Trudy and Timmy Luke rest from cleaning up damage to their seafood business, Luke Seafood, caused by Hurricane Ida. Photo: Luke Seafood
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
After Hurricane Ida Shane Luke helps clean the docks of his family business. Photo: Luke Seafood
With Hurricane Ida’s unrelenting winds clocking more than 170 miles an hour, Shane Luke questioned his decision to stay aboard his 38-foot shrimp boat. Outside the tiny windows he watched helplessly as the rollup door to the family’s concrete crab processing building flapped in the wind like a piece of paper in front of a fan. As the mast cracked like wooden matchstick, he took refuge in engine room hoping it would be a final line of defense against Ida’s wrath.
Three hundred miles to the east in Kehmah, TX, Trudy Luke huddled with her husband Timmy and the rest of her family worrying about her son, as well as what would remain of her business upon return.
After the winds and rain of Ida had passed to the north, Luke returned to her Dulac seafood business sitting alongside Bayou Grand Caillou. She stumbled through the rubbish that one was one of the largest and most profitable crab business in Louisiana, happy to find her son alive and well.
“Surveying the damage all I was able to do was breathe, and that’s about it,” she told Gulf Seafood News. “Our office was destroyed, the building housing our soft shell crabs was gone, my house is unlivable; the only good news was the concrete processing building was still standing but everything inside was an utter mess. We had no electricity or water.”
Hurricane Ida left Luke Seafood’s processing plant standing, but the roller door was torn off and interior destroyed. Photo: Luke Seafood
Four weeks after Ida, things are still not much better for Luke Seafood. Having insurance has eliminated any FEMA aid. Her insurance company has sent an adjustor but is requiring estimates before any work can start, in addition they want her and her kids to move out of the mold ridden house and find shelter two hours away in Baton Rogue or New Orleans.
“We can’t commute two hours a day, “ said the outspoken lady of the Bayou. “We are in the process of constantly carting debris to the landfill, getting supplies, cleaning refrigerators and providing a dock where our crabbers can make a little money in spite of the storm.”
Power and water still have not been restored to the area, but Luke did receive a generator from the office of Gov. John Bel Edwards through the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
“I really want to thank Rep Tanner Magee and his secretary Mrs. Vicky Authement for their hard work obtaining need infrastructure for the seafood industry after the storm,” she said.
Luke Seafood’s office lays useless after the storm. Photo: Luke Seafood
Even with the generator Luke cannot process crab for lack of clean water to make ice.
‘We have been trucking in containers of water as big as diesel tanks from miles away just to get by,” said Luke. “Our processing plant stands, but the interior looks like a miny tornado ravaged everything. Our crab boxes flew out the door like Dorothy and her little dog in the Wizard of Oz.”
Crab fishermen have returned to the water in spite of the destruction.
“We have ten fishermen out crabbing,” she said. “They have to transport their own gas to fuel their boats from 30 to 40 miles away. When they come in all we can do is unloading at the dock and ship directly to picking houses in refrigerated trucks. The only good news is that they are getting a decent price for their catch.”
Luke sees a steady demand for crab, but feels helpless because the resources are not in place. “We need water and electricity desperately so we can make ice,’ she said.
One bright spot was the family was able to save a majority of the soft-shell crabs even though the building around them was three-sheets to the wind.
The Luke’s are continuously transporting clean water from miles away. Photo: Luke Seafood
Even though she feels that she is one of the “lucky ones”, the strong-willed Bayou woman is starting to feel the stain.
“This is not our first rodeo, but it’s starting to get to me,” she said with a crack in her voice. “ I keep telling myself I’m not going to let it get to me. I have kids, an elderly mom to take care, a sister with cerebral palsy; you are suppose to be the shoulder they lean upon but right not I feel so weak.”
Luke feels there is a real need to have more guidance on the exact step by step moves businesses and homeowners need to take to get back on their feet. She says both FEMA and insurance companies need to come up with more comprehensive disaster plans.
Luke said that the storm has wrecked havoc on the lives of her children and grandkids. “Right now have to get my children out of my home,” she said fighting back a tear. “It’s depressing but we are going to make it. I haven’t cried yet. I said I wouldn’t cry so I’m not going to cry.”
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