The small community of Bayou Beouf on the edge of Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish was flooded after Hurricane Francine on Sept. 11, 2024. (Photo by Julie O’Donoghue/Louisiana Illuminator)
THIBODAUX – In the 65 years that Diana Tregle Loupe has lived in the small community of Bayou Boeuf in eastern Lafourche Parish, she has seen the town flood only three times.
First, when she was 9 years old, the Louisiana National Guard came to rescue people. The second time was in 2021 when Hurricane Ida devastated southern Louisiana, and the last time was Wednesday night during Hurricane Francine.
That’s two floods in the last three years of her life, and only one in the 62 years before that.
During Ida, a Category 4 storm, floodwaters rose high enough to come into her home and overflow Loupe’s bathtub. For Francine, it was about a foot less, she said, but still unsettling.
However, it is unlikely that Loupe will leave.
“Where else are you going to go?” she said during an interview in her backyard on Thursday.
Her home is less a residence than a sprawling marsh complex in the center of this community. She has more than a dozen stone tables and benches in the front yard. Behind the property, her husband Lloyd tends a small zoo with horses, a goat, a giant snapping turtle, and alligators ranging from 3 to 14 feet long.
Diana inherited the property from her parents and it is located across the street from Zam’s Swamp Tours. The business is the first of its kind in Louisiana and was started by her mother decades ago. and is now run by her son.
The Loupes may not want to leave Bayou Beouf, but that doesn’t mean other residents of this close-knit community aren’t considering change in the wake of increasingly frequent natural disasters.
This small enclave of homes on the edge of Thibodaux, also known as Kraemer, is almost completely surrounded by a bayou that empties into Lac des Allemands. With Spanish moss and skiff boats all over, it almost looks like a Hollywood mockup of a Louisiana swamp. In fact, it is was the setting for an episode of NCIS: New Orleans from 2014.
The ambiance was the reason Andrew and Mirna Ellis moved here 12 years ago. Andrew, who grew up in Prairieville, loves the water and hunting. Bayou Boeuf is also close to his job. He is an engineer who works for a boat building company.
Two floods in three years were tough, though. During Ida, the family got 14 inches of water in their home. This week during Francine, about 2 inches of water came into two bedrooms in the back of their home.
“It is what it is. You just need to replace the floors,” said Mirna Ellis.
A combination of parish public works employees, inmates and volunteers worked diligently Thursday morning to erect a sand barrier and prevent more water from entering the Ellises’ homes and their neighbors. The bayou’s high tide is set for 3 p.m., meaning the flooding could have continued.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this much water coming over the road,” said Maj. J.P. deGravelles of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, who oversaw the sandbagging operation.
Andrew Ellis was stunned when Bayou Boeuf took on water Wednesday during Francine, a Category 2 storm. After Ida, a Category 4 hurricane, the local levee system was upgraded.
“We thought we would be better protected,” he said.
The Ellises are also confronted with the traumatic death of their pet this week.
On Tuesday, while Francine was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, a large alligator emerged from the swamp near the Ellis family home and grabbed their 9-year-old Boykin Spaniel in front of their son.
“Our dog was taken…partly by the high water,” which caused the alligator to come out of the bay, Andrew Ellis said.
Leslie Martinez grew up next door to the Ellis family home and came to tour her childhood home, where her mother still lives.
An elevated structure, the main house, didn’t flood this week, but an enclosed carport on the front of the building took on several inches of water. They call that carport the “church house” because Martinez’s father used to run a church mission there when she was growing up.
She cannot remember the house or the “church house” ever flooding before 2021, when Ida struck.
“We were in the water in Ida. We were in the water all night,” Martinez said.
Ida’s flooding is one reason Martinez’s elderly mother evacuated to Chackbay, a few miles away, ahead of Francine. It may also prevent Martinez from buying another home in Bayou Boeuf with her own family.
“We thought about moving back, but because of these two hurricanes, we’re not going back,” said Martinez’s husband, Claude, after locking his mother-in-law’s front door.
