As Millions in the US Face Climate Relocation, the First Attempt Bears a Warning

"Leaving the tight-knit community his family had called home for five generations along the Louisiana coast was one of the hardest things Chris Brunet has had to do. But three years ago, he felt he had no other choice. The Gulf of Mexico's swelling waters were gradually consuming Isle de Jean Charles - the narrow strip of land in Terrebonne Parish that has been the homeland for the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians since the 1830s."

""This is where I was awakened to my Native American identity," Brunet says on a sticky late afternoon in August as he sits in his wheelchair, gazing upon the tattered remains of his family's island home. "I would want to be here if I had any choice in the world.""

"In 2016, Louisiana received $48.3 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money to relocate 37 residents or families of Isle de Jean Charles as climate-charged hurricanes and sea-level rise made the once thriving fishing community uninhabitable. The plan was the first relocation of an entire community that was fully funded by the federal government."

"The island used to encompass more than 22,000 acres but has shrunk to about 320 acres due to erosion, land loss caused by severe storms, manmade canals and sea level rise spurred by climate change. Isle de Jean Charles is a shell of a place once filled with life. The remaining strip is now dotted with the dilapidated homes of those who fled; a few properties are used as recreational camps by their owners."

Isle de Jean Charles has shrunk from over 22,000 acres to roughly 320 acres because of erosion, severe storms, manmade canals and sea-level rise. The Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw community that lived there for generations saw homes abandoned and the remaining strip dotted with dilapidated structures. In 2016, the federal government provided $48.3 million to relocate 37 residents or families, the first fully federally funded community relocation. Former residents report substandard new homes with rainwater intrusion and malfunctioning systems. Many residents, including those who left five-generation homelands, describe the move as a painful loss of place and identity.

Read at Truthout