangue said. He also had water damage to his home from Hurricane Gustav.
Drake Sevin, 13, pulls his grandmother, Mona Sevin, 72, to higher ground after walking about a quarter mile through Hurricane Ike’s floodwaters south of Houma. The family decided to walk to the road after water started rising around their home.
Tracy Guidry, 15, swims in floodwaters in front of Montegut Middle School. Guidry and a group of friends walked throughout the neighborhood checking on houses and buildings.
A tractor spills fluid into floodwaters from Hurricane Ike in Chauvin. Much of the floodwater contained chemicals and sewage.