I am standing among the battered pews of a Baptist church, on shards of glass and wood that are strewn across the floor, gazing at its partly collapsed roof. The relics of the backto-back hurricanes that pummelled this community in 2020 are still scattered here and throughout much of Cameron. Residents have long referred to this distant part of the US as "the end of the world" - but the adage feels more prescient now than ever. The population has dwindled from nearly 2,000 to a few hundred since the storms; empty foundations mark the locations of many homes that were swept away in tidal surges; and a gargantuan gas export terminal looms on the horizon.
Down the street, I meet Lerlene Rodrigue. She is living in a trailer next to her partly destroyed family home, which is still being rebuilt.
She tells me how the storm surge from Hurricane Laura brought her father's buried coffin "floating up".
It was missing for years and was rediscovered only months ago; it is now, finally, "back in the ground".
"We came back," she says of Laura's aftermath. "But if it happens again, I'm not. I'm done." The humid swamplands and coastal communities of Louisiana's third congressional district will not decide the outcome of this election.
This story is from the October 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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This story is from the October 25, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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