Articles by Gerald Herbert and Rebecca Santana

Texas Gov. Issues Disaster Declaration, Louisiana Sends National Guard Following Storms

A tornado that menaced New Orleans flipped a schoolbus, ripped off rooftops and deposited a house with a family inside onto the middle of Prosperity Street. Two people were killed as the storm front blew across the South. Other tornadoes …

Tornado Strikes New Orleans as Storms Move Into Deep South

A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, ripping down power lines and scattering debris in a part of the city that had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago. There were no …

UN Report Details Extent of Climate Change on Gulf Coast

Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on parts of the Texas coast in 2017. Then in 2020, ferocious winds from Hurricane Laura destroyed homes across coastal Louisiana. Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, leaving the entire city of …

New History Project Documents New Orleans Mid-Century Black Insurance Companies

New Orleans resident Raynard Sanders can detail the many ways Black businesses and culture thrived under the canopy of oak trees along Claiborne Avenue: the Black insurance companies, the corner lot home to the Black musicians union, the church that …

2020’s Hurricane Zeta Upgraded from Cat 2 to Cat 3

Hurricane Zeta, which swept through southeast Louisiana at the tail end of the 2020 hurricane season, has been upgraded to a major, Category 3 storm at Louisiana landfall, according to a federal report released on May 11 that underscored the …

Hurricane Center: Delta Caused $2.9B in Damage

Hurricane Delta, which made landfall in southwestern Louisiana in early October 2020 about 11 miles from where the devastating Hurricane Laura hit a little more than a month earlier, cost $2.9 billion in the United States and was linked to …

2 Months After Hurricanes, Recovery Elusive for Louisiana Residents

As southwest Louisiana recovers from the back-to-back hurricanes that hammered the region this year, signs of progress compete with lingering evidence of mass destruction. The fallen trees that carpeted neighborhoods have mostly been chopped up and hauled away, but the …

Zeta Leaves Its Mark on Southeast States

Millions of people were without power and at least six were dead Thursday after Hurricane Zeta slammed into Louisiana and made a beeline across the South, leaving shattered buildings, thousands of downed trees and fresh anguish over a record-setting hurricane …

Zeta Leaves Southeast Louisiana Reeling Before Heading Northeast

A fast-moving Zeta weakened to a tropical storm as it barreled northeast on Oct. 29 after ripping through Louisiana and Mississippi where storm-weary residents were advised to stay indoors overnight while officials assessed the havoc the storm had wrought. The …

Drones, Satellite Images Used to Assess Coastal Damage from Hurricane Laura

Hurricane Laura was hardly done ripping across Louisiana before scientists started combing through satellite imagery and drone footage and preparing to survey coastal areas to see what damage was caused by the monster storm. Southwest Louisiana’s gulf coast is a …