#barataria

Kevin Rutley on a boat on the Barataria Waterway. (Virginia Hanusik for Here & Now)

A Refrain As Louisiana's Coast Washes Away: We're 'Water People. We Can't Leave'

The state of Louisiana predicts that up to 2,800 square miles of coast will wash away in the next four decades. Rising sea levels, sinking land and encroaching salt water are causing massive erosion.

Officials say the flooding could be so common and such a nuisance that everyday life will become next to impossible within 25 years.

Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd visits Louisiana’s bayous to speak with people who’ve spent their entire lives witnessing the changes.

"It breaks my heart. There is so much that has disappeared in my lifetime." - Kevin Rutley, 65, whose family has lived by the Barataria Waterway since the Civil War

The entrance to The Pen, a lake off the Barataria Waterway that used to be a farm.(Virginia Hanusik for Here & Now)