[StBernard] He's a bayou guy

[Westley Annis]

He's a bayou guy
Writer Ken Wells is back with a new book about his home territory 
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
By Susan Larson
Book editor 

"My earliest memory is of being about 7 years old and pulling in a 5-pound
redfish," writer Ken Wells told an appreciative audience at the Louisiana
Book Festival Saturday. He spoke in the cadences of a hometown boy made
good, come back to tell the stories of the people he loves. 

Wells, formerly an editor with The Wall Street Journal, now a senior editor
at Conde Nast's Portfolio, has written about Louisiana in four novels -- the
Catahoula Bayou trilogy, composed of "Meely LaBauve," "Junior's Leg," and
"Logan's Storm," and the political satire "Crawfish Mountain." In his most
recent work of nonfiction, "The Good Pirates of Forgotten Bayous: Fighting
to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina," he tells a dramatic
tale of the people of St. Bernard Parish. 

A Bayou Black native, Wells came to Louisiana to cover Hurricane Katrina and
soon realized that St. Bernard Parish was a Katrina story the national media
wasn't telling. 

Wells hitched a ride into the parish on a Blackhawk helicopter and went to
work. While waiting to meet with parish president Junior Rodriguez, Wells
said, "I see a guy I know -- not a guy that I really know, but a guy in
white shrimp boots, and you know where I grew up, that's like a Texan with a
twang. I went up to him and introduced myself, and he said, 'My name is
Ricky Robin and I'm a shrimp boat captain from Yscloskey, Louisiana, and if
you lookin' for a story, podnah, I got a story for you.' 

"He also had the only operational van in St. Bernard Parish and a Homeland
Security pass to get past the National Guard checkpoints." 

What unfolds during the course of "The Good Pirates of Forgotten Bayous" is
the hair-raising story of how Ricky and his cousin Ronnie rode out the storm
on their boats in the Violet Canal. Wells describes how St. Bernard Parish
really received the force of three separate storm surges, which battered and
damaged the parish. Wells' hair-raising descriptions of Ricky Robin on board
the Lil' Rick and Ronald Robin riding out the storm on the Invincible Vance
rival anything in "The Perfect Storm." 

And he shows us the struggles of others -- Ricky's wife Susan Robin, trying
to evacuate with her family in a truck; 90 year-old Armantine Marie Verdin,
who lived with her 71-year-old disabled son, near the Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs
Cemetery; and Charles "Charlo" Inabnet, who sees a house come apart around
him and force him into the water. All these stories converge in a rescue
effort that took place in the Violet Canal. 

Intertwined with the drama of the storm are long family histories -- the
Robin family goes back 250 years in the parish, and they're not going
anywhere. Wells celebrates their deep traditions, a way of life inseparable
from the land. 

"We never run from storms," Robin told Wells. And so they stayed and saved
themselves, along with approximately 500 people. 

Wells sees beyond the immediate dramas of the storm surge to the long-term
implications, and recounts the struggles of the folks in St. Bernard to
return and rebuild. One story -- the tale of the house of Joe and Selina
Gonzales -- is particularly moving. Convinced that his house, built by his
father, would be saved, Gonzales settled his insurance claims, and eight
months after Katrina, the structure was moved back to its original location.


It was, as Wells writes, "as close as I can come to finding a happy ending
in post-Katrina St. Bernard Parish." 

But beyond that, Wells feels a sense of mission to spread the word about the
need to restore the Louisiana wetlands. 

"We have an Endangered Species Act," he tells the crowd in Baton Rouge.
"Shouldn't we have an Endangered Peoples Act? Bayou culture is endangered. .
. . How many cultures have indigenous 250-year-old boat-building societies?
Every guy in St. Bernard Parish, or Point aux Chenes or Cocodrie, there's a
boat going up in their backyard 'cause they learned it from their daddies. 

"Everybody who comes down here gets it," Wells said, describing the
first-time visit of a friend. "It's the greatest place you never heard of.
The first time I set foot in the Florida Everglades, I kind of went, 'So
what? Baby, I saw this at home. We got the real big cypress at home.' " 

By his reckoning, Wells said, "I think we have 10 years. I don't think we
have five years to sit around and study it. . . . I keep crossing my fingers
and hoping something good will happen." 

He plugs the program by Kerry St. Pé at Nicholls State University which has
rebuilt a 640-acre marsh area in about six months. "We can rebuild the
coast. It's a labor-intensive process, but it can be done," Wells insists.
"They could do this on a grand scale. 

"We're a working coast. It's a seafood coast, an energy coast. People aren't
just coming down here for recreation. They owe us. We don't need to feel
guilty about asking for money to restore our coast. 

"If I were a young person in Louisiana today, I mean, where are these young
college kids? Why aren't they blockading the Houma-Terrebonne Navigational
Canal? . . . Here's this stuff happening and our coast is going to hell.
They need to stop talking and start rocking. 

"This is your future. Go raise hell." 


. . . . . . . 

Book editor Susan Larson can be reached at slarson at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3457. Comment or read past stories at www.nola.com/books. 

_________________________ 

AUTHOR! AUTHOR! 

What: Ken Wells discusses and signs "The Good Pirates of Forgotten Bayous:
Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina" 

When: Thursday, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

Where: Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania at the Rink