An aerial view shows part of the 18-foot levee encircling Lafourche Parish, Louisiana — a DIY barrier that kept the community from being overtaken when Hurricane Ida drove floodwaters to 17 feet. I traveled to southern Louisiana to meet Windell Curole, the levee manager who built the structure higher than federal limits allowed. His defiance, he says, is the reason the parish is still standing: “If we’d listened to officials, we wouldn’t have a community.” Yet even with that protection, residents now face soaring insurance costs that threaten to push many out. Short-term safety from the levee contrasts with a long-term reality: only major federal efforts to restore marshland can buffer the coast against the storms to come. Across the bayou, families weigh an impossible choice — remain rooted in land and culture, or leave behind the homes that hold their history. (Thalia Juarez/The Guardian)