Danger of slow moving storms to barrier islands
Sylvia Landry by Earl Robicheaux, 2009; 4700.2029
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Storm tracks, 1957-2008. NOAA.
TEMPESTS:
Storms in the Archives
Sylvia Landry: Hurricane Juan in 1985. [laughing] I'll never stay again. That was really an
experience, and it only had eighty mile-an-hour winds. We had pecan trees in our front yard, and to
see those pecan trees just bow down to that wind is an awesome sight. To watch the water just to
keep creeping up. And we didn't get water in our home, but we had about two and a half feet of water
in our yard. That's all in the . . . sort of the middle of the island because, you know, Grand
Isle's like a turtle back. It slopes to the beach, it slopes to the bay, it slopes to the east and
the west. But you have this high ridge in the middle of the island that's about five feet above sea
level. And to have three feet of . . . almost three feet of water in the yard was really something
to see. It was scary. I wouldn't stay again. I don't own anything worth risking the life of my
children, or myself, or anyone that I love. Damage that it did to us, just by sitting out there and
driving the tide chain . . . you know, bringing in high tides to us and a lot of water.
Earl Robicheaux: Yeah. That seems to be the big concern is that these low level tropical
systems that move very slow along the coast will cause so much more erosion than a big storm, you
know.
Landry: Correct. They do. Because they're just out there that much longer doing as much
damage as they can, yeah. They do. I know that if you have a slow moving winter storm, that comes
out of, say, the northwest, the back side of Grand Isle on the bay side just gets beaten up. And
it's the same thing in the summertime if you get a southerly storm coming in. It doesn't have to be
a tropical storm, just a weather system coming in and beats us up. So if we're getting beat up, I
know that the rest of the barrier islands that have less protection than we do are getting the same
experience.