The land is sinking

“‘De land is sinking . . . Oui, oui. All dis land around us, as far as you can see, is droppin' straight down into de water, turnin' to ocean. Someday, Baton Rouge, one hundred miles nort' of here, is gonna be beachfront property . . . De Mississippi doesn't flood anymore . . . Dat's why we're sinking. Dat river, she built up dis area wit' flooding. Now de Army Corps of Engineers has got it all penned in wit' levees like a snake in a cage. And wit'out all dat new sediment brought in every few years by flooding, we're going down . . . Sey say every twenty minutes or so a football field of land turns to water in Louisiana. Every twenty minutes!”

- Papoose Ledet, fisherman