Posted on August 10, 2022
Grand Isle, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
1. Wide aerial of beach near Grand Isle
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belle Chase, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
2. Various of Coastal Restoration Meeting
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bren Haase, Executive Director of state Coastal Preservation and Restoration Authority (CPRA):
“If nothing is done to contain these things, they will be gone over time. The good news is that we have a program to restore these and to maintain them and we’ve been able to do that over the last 30 years. We certainly plan to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buras, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
4. Wide aerial of Mississippi River
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belle Chase, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kristi Trail, Executive Director of Pontchartrain Conservancy:
“The coast has always been our first line of defense against hurricanes for south Louisiana and recognizing this, the Pontchartrain conservancy developed the multiple lines of defense strategy designed to help save our coast.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buras, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
6. Wide aerial of Mississippi River
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belle Chase, Louisiana – 21 July 2022
7. SOUNDBITE (English) April Newman, Project Manager for Terrebonne Basin Barrier Island Project
“Operationally, its a lot more difficult to work in the Gulf of Mexico. when you have high seas, the cutter head dredges have difficulty working in high seas conditions, so you have a lot of down time when you’re working in the Gulf of Mexico.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Venice, Louisiana 21 July 2022
8. Various aerials of marsh and dredge in Mississippi River
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Bren Haase, Executive Director of CPRA:
“This goes for the barrier islands but the more land I have between me and the gulf of Mexico as a hurricane is approaching, the better I feel, the better off we are. Certainly our risk reduction systems; our levees, our floodgates, our flood control systems are extremely important but the natural ecosystem serves as another piece of that risk reduction system. Those natural barriers are very, very important; forests, marshes, shallow bays and certain barrier islands are a part of that.”
10. Various aerials of Venice, Barataria Bay and Port Fourchon
STORYLINE:
Louisiana has completed one of its biggest coastal restoration projects yet and is at work on even bigger ones. Officials say a recently finished project added 1,000 acres of habitat and 8.6 miles of beach to two barrier islands and a headland in the Terrebonne Basin. Now they’re creating 1,600 acres of marshes and ridges further east, near a historic outlet called Spanish Pass. Officials say the dredge that sucked up sediment in the Gulf of Mexico for the Terrebonne Basin project is now in the Mississippi River, pumping sediment for the Spanish Pass project. Work began in January on a project to add nearly 2,800 acres of marsh near Shell Beach in St. Bernard Parish.
AP Video Shot by Stephen Smith
