Down Home

It's very hard to explain to my friends, who are not from Louisiana, the topography of our hometown. I always emphasize the fact that our homes are basically surrounded by marsh and water. While we don't live in the swamp, ride pirouges to school or have alligators for pets (as Hollywood portrays us Cajun folk), we certainly are not city slickers either. The towns of Cut Off, Larose, Galliano, Golden Meadow and Leeville make up the South Lafourche area......Lafourche being a "Parish". (Louisiana is the only state that does not have counties, they have parishes instead). This was a result of Louisiana being a territory of the Spanish and French Empire, both of which were Roman Catholic. Lafourche Parish is situated along the banks of Bayou Lafourche. Back in the day, the first settlements of Acadians were along Bayou Lafourche, thus associating the area with Cajun Culture. The bayou is paralleled by LA Hwy 1 on the west and LA Hwy 308 on the east. Yes, we only have two roads in and out......with only 5 stoplights.

The two industries that sustain the community are Oil and Fishing. Most people who live there are either oilfield workers, shrimpers or work in some type of business that support the two. My father worked in the Oil industry for 30+ years and my brother still works in the industry today. Growing up, it was common to see my dad for only 7 days at a time. He worked 7 days offshore and was home for next 7. It is a very dangerous occupation and I've heard many stories about what could happen if something goes wrong on a drilling platform. Not to mention the dangers of getting to and from the platform with Hurricanes to boot. Thankfully, my dad has retired, but we still worry every time my brother is on a job hundreds of miles offshore.

To get back to my point......I took some pictures on our drive down from Cut Off to Grand Isle (Ron's hometown). Grand Isle is Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island. As you probably all know, coastal erosion is a HUGE problem in South Louisiana. These picutres were taken along LA Hwy 1, the only means of land access to 1: Port Fourchon (which services 16 to 18 perecent of our nation's domestic and imported oil and gas) 2: LOOP (which handles 14% of U.S. imported crude oil whose pipelines are connected to 50% of U.S. refinery capacity) 3: Grand Isle (where Ron grew up and his family still lives)

As you can see, there is not much land here. Just imagine what a major hurricane, or minor one at that, could do to this CRITICAL highway. LA Hwy 1 is in an impressive class of only 44 "High Priority Corridors" in the United States as deemed by U.S. Congress. Please visit http://www.la1coalition.org/ to read more about the significance this highway is to the nation's energy supply and to the billions of dollars generated from oil and gas reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf. LA 1 Coalition was formed to secure the significant funding that is needed to make LA Hwy 1 a safer and more reliable highway.