On 29 August 2021, as Hurricane Ida made landfall on Louisiana’s Gulf coast, 69-year-old Windell Curole sought refuge with others at the three-story Lady of the Sea hospital in Galliano, located 90 minutes south-west of New Orleans.
As Curole looked out the window, watching Ida’s rain hammer the grass, a question tormented him: would the levees that encircled his community be tall enough to hold back the water that was surging toward them?
