For every hurricane during the past 40-years Preston Dore has rode out the storms at the Delcambre docks on his shrimp boat. After Katrina, Gustav, Isaac and a host of others, both he and the boat have walked away mostly unscathed. Hurricane Ida was different. The storm has cost him his boat, his livelihood and has stripped away his dignity as a provider for his family.
Unlike previous hurricanes his current boat, the Demi Rae named after his 7-year-old daughter, was not in its Delcambre berth, but in a Chauvin dry-dock sitting on wooden blocks held steadily in place by a small crane. The boat was an easy target for the storm’s 170-mph winds as it passed over bayou after bayou ripping the heart out of Louisiana’s seafood industry.
During the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill Dore carried chemicals used to disperse the oil from the spill on his previous vessel, the Sea Express 5. The chemicals and the treated waters of the Gulf took a heavy toll on the boat and equipment. Five years ago he bought his current boat.
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