When Christian Olivier ’20 woke up and saw a 100 percent of chance of rain predicted in a translucent, cartoon animation at the top of his iPhone screen, he shrugged, completely unphased. For three weeks, the pitter patter of water droplets on the roof of his house in New Iberia, Louisiana had become white noise, adding a percussive rhythm to an otherwise unstructured summer. As the day progressed however, the rain became heavier, the clouds painted in a cataclysmic shade of gray.
“The next morning I looked out the window and thought ‘this is a big deal,’” Olivier told The Politic.
On August 15, Olivier, along with approximately 109,000 other Louisiana residents, found their houses surrounded by water in what Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards would later describe as a “historic, unprecedented flooding event.”
Although the state had seen high water levels in the past, the lack of warning about the deluge was uncharacteristic.
“We were just sitting around the house, not expecting anything,” Olivier said. “Hard rain is pretty normal in Louisiana, but then it got to the point where our phones were getting hourly flood warnings. People were frustrated that nobody saw it coming.”
Olivier’s house, which sits on a point of high elevation in the town, did not flood, but neighborhoods less than half a mile away received eight feet of water, forcing Olivier and his family to remain inside for five days.
“If we had wanted to leave our enclosed community,” Olivier said, “we would have had to swim.”
Olivier is well acquainted with flooding after handling hurricanes Katrina and Rita prior to this summer’s natural disaster. During both storms, he had to evacuate.
“Rita was supposed to go through my town, so we had to travel far north to Shreveport, Louisiana for two weeks,” Olivier said. “When the news first announced the possibility of a hurricane, people started calling hotels immediately. Every hotel along our three and a half hour drive was booked.”
Olivier and his parents watched the TV closely while at the Days Inn in Shreveport.
“We weren’t getting much news about what was happening, and it was still pouring, so our hotel was shaking. It was terrifying,” Olivier said. “We were all on edge about whose house was flooded after the local news started showing areas of people floating around on boxes and boats and getting rescued.”
While pacing anxiously around the cramped confines of the hotel room, Olivier’s parents received a phone call from their neighbors informing them that Olivier’s grandparents’ house had flooded.
“Our grandparents house was our Mecca, the place where we spent all of our time,” Olivier said. “It was devastating because we prepared for it as much as we knew how, but preparation can only diminish damage, not prevent it. In the case of Rita, preparing just didn’t diminish things enough.”
Olivier is not alone. In 2013, natural disasters displaced 22 million people worldwide.
Societies that have prepared for flooding for centuries will soon discover, like Olivier, that retroactive action can accomplish only so much. Humanity has reached an impasse that will be overcome only through a change in values and lifestyle. We must work towards eliminating the causes of rising water levels rather than attempting to optimize relief mechanisms.
The first step in improving preservation efforts involves recognizing that human activity affects environmental patterns. Even with the myriad natural disasters and rising sea levels of the past decade, 30 percent of U.S. citizens still deny the existence of climate change.
“A lot of people in my community would argue that climate change is a myth,” Olivier said. “My neighborhood is extremely conservative, so I was never educated about environmentalism.”
Even though Louisiana is prone to numerous natural disasters, the state focus on green efforts is minimal.
“If there were a mandate requiring schools to teach about climate change, I’m confident that parents in Louisiana would tell their kids that no matter what humans do, storms are going to happen,” Olivier said.
Trying to convince citizens that climate change is a serious issue, however, only begins to solve the massive environmental problems on the horizon. The scope of policy implementation must also shift.
“Every governmental decision being made now must take the far future into consideration,” Gordon Geballe, Associate Dean for Alumni and External Affairs at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies told The Politic.
If we would like to promote the longevity of the planet, we must pass laws that support clean energy, shift away from fossil fuels, decrease food waste, and reduce overall carbon emissions. Such efforts require immense time, money, planning, expertise, and most importantly, cooperation. But despite, as Olivier’s story reveals, citizens’ unabashed denial of the problems plaguing planet earth, there is hope.
“As long as Louisiana is still there we’ll keep living,” Olivier said. “We will not believe that our homeland is wiped out until it’s actually gone.”
Some may criticize this mentality as willfully ignorant, but in actuality, this deep-rooted sense of home is the driving force that will propel society towards transformation.
The New York Times recently reported that local governments affected by rising sea levels are now devoting funds to combat climate change. Politicians, both Democrat and Republican, in these especially disaster-prone areas are winning elections based on their respective flood plans.
As more and more coastal communities grapple with rising tides, people will demand attention from the national government, at which point climate change will be more than just a campaign buzz word.
Olivier, who maintained a reserved tone throughout our conversation, became invigorated when discussing the survival of his community. He placed the slice of pizza he was eating back on his paper plate and spoke passionately about the potential for growth in Louisiana.
“We’re too hard headed to get wiped out,” Olivier said. “People will rebuild not for the sake of having their homes but for the sake of being able to simply say that we didn’t get destroyed. I will always commend my community for that spirit. We are a resilient bunch of people who take the bite. During the floods, everyone in our neighborhood helped when the government wasn’t doing anything.”
A crisis as monumental as global warming indeed requires the assistance of all people, regardless of race, religion, or socioeconomic class. Perhaps, in a twisted way, the threat challenging our very existence as a species will cause humanity to grow to become a more united planet.
“We never discuss the fact that our community could eventually end,” Olivier said. “It’s just how do we keep going after something disastrous happens. It’s a collaborative effort.”