Photos: Louisiana 2050, an uncertain future for the coast
Louisiana may be the state most at risk from climate change, and time is running short to limit the damage. Sea level rise will combine with long-existing threats like erosion and subsidence to wipe out much of the state's coast.
Full story: Louisiana 2050: Rising seas will upend life. Time is running out to limit the impact.
Read the full story on Louisiana's prospects by 2050 and explore our interactive maps to see projections both statewide and by parish. Below is a collection of photos from the project.
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The structure known as the Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier is the largest design-build construction project in the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After it was completed in 2013, at a cost of $1.3 billion, the Corps transferred operation and maintenance responsibilities to the Flood Protection Authority - East. The 1.8 mile surge barrier is located at the intersection of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.
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Frank Campo Jr., his grandson Nicholas Campo, and his son Robbie Campo work together at Campo's Marina in Shell Beach on May 13. Nicholas, who is studying to be an engineer, worries about who will take over the family business, saying he "doesn't want to see it go away."
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Nicholas Campo sells live shrimp to customers at Campo's Marina in Shell Beach on May 13.
Louisiana 2050: Where will our coast be in the future?
UpdatedLouisiana 2050: Rising sea levels will upend life and bring new risk to the state over the next few decades.
Environmental reporter Mike Smith talked to people on the frontlines of Louisiana coastal change. Robert "Robbie" Campo, of Campo's Marina in Louisiana, has seen a lot of change since he was a kid growing up in Shell Beach.
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Robbie Campo, a member of the fourth generation of the family operating Campo's Marina, sorts live shrimp from dead ones on a Saturday in May.
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Sea-level rise threatens a way of life along the bayou near Campo's Marina in Shell Beach, though the Campo family also fears one of the state's ambitious projects to address it could put them out of business.
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High tide brings water over the dock at Campo's Marina in Shell Beach on Aug. 29.
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When Fort Proctor was built near present-day Shell Beach in the 1850s, it was on dry land. Now the crumbling building is surrounded by water.
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Dead oak trees stand along Florissant Highway in Hopedale.
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Wind, water and erosion have taken a toll on a fishing camp standing on piers in the water near Barataria Bay.
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A boat travels through wetlands near Grand Lake in Louisiana on June 3. (Flight courtesy of SouthWings)
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Grand Isle, photographed on June 3, 2023. (Flight courtesy of SouthWings)
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The New Orleans skyline, seen here from Chalmette, is perilously close to the eroding wetlands that once protected the city.
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Boats travel down the Mississippi River near Hopedale, flanked by disappearing marshland.
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The land where an earlier incarnation of Campo's Marina near Shell Beach and Lake Borgne once stood is now nothing but a patchwork of drowning marsh grass. (Flight courtesy of SouthWings)
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Jessica Dandridge is the head of the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans. Here, she stands at the spot in Gentilly -- the neighborhood she grew up in -- where a major breach of a floodwall along the London Avenue Canal occurred after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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A copy of an old map of southeast Louisiana, before the state's coastline began to erode in earnest, at Nunez Community College Library in Chalmette.
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A photograph in the Frank Fernandez Collection at Nunez Community College Library shows the Naval Anti-Aircraft Training Center in Shell Beach during World War II.
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A copy of an old advertisement for the Shell Beach Club House, photographed at the Nunez Community College library in Chalmette.
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This shows a picture shot in 2007 of a U.S. Geological Survey benchmark that was on dry land when it was installed here in 1932, around the time Louisiana's coast began to steadily erode. The land around the marker, near the southwestern corner of Couba Island in St. Charles Parish had washed away by the time the inset photo was shot in 2007. In 2021's Hurricane Ida, the marker apparently was swept away for good, and the landscape has eroded further.