Small Battles

On Grand Isle, erosion is a serious and perpetual problem. As a barrier island, Grand Isle gets hit with full-force winds and surge whenever there is a hurricane. Though the storms and hurricanes are devastating to the island itself, it acts as a buffer for the sensitive inland areas. Just north of Grand Isle is a large swath of marsh, with trees that died long ago from increased salinity dotting the grassy landscape. The marsh acts as a nursery for many types of marine creatures, making it a critical area to protect.

As the oil slick spread across the Gulf of Mexico, Grand Isle was dealing with the reality of being on the frontline yet again, but this time to a storm that is less understood. In November of 2009, a strong surge from Hurricane Ida tore through a strip of land that separated the marsh from the ocean. Since then, the tide has been washing freely in and out of the marsh, compromising the ecosystem, and making it vulnerable if and when the oil drifted toward Grand Isle. Some projects had been attempted to close the breach, but none of them had been successful.

Wayne Keller is the Executive Director of the Port Commission. He also serves as the Executive Editor to the local newspaper. He knows everybody, and he is the man who gets things done for the island. On May 6th, as Wayne scrambled to get help to protect his island from the spreading oil slick, he attended a meeting with the Governor and the National Guard. Wayne saw this as a chance to finally get the breach fixed. Six hours later, 40 National Guard troops were called in with bulldozers. The project is expected to be completed within three days.

Sometimes, when the battle you're fighting is so big, it becomes necessary to focus on the small triumphs.


(On Grand Isle, Wayne Keller and SFC Austin Reis and CPT James Hoover, engineers of the Louisiana Army National Guard, survey a location where a strip of land used to block the marsh from the ocean.)