On Grand Isle, a Fragile Spot Off Louisiana, Vast Damage

A tiny barrier island already endangered by sea level rise was pounded by Hurricane Ida. Most buildings were significantly damaged, many irreparably.

GRAND ISLE, La. — As Hurricane Ida blew in last Sunday, Scooter Resweber, the local police chief, gathered his 10 officers into his second-story corner office, where he believed they would be most safe. Behind his small desk two massive panes of hurricane-resistant glass ordinarily give Mr. Resweber a bird’s-eye view of island homes and a postcard view of the Gulf of Mexico, which laps the sand several blocks away. But that day, amid winds of 118 miles an hour, he and his staff saw only destruction. A two-story building across the street was swiftly reduced to rubble, one of hundreds of structures that were destroyed across Grand Isle. “I watched it just disappear,” he said. “The wind took it. Blew it apart.”