Athletes in a Ravaged Louisiana Town Try to Run Back to Normalcy
The New York Times
Hurricane Ida knocked down much of Grand Isle, La., but the town’s cross-country team is determined to compete in the state championship meet.
GRAND ISLE, La. — On an afternoon in late October, Londyn Resweber, 14, ran into the twilight of disaster. Little was intact two months after Hurricane Ida pummeled Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour and a storm surge measured as high as 11 feet. Almost everything that holds a town together had been blown apart.
Resweber ran past Grand Isle School, which may not reopen for in-person learning until after Christmas. Past dunes of sand bulldozed from the main road. Past a Green Lantern action figure that someone placed on the beach in seeming hope and defiance, as if only a superhero could protect this resilient but vulnerable place against the next major storm.
For Resweber, running is one of the few things that remain familiar, habitual, customary. The Louisiana high school cross-country championships are Monday. Grand Isle is a power among the smallest schools: The Trojans won a boys’ state title in 2016 and finished as runner-up in 2019 and 2020. Last year, as an eighth grader, Resweber finished fifth in the varsity girls’ race. She aspires to win this year, training daily, posting her times online with her teammates, who remain scattered like roofing shingles across Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Ohio.
