L.A. Times: "String of Delta villages: GONE"

[Bluebear]

....Together with the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi combined to drown Empire. Hurricane Katrina dumped walls of water from both the gulf and the river on Plaquemines Parish, a narrow strip of delta that stretches 100 miles to the gulf southeast of New Orleans.

Empire and 10 other towns spread over 57 miles are now under 10 feet of water.

"They're gone. They don't exist anymore," Deputy Sheriff Arceneaux said Wednesday as he guided a Reno skiff over oil-fouled waters — the only way into Empire and points south. His journey took him by his former trailer, which he couldn't see because it was submerged in churning floodwaters.

This string of fishing and oil towns was the first inhabited area on the Gulf Coast to be hit by Hurricane Katrina. The parish took the full brunt of the storm, with thousands of homes and businesses either flooded or obliterated by high winds or storm surge.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050908/ts_latimes/stringofdeltavillagesgone&printer=1