Ike and the wetlands

Hurricane Ike was over two months ago.

I'm finally finding the time to post some pictures hubby and I snapped during our trek around Slidell on the Friday morning Ike made landfall.

Although Ike came ashore in eastern Texas, everyone along the northern Gulf of Mexico felt his impact. The tidal surge created havoc days before, with road closures in New Orleans East and beyond.

Here's what we saw back in early September.
[click on pictures for full-size versions]


The Bayou Liberty bridge


The boat ramp at Bayou Liberty


Here's what it usually looks like.


A tree swing in a yard facing the bayou


Here's what it looks like when it's not flooding


Along Rats Nest Road in south Slidell there was an abundance of marsh grass that had been uprooted and washed ashore during Hurricane Gustav a week before.

Lake Pontchartrain was sporting whitecaps that day.(that's the twin spans in the background)



This structure is a victim of three hurricanes, but still standing.


This is what back-to-back hurricanes can do to your neighborhood when you live on the shores of the lake.


Along Hwy 11 in the community of Northshore, water was coursing across the road from the lake into the marsh.


This house was an island during that weekend.


Over in Lake Catherine about a month later we spotted this house. It looks as if maybe it was in the process of being built when Gustav/Ike came along.


All along Hwy. 90 in Lake Catherine were moutains of marsh grass that had washed ashore during Gustav and Ike.


A trailer that was tossed around in the floods of Gustav and Ike, laid to rest in this marsh grass.

The thing that stands out in my mind after seeing the storm surge from Hurricane Ike was how much more water came ashore compared to pre-Katrina storms. Katrina destroyed so much wetlands that there is now nothing to protect us against future storms...even those that don't hit us directly. We have to save our wetlands now.