Jacob Hulse working oysters on his brother Jason’s boat. He told Gulf seafood News during the six hours that the winds of Hurricane Ida surrounded him,’ I feared for my life, I really feared for my life,” Photo: Jason Hulse
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
For more than six hours fifth-generation Houma oysterman Jacob David Hulse, his girlfriend Lindsey Willis and his dog Change huddled in an the oyster shop of friend Kenneth (Keno) Templet struggling to keep the walls and roof from caving as the more than 140-mph winds of Hurricane Ida continuously battered away at the structure. When the winds started to subside, Hulse thought he had gone through the worse of it. Like many Louisiana fishermen are finding out, his troubles were only beginning after the storm was finished.
After the storm, what was let of the oyster shop of Keno Templet where Hulse, his girlfriend Lindsey Willis and his dog Change joined their friend during the storm. Photo: Jacob Hulse
“I feared for my life, I really feared for my life,” Hulse told Gulf Seafood News. “You hear everyone say it sounds like a freight train, well it does. A freight train that keeps coming and coming and coming, never sure when it ends.”
For the 33-year-old Hulse his four-month continuing nightmare started around three in the afternoon on Sunday, Aug. 29th as the first hurricane force winds started to batter the bunkered down trio. His 73-year-old mother Gail Hedrick Hulse, with whom he shares his house, had evacuated to Kentwood with his older brother Jason. The young oysterman had stayed behind to finish boarding his home, as well as securing his boat and truck.
“By the time I had finished it was too late to escape what was coming,” he said. “I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic trying to evacuate, so my friend Keno told me to come on over to the oyster shop. He was staying to try and save $20,000 worth of oysters he had in the cooler.”
Hulse gave himself the job of keeping the gas-powered generator from failing. He had placed it outside a door so he wouldn’t have to fight the brunt of the storm to refuel, or so he thought. “The winds were so strong, Lindsey and I had trouble getting out the door and even more trouble trying to put in gasoline.”
Hurricane Ida survivor Change, the dog, with a bucket of oysters. Photo: Jacob Hulse
Throughout the storm the generator continued its steady hum, unheard over the winds of the storm. As the winds continued their relentless pounding, he watched as doors were ripped away exposing his brother Jason’s oyster boat to the storm and damaging his own truck parked nearby. Then, about three hours into the storm, one of the walls of the shop started to cave.
“One of the walls started to cave-in and wind and water was everywhere,” he described the situation. “We managed to brace it with a couple of cables and get some tarp to cover the opening.”
The trio was also concerned about a wall below the commercial air-conditioner. Using tables they braced it as best they could.
The remains of Jacob Hulse and his mom’s home in Houma destroyed by Ida. Photo: Jacob Hulse
“It was spooky, it could have come down at any moment and that would have finished us for sure,” he said. “What we did was stay in the middle of the room and said our prayers, a lot of prayers, that everything would hold.”
At nine that night, Hulse finally opened a door to venture into the unknown and inspect the damage. “Although the door of the shed was gone, my brother’s boat was ok and my pickup only had a crack in the front windshield.”
It was not until two days later the true horror of the storm began to rear its ugly head.
The following day the two brothers first inspected Jason’s abode, finding it completely roofless. Driving up to Jacob and his mom’s house feelings went from hope to despair. “We’re coming down the street and I’m looking up and it don’t look that bad. It’s still there. When we got close you could see it was bad.”
The Hulse house was severely damaged and had the majority of the roof ripped away. Jacob said “everything inside was destroyed, soaking wet. It was horrible. Mom didn’t see it till the next day. I told her that night ‘it ain’t good’.”
According to Hulse, his 73-year-old mother Gail Hedrick Hulse is nothing if not resilient. The pair lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. She now lives in a small trailer provided by the state. Photo: Jacob Hulse
According to the young Hulse, his mom is nothing if not resilient. This is not their first hurricane; the pair lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. It was the generosity of friends and family after that storm which allowed them to get on with their lives
“It ain’t good” became the term that seemed to apply to the young oysterman and his mom’s fortune over the next few months. With no place to live the two took shelter in his friend’s Keno’s camp in Dulac, living without water and powered only by a generator.
Trying to get his life back in order, the oysterman filed paperwork with FEMA to receive funds for damages to his house. The federal emergency management organization quickly denied his claim, citing his landlords insurance, paid for by the two Hulses, covered wind damage.
“For the past four years mom and I have been paying rent and insurance, all with proper paperwork that allows us to eventually purchase the house,” explained the Houma fisherman. “We have been going back and forth with the landlord, the insurance company and FEMA. Four months after the storm we can’t get an answer. My mom still has been paying the rent, yet the owner has started to clear of the house and some of our stuff has gone missing.”
Relief Almost Non-Existent
For the Hulse’s needed relief has been few and far between. His brother purchased a used trailer for Jacob, while the State of Louisiana provided a small trailer for his mom and the American Red Cross gave $500 debit card, other than that the two have been living hand to mouth.
Jacob Hulse sits on a bogs of oysters as his brother Jason steers the boat toward to dock. The one bright spot in Hulse’s life since the hurricane has been the oyster harvest. Photo: Jacob Hulse
“I have been working as much as I can on my brother’s boat, dredging oysters almost every day,” he said. “It has been tough. I have to decide whether I can afford food, or buy gas. Gas was always more important.”
With his housing situation caught in the grasp of a potential legal battle, two days before Christmas Jacob Hulse took his mom to the bank to get a loan for a small parcel of land for the trailers, as well as withdraw her last $6000 in savings. Money she was hoping to use on a needed dental work.
“Many in our Louisiana seafood families like the Hulse’s are still homeless from the hurricanes and not sure from where there next meal is coming,” said Ewell Smith of the Gulf Seafood Foundation and a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition. “With other disasters like the Kentucky tornado in the spotlight, it’s more important now than ever for our legislators to work with their legislators on comprehensive legislation that will give everyone a chance to recover. Our fishermen, processors, dock owners and others in the business need their support.
The one bright spot in the Hulse’s life has been the oysters. Unlike leases further east which have been covered with mud and debris from the storm, those the Hulse brothers have been harvesting are in good shape.
“I love working with oysters,” said the oysterman who doesn’t eat oysters. “On my boat I use tongs to harvest, but Jason’s is equipped with a dredge. It is kind of a nice change of pace working on his boat. We have been coming in with great looking oysters.”
“Jacob is a young man who has a passion for shucking and harvesting oysters, as well as making oyster knives. I’ve known him since his shucking days at Pêche Restaurant in New Orleans, and his devotion to the industry left an impression,” said Jim Gossen of the Gulf Seafood Foundation and a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition. ‘Seeing his horrific losses both financial and professionally saddens me. Ida has taken everything from his mom and him. This is just one of thousands of other seafood stories from the hurricanes over the past two-years remaining untold.”
For fisherman across Louisiana the New Year is not looking bright. Like many others across the state the oysterman has a bank account bleeding red. They are waiting FEMA inspection of the newly purchased property before trailers can move. But still after all the hardships they don’t ask for much. The younger Hulse would like to be able to get his mom the badly needed dental work, because he says, “she only has two teeth left and she is in a lot of pain.”
“My life has been a rollercoaster ever since two days before the storm. It just hasn’t stopped,” reflected the Louisiana oysterman. “Its has been a grind both physically and mentally. I really wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
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