Intense Storms, Insurance Crisis Force Residents of a Louisiana Community to Consider Leaving
LAPLACE, La.—Two years after Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf Coast, Winona and Charles Barnette are still struggling to repair their home here. The Category 4 storm toppled a tree that smashed through their roof and triggered flooding that brought 3 feet of water into their house. The couple lived in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer for months and relied on relief money from the agency to pay for new appliances.
They have battled with the company handling their home insurance to try to cover the costs of repairs and have ended up doing much of the work themselves—all while their premium has climbed sharply. Now they are thinking of giving up on the house altogether and moving to safer ground. “We’re looking to sell it as soon as we can," said Winona Barnette.
The cost of living with intense storms is prompting some residents to consider leaving this already depopulating area west of New Orleans, which sits near sea level and has taken a pounding in recent years from a succession of floods and major storms. Straddling the Mississippi River and bordered by swampland, St. John the Baptist Parish, which includes LaPlace, lost a higher percentage of people than any other county in the U.S.
except California’s Lassen County—which has been hit by wildfires—from 2021 to 2022. The loss of people in places such as St. John the Baptist Parish compounds Louisiana’s struggle with anemic population growth, which hinders the state’s economy, as other parts of the South are booming.
Parts of Louisiana and elsewhere along the U.S. coast have reached a tipping point, said Roy Wright, chief executive of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, an industry-backed research organization. “The consequence of mother
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