Depending on the area, the Plaquemines Parish recovery effort in the weeks following Hurricane Ida’s August 29 landfall has either been efficient or extremely frustrating.
To be sure, there has been a general expression of relief amongst parish officials who have spoken about Ida’s impacts on Plaquemines. As district 8 council member Richie Blink puts it, “for a category 4 hurricane, we got extremely lucky, there is some damage, but it’s not nearly as bad as it could have been.”
Indeed, driving through Plaquemines—from Belle Chasse all the way down to Venice—the outward appearance of parish infrastructure (from homes, to power lines, to government buildings) is encouraging. Most buildings had some sort of roof or siding damage as a result of high winds, but nearly every building remained intact; some power lines on the side of Highway LA-23 leaned against the vegetation behind them, but none were strewn across the road itself (as was the case with nearly every power line alongside LA-23 in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Zeta in October 2020).
But that doesn’t mean there are no lasting signs of Ida in Plaquemines. Just beyond a Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office checkpoint by the Phillip’s 66 Alliance Refinery on Westbank— put in place by PPSO as there is still a mandatory evacuation from the Alliance refinery to Venice—the northbound lane of LA-23 is still covered in water.
The flood waters from the refinery to Pointe a la Hache stubbornly refuse to drain out of the parish, trapped in by the levee system meant to keep it out. While parish pump stations are working overtime, the sheer amount of water still lingering in that area has made the pump stations’ job lengthy and difficult.
Where flood waters haven’t completely swallowed the road, mud and grass ripped out of the marsh by Hurricane Ida collects in mounds to the side of LA-23 and on the neutral ground separating its northbound and southbound lanes.
In general, Plaquemines was able to escape Ida relatively unscathed, and the recovery efforts in some parts of the parish have been surprisingly efficient as well. Though there was massive damage to Entergy’s transmission network, Belle Chasse began getting its power restored within a week of Ida making landfall. As of September 10, 2021, power and water has been restored to the Eastbank of Plaquemines as well, meaning the mandatory evacuation and curfew has been lifted on the Eastbank.
But the outward appearance of parish infrastructure and the quick restoration of power in certain areas of Plaquemines are an incomplete image of the recovery effort thus far. Specifically, communities south of the Alliance refinery on the Westbank are still under a mandatory evacuation. Resources like gas and food have been scarce, the water system (after dislodged trailers from Ironton caused multiple water line breaks in the area) is completely shut down, and power restoration has been spotty.
Operations manager for PPSO’s Patrol, Marine, and Traffic divisions Major Grant Solis is perhaps the individual most knowledgeable about the situation down the road. Solis explained that he along with many other sheriff’s deputies were stationed in Port Sulphur both during the storm and for the following recovery.
In that time, Solis said, deputies have been working almost nonstop to keep the area safe, perform rescue missions as needed (which, according to Solis, there haven’t been any), and assist in the recovery effort as much as possible.
“[PPSO] really does a little bit of everything when a storm hits. We’re there to check on people who stayed through the storm [which was about 250 people] and keep things safe, but we also clear roads for Entergy workers, hand out supplies, and really do whatever we can to help people,” Solis stated during an interview. “When someone couldn’t set up a tarp on their roof by themselves, we sent a couple deputies to help. We’ll help out the construction guys if they need anything, and we just try to do whatever we can to assist the recovery effort.”
“For storms like this, you have to step outside your typical role and figure out how to get the parish back to normal. Our office and, specifically, our deputies do a great job of that,” he added.
For Solis and the PPSO deputies, times to rest have been few and far between. Although, Solis stated, deputies will get a day off here and there to check on their own properties and contend with any pressing issues in their lives. But until all of Plaquemines can return to “normal,” which Solis defined as having power, water, and resources readily available again, the long and busy work shifts will continue.
During the interview— which occurred in Solis’s car as he drove down to Venice to deliver supplies to residents there—his phone was ringing every few minutes. The calls Solis received varied greatly: deputies called to give him updates, residents in the area requested assistance, friends checked in on him, and much more. He gladly accepted each call.
“This is what I’m here for; this is my job. I really don’t mind all this work. Especially with the leadership from sheriff [Jerry] Turlich. He’s really made sure we have everything we need, we’re organized, and that there’s communication,” Solis said. “What’s been brutal for down the road [communities] is the lack of water. You don’t get to wash yourself and you have limited drinking water. I mean, it’s rough for everyone.”
At time of press, water is still not accessible to communities south of the Alliance refinery. And with the number of breaks in the water line leading from Belle Chasse all the way to Venice—Solis stated he believed there were about 5—it may be some time before running water is back on.
“We’ve been able to get food, potable water, and other resources down the road, but no running water is still a huge problem. Most people can deal without power; you either have a generator or you open a window to catch a breeze. But it is very hard on people to not have water,” Solis stated, explaining that, despite this, some residents who evacuated have returned.
Originally, PPSO let evacuated residents go back to check on their properties (as soon as that was possible), but some have decided to stay. While this has put an additional strain on PPSO, Solis understands the reasoning behind their choice.
“A lot of people just don’t have the means to stay evacuated and pay for hotel bills. What are they supposed to do? Even if there are limited resources, people’s entire lives are down here. This may be all they have, of course they want to protect it,” Solis stated.
The staggered recovery process—with the northern end of the parish recovering much quicker than the southern end—has been frustrating for residents who live down the road. But parish employees, Entergy workers, construction workers, and sheriff’s deputies continue to work long, hard hours to get southern Plaquemines up and running.
“All those guys do a phenomenal job, and this recovery process would be much more difficult without them,” Solis stated. “I think our recovery effort has been, overall, really good. We’ve applied lessons from past storms. And when this is all over, we’ll look back, see what we could have done better, and use that knowledge for the next hurricane.”
“Hurricanes are definitely a negative thing; they can destroy a person’s entire life. But, in the recovery effort, people tend to come together. And we’ve seen that here. Everyone just wants to help and get the parish back to normal,” he concluded.