Talk about a phrase the people of South Louisiana are tired of hearing! Nevertheless, here we are preparing for or dealing with flood waters yet again. The cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans have been protected by two man-made spillways being used to do exactly what they were designed to do: saving the largest cities of the state from complete disaster. However, the threat isn’t over, and monitoring will be done for weeks as the levee system is stretched to capacity.

In the middle of the headlines, latest river readings, and up to the minute counts of bays and gates that are opened in the Bonnet Carre and Morganza Spillways, there are thousands of real people losing real pieces of their livelihoods and cultures. When the national media stops reporting on this story when the images aren’t as good and the water isn’t flowing as fast is when our actual recovery process begins.

Here are the headlines of what the people of South Louisiana will be dealing with now and for years in the future:

Seven parishes. 25,000 people. Millions of cubic feet of water. Countless tons of sand left behind. Schools flooded. Homes destroyed. Businesses closed. Crops destroyed.

In the middle of the disaster, a small light shines for America’s WETLANDS because on the map of the land loss experienced by South Louisiana since 1950 there is plenty of red (showing land LOSS) but there are two small spots of green (showing land GAIN). These GAIN spots are at the point where the Atchafalaya Basin reaches the Gulf of Mexico. This growth happened after the Morganza Spillway was opened in 1973. So, ironically, the flood displacing people in the Morganza Spillway today will ultimately help rebuild the land and allow the residents of that area to live there for generations to come. In typical fashion, in two weeks Mother Nature will do more to build land in America’s wetlands than the billions of dollars that have already been spent on coastal restoration for decades.

Despite being kicked to the dirt again by Mother Nature, I have full confidence that the people of South Louisiana will once again rise up out of the muddy water, shake ourselves dry and begin to repair and restore our land and lives so that our communities can get back to work providing the nation and world with the freshest seafood, sweetest sugar and abundant oil and gas energy.

The last bite…

Last week, I achieved a milestone in my educational career by graduating from Tulane University. After the ceremony, my family and I enjoyed an amazing meal at Bouche. The highlight was a massive helping of shrimp and grits topped with a tasso cream sauce. I give family dinner celebrations 5 (out of 5) crumbs!

Buddy Boe, a resident of Garyville, owns a public relations and program management company and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears Wednesdays in L’Observateur.