Hurricane Damage CajunArmor.com

As most people are aware, Hurricane Katrina came through Louisiana and wrecked devastation on New Orleans and the southeastern part of Louisiana.

On Saturday, Sept. 3rd, I went out to providing medical support to a pipeline inspection team. If you know the area, we left out of Golden Meadow by boat and traveled down Bayou Lafourche to the Gulf of Mexico. We then traveled about 50-60 miles across the Gulf to Tiger Pass and into Venice.

We passed near the Port of Fourchon which did not have as much damage as I was expecting. Crew and work boats were being loaded and there was quite a bit of activity going on.

As we traveled across the Gulf, we passed within about 9 miles of Grand Isle. Although, I could not see specific details on structures, many structures were still standing, including the water tower. Way more buildings were up then I expected, although I could not determine how much damage there was to those buildings.

As we approached Tiger Pass to head inland toward Venice, the first thing you notice is that the marsh and jetties are gone. A few reeds here and there, but that is it. The whole landscape was changed. We had to follow the channel using GPS as most of the navigational buoys and landmarks were gone as well. As we headed further inland towards Venice, a strange smell arose. I guess a combination of dead marsh, dead animals, oil and chemicals.

The trees in the area were almost all torn apart, knocked over, are hurled around. Marsh grass was laid everywhere. As we entered Venice (on the Marina side), we saw shrimp boats, crew boats and barges strewn about everywhere. Buildings were toppled, torn open, or just destroyed. The port as a whole was inoperable. There was an oily sheen on the water and dead cows everywhere. Looking down the channels, you could see that the devastation was complete in all the areas we could see.

Large tanks were crumpled or dented, pipelines broken apart, shrimp boats lying around like someone had thrown them in the air. We heard a large natural gas pipeline hissing very badly, although we detected no gas in the air.

We checked the pipeline, which survived OK and still had pressure. The electronics building would have to be replaced due to the incursion of salt water.

Following are a few pictures of the 100+ plus I took of the area. As you can see, it is not a pretty place. The pictures do not convey how bad the damage is in the port of Venice.