It’s hurricane season. Right here in Louisiana, we’re bracing ourselves for one more devastating storm. Predictions are that this yr will probably be as brutal as 2005, when Katrina walloped our coast. Down right here, tensions rise in late summer time: Heat ocean waters pushed by a altering local weather can flip a Class 2 storm right into a 3 or 4 remarkably quick and with little warning. Final August, Hurricane Ida confirmed no mercy, tearing off roofs and displacing hundreds. Six months later, I used to be nonetheless gutting houses.
I’m a local weather organizer, and within the weeks that adopted Ida I threw myself into hurricane reduction. Like Katrina, Ida dropped at gentle a long time of systemic injustice and displaced complete communities. Even earlier than the hurricane, the oldsters I work with in South Louisiana had been beneath menace of displacement from fossil gasoline enlargement. After the storm handed, I labored as exhausting as attainable to assist them come house. Our Louisiana Simply Restoration Community deployed lots of of volunteers; we spent months clearing water-damaged houses and tacking tarps on damaged roofs to maintain out the rain.
I discovered to tarp roofs in Romeville, a traditionally Black city 60 miles upriver from New Orleans in St. James Parish. Residents had by no means seen a storm like Ida, however environmental points have lengthy been on their thoughts. Romeville is positioned in Most cancers Alley—the stretch from Baton Rouge to New Orleans with over 150 chemical crops, refineries, and industrial amenities. The area is house to seven of the ten Census tracts with the very best threat of most cancers within the nation, and Black communities are disproportionately uncovered to pollution.
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That day in Romeville we’d knocked out a pair roofs and had been scrambling to complete earlier than sundown. The ability grid remained down for weeks, so each evening went pitch black by 8. As I gathered my instruments, I noticed a complete metropolis gentle up throughout the sugarcane area at Romeville’s edge. It was Nucor, considered one of a dozen industrial amenities in St. James. As large as a city sq., Nucor was operating off huge backup mills. Earlier than Ida, we discovered that Nucor had spent half a decade violating its air permits by releasing poisonous sulfur fuel.
“They’ve been poisoning us for six years,” Barbara Washington instructed me that evening. She is a cofounder of Inclusive Louisiana, and may see Nucor from her yard. “Assume how we really feel watching these crops gentle up whereas we sit right here in the dead of night.”
Her phrases laid naked a reality of life in Louisiana. As the USA’ third-largest power producer, we’re on the entrance strains of fossil gasoline extraction and petrochemical manufacturing, whereas additionally going through the primary and worst penalties from these similar industries. Hit by 4 main hurricanes previously two years, we’re shedding land sooner than anyplace in North America, whilst corporations plan a large buildout of fuel crops and pipelines throughout our fragile coast. Unchecked fossil gasoline enlargement poses an pressing menace to Louisianans like Washington, whereas industrial improvement threatens to run communities off their land. However resistance from the entrance strains has sparked a grassroots local weather motion of outstanding persistence.
In 2018, Sharon Lavigne fashioned RISE St. James to problem industrial air pollution in her group. The group now works to dam Formosa Plastics from setting up one of many world’s largest petrochemical complexes mere miles from an elementary college and Lavigne’s yard.
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“We now have sufficient air pollution,” Lavigne instructed me after we met two years in the past. “We’re dying.” She mentioned that state officers allowed business to show rural Black areas right into a sacrifice zone. That day she drove us out alongside the Mississippi River, noting plant after plant. “St. James is full.”
I’ve labored with RISE to knock on doorways, make calls, and distribute flyers. We’ve rallied and marched. RISE has hosted Juneteenth celebrations and handed out hams for Christmas. Beneath Lavigne’s management, a world motion has coalesced to repeatedly delay Formosa Plastics. Just lately, the US Military Corps of Engineers ordered an Environmental Influence Assertion for the venture. This might take three years, sufficient time to cease Formosa for good.
Forty minutes south of New Orleans, Ironton had its personal victory final yr. The traditionally Black settlement in Plaquemines Parish managed to efficiently counter a plan by Tallgrass Vitality to construct an oil terminal on the previous St. Rosalie plantation close by. Ironton’s elders had lengthy spoken of gravesites at St. Rosalie. Some had ancestors laid to relaxation there. Tallgrass’s plans confirmed that they’d construct the oil terminal on high of the graves, so we obtained organized. Months later, Tallgrass canceled the venture.
By that point, Ida had introduced 10 toes of floodwater to Ironton, destroying practically each house. Ironton has by no means had the flood safety loved by wealthier, whiter communities, and after the hurricane native authorities supplied little assist. Residents needed to hire heavy tools and clear their streets, paying out of pocket to demolish their very own houses. I organized volunteers to intestine the church.
In St. James, officers had been gradual to assist Black communities get well too. I questioned if the shortage of help had something to do with the proposals for brand spanking new industrial amenities close by. In 2014 the St. James authorities rezoned complete swaths of majority Black districts as “future industrial.” From Romeville to Ironton, people see an try and displace residents and make room for business. As Cassandra Wilson of Ironton put it to me: “They principally wish to run you out with these crops.”
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Many might not perceive why Black Louisianans are intent on rebuilding in a area so weak to fossil gasoline improvement and escalating storms. For some, ever-rising housing prices create steep limitations to relocation. However land possession additionally represents generational wealth, holding a robust historic and emotional significance within the US South, the place the theft of Black land has been in depth.
Barbara Washington instructed me that her ancestor bought 34 acres close to Romeville after slavery’s abolition. “That land continues to be in my household,” she mentioned. “Our ancestors labored the land, then got here to personal it. We had been right here earlier than business. It’s our proper to carry on to what we’ve.” In St. James Parish, the revelation that Formosa Plastics would construct over a slave burial floor was a significant mobilizing device: Everywhere in the South, Black descendants see the safety of those cemeteries as an funding in the way forward for their communities. They’re assisted by Louisiana regulation, which ensures them entry to those websites.
In February of this yr, six months after Ida, I used to be nonetheless climbing ladders. I’d introduced a tiny crew to tarp the house of Alexis Jones, an aged St. James resident. A sudden downpour left the roof slick with rain, so we went inside to see what we might salvage. Jones lived alone on a hard and fast earnings. Months handed earlier than anybody gutted her home. We set to clearing particles till water drenched us by means of holes in her roof.
I eliminated my hardhat and moist gloves, sitting down on a pile of rotted drywall with my head in my fingers. With little funding, our volunteers had labored totally free on over 120 houses, however I knew there have been hundreds like Jones who had not been helped. We had only a few months earlier than the following hurricane season, and I knew that irrespective of how stubbornly we labored, solely the federal government had assets to completely deal with the aftermath of local weather catastrophe. I knew that on this planet’s wealthiest nation, regardless of 16 years of exhausting classes since Katrina, our leaders nonetheless didn’t have a plan for these storms. And I knew that the fossil gasoline buildout on Louisiana’s coast would make hurricanes like Ida come time and again.
I’ve organized in Louisiana for years, however within the months that adopted Ida I discovered how actually dire this local weather disaster is. That day at Jones’s home I used to be livid, afraid. On the drive again house I cried bitter tears. However the subsequent morning I awakened considering of Washington and Lavigne, devoted grandmothers motivated by love for group, our rivers and bayous, and our kids but to be born. I’m now not ready for politicians to seek out the desire to finish this disaster. I see organizers in every single place constructing a folks’s local weather motion to struggle for a greater world.
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This June, I helped manage “Local weather Justice and Pleasure,” the Gulf South’s first local weather pageant. A thousand folks attended from throughout the area. “Local weather change can really feel so summary, however we’ve develop into specialists by means of our personal expertise,” I mentioned in my speech. “That is now a part of day by day life, and we’re all leaders within the struggle. If we will unite throughout our variations and start to take care of this disaster, we’ve the facility to interrupt down each system of injustice that has introduced us so far.” We closed out the occasion with an hour of bomba dancing and Cajun two-step. I wasn’t excited about the storms. Anger might drive us, however love of house sustains us. To search out pleasure amid battle is an act of resistance.
Dispatches from the Frontlines are tales instantly from the leaders combating—and successful—the battle for a fossil-free future. They’re printed by Equation Marketing campaign in collaboration with The Nation. Equation Marketing campaign is a 10-year initiative funding actions on the bottom to maintain fossil fuels within the floor. Learn extra dispatches right here.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry addresses members of the House and Senate on opening day of a legislative special session, Feb. 19, 2024, in the House Chamber at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La. (Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP, File)
NEW ORLEANS — First-of-its-kind legislation that classifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances was signed into law Friday by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
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The Republican governor announced his signing of the bill in Baton Rouge a day after it gained final legislative passage in the state Senate.
The measure affects the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in medication abortions, the most common method of abortion in the U.S..
Opponents of the bill included many physicians who said the drugs have other critical reproductive health care uses, and that changing the classification could make it harder to prescribe the medications.
Supporters of the bill said it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas.
The bill passed as abortion opponents await a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on an effort to restrict access to mifepristone.
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The new law will take effect on Oct. 1.
The bill began as a measure to create the crime of “coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud.” An amendment adding the abortion drugs to the Schedule IV classification of Louisiana’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law was pushed by Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Republican from Shreveport and the main sponsor of the bill.
“Requiring an abortion inducing drug to be obtained with a prescription and criminalizing the use of an abortion drug on an unsuspecting mother is nothing short of common-sense,” Landry said in a statement.
Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion, in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills. Other Schedule IV drugs include the opioid tramadol and a group of depressants known as benzodiazepines.
Knowingly possessing the drugs without a valid prescription would carry a punishment including hefty fines and jail time. Language in the bill appears to carve out protections for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription for their own consumption.
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The classification would require doctors to have a specific license to prescribe the drugs, and the drugs would have to be stored in certain facilities that in some cases could end up being located far from rural clinics.
In addition to inducing abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol have other common uses, such as treating miscarriages, inducing labor and stopping hemorrhaging.
More than 200 doctors in the state signed a letter to lawmakers warning that the measure could produce a “barrier to physicians’ ease of prescribing appropriate treatment” and cause unnecessary fear and confusion among both patients and doctors. The physicians warn that any delay to obtaining the drugs could lead to worsening outcomes in a state that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
Pressly said he pushed the legislation because of what happened to his sister Catherine Herring, of Texas. In 2022, Herring’s husband slipped her seven misoprostol pills in an effort to induce an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
Lafayette, LA (KPEL News) – The majority of Louisiana residents, and even Americans, remember the hurricane season of 2005. A record 27 named storms formed that year, and 7 of them made landfall. The two hurricanes the jump to the minds of Louisiana residents are Katrina and Rita. That year, all the conditions were ripe for such an active season, and all those ingredients being mixed together just right proved disastrous.
Warm water fuels hurricanes. The warmer the water and the deeper it runs, the more gas there is to fuel the engine. Add low wind sheer to that recipe, and those tropical cyclones grow strong and big. Right now, the water in the Atlantic Basin and especially in the Gulf of Mexico are warmer going into hurricane season 2024 than they were in 2005. A La Nina pattern typically provides less wind sheer. That’s really bad news for Louisiana and Texas.
Katrina made landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi line in August of 2005 with the third lowest pressure on record for a landfalling hurricane. The storm devastated New Orleans not only because of its strength, but also because the levees protecting the city broke and caused catastrophic flooding.
Rita came onshore on the Louisiana/Texas border between Sabine Pass and Johnson’s Bayou, decimating the coastal areas of Cameron Parish and causing devastation to communities further north and east. While Rita doesn’t get the recognition that Katrina does, it’s central pressure dropped 5 millibars lower than its predecessor. Most homes and businesses in Cameron Parish were completely washed away by storm surge and winds.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is predicting its most severe season to date for 2024, and they have made that prediction based on the forecast factors that drive hurricane formation: water temperature and wind sheer.
A side by side view, developed by Yale Climate Connections, of the conditions that existed in 2005 and the conditions they are looking at for the current forecast is frightening.
They explain, in their writeup about hurricane season, why warm water in this particular area is concerning.
Although record-setting sea surface temperatures alone don’t guarantee a busy hurricane season, they do strongly influence it, especially when the abnormal warmth coincides with the tropical belt known as the Main Development Region, or MDR, the area where 85% of Category 3, 4, and 5 hurricanes form. When considered alongside a developing La Niña — the periodic cooling of the equatorial Pacific that reduces storm-busting Atlantic wind shear — the unprecedented ocean heat is driving up seasonal hurricane outlooks higher than ever before.
The data certainly backs up NOAA’s prediction for 17 to 25 total named storms (storms with winds of 39 mph or higher), 8 to 13 hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), and 4 to 7 of those will become major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).
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Read More: NOAA Releases ‘Severe’ 2024 Hurricane Season Forecast for LA, TX
Preparation and planning is key. No one has a crystal ball or knows if Louisiana or Texas will take a hit this year. Those of us who have lived through storms over the last few decades understand that it only takes one to make it a bad season.
Two abortion-inducing drugs could soon be reclassified as controlled and dangerous substances in Louisiana under a first-of-its-kind bill that received final legislative passage Thursday and is expected to be signed into law by the governor.
Supporters of the reclassification of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly known as “abortion pills,” say it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions, though they cited only one example of that happening, in the state of Texas. Numerous doctors, meanwhile, have said it will make it harder for them to prescribe the medicines, which they also use for other important reproductive health care needs.
Passage of the bill comes as both abortion rights advocates and abortion opponents await a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on an effort to restrict access to mifepristone. The justices did not appear ready to limit access to the drug on the day they heard arguments.
The GOP-dominated Legislature’s push to reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol could possibly open the door for other Republican states with abortion bans that are seeking tighter restrictions on the drugs. Louisiana currently has a near-total abortion ban in place, applying both to surgical and medical abortions.
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Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion, in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills by placing them on the list of Schedule IV drugs under the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.
The classification would require doctors to have a specific license to prescribe the drugs, and the drugs would have to be stored in certain facilities that in some cases could end up being located far from rural clinics. Knowingly possessing the drugs without a valid prescription would carry a punishment including hefty fines and jail time. Language in the bill appears to carve out protections for pregnant women who obtain the drug without a prescription for their own consumption.
More than 200 doctors in the state signed a letter to lawmakers warning that the measure could produce a “barrier to physicians’ ease of prescribing appropriate treatment” and cause unnecessary fear and confusion among both patients and doctors. The physicians warn that any delay to obtaining the drugs could lead to worsening outcomes in a state that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
“This goes too far. We have not properly vetted this with the health care community and I believe it’s going to lead to further harm down the road,” said Democratic Sen. Royce Duplessis, who voted against the measure. “There’s a reason we rank at the bottom in terms of maternal health outcomes, and this is why.”
The reclassification of the two drugs is contained in an amendment to a bill originating in the Senate that would create the crime of “coerced criminal abortion by means of fraud.” Lawmakers in the Senate unanimously supported the original legislation a month ago. Later, bill sponsor Sen. Thomas Pressly pushed for the amendment to reclassify the drugs.
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Pressly said both the bill and the amendment were motivated by what happened to his sister Catherine Herring of Texas. In 2022, Herring’s husband slipped her seven misoprostol pills in an effort to induce an abortion without her knowledge or consent.
There have been several cases similar to Herring’s reported by news outlets over the past 15 years, though none of those cited were in Louisiana.
“The purpose of bringing this legislation is certainly not to prevent these drugs from being used for legitimate health care purposes,” Pressly said. “I am simply trying to put safeguards and guardrails in place to keep bad actors from getting these medications.”
The Senate voted 29-7, mainly along party lines, to pass the legislation. In the 39-person Senate there are only five women, all of whom voted in favor of the bill.
In addition to inducing abortions, mifepristone and misoprostol have other common uses, such as treating miscarriages, inducing labor and stopping hemorrhaging.
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Mifepristone was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 after federal regulators deemed it safe and effective for ending early pregnancies. It’s used in combination with misoprostol, which the FDA has separately approved to treat stomach ulcers.
The drugs are not classified as controlled substances by the federal government because regulators do not view them as carrying a significant risk of misuse. The federal Controlled Substances Act restricts the use and distribution of prescription medications such as opioids, amphetamines, sleeping aids and other drugs that carry the risk of addiction and overdose.
Abortion opponents and conservative Republicans both inside and outside the state have applauded the Louisiana bill. Conversely, the move has been strongly criticized by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who in a social media post described it as “absolutely unconscionable.”
The Louisiana legislation now heads to the desk of conservative Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. The governor, who was backed by former President Donald Trump during last year’s gubernatorial election, has indicated his support for the measure, remarking in a recent post on X, “You know you’re doing something right when @KamalaHarris criticizes you.”
Landry’s office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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A recent survey found that thousands of women in states with abortion bans or restrictions are receiving abortion pills in the mail from states that have laws protecting prescribers. The survey did not specify how many of those cases were in Louisiana.
Louisiana has a near-total abortion ban in place, which applies both to medical and surgical abortions. The only exceptions to the ban are if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the mother if she continues the pregnancy or in the case of “medically futile” pregnancies, when the fetus has a fatal abnormality.
Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.
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