September 18, 2025 — It’s been a decade since Hurricane Rita ripped through southwest Louisiana, and recovery has been a long, difficult process for many who have lived in the coastal area.
Farmland and pastures were inundated with saltwater from the storm surge. Numerous homes were flooded or washed away, bringing a drastic change for thousands of people who had lived along the coast for decades.
The town of Cameron was hardest hit. Its seafood industry was decimated. Docks were destroyed, and the only ice house was knocked out of commission.
Kevin Savoie, LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant agent in Cameron Parish, said a new facility for commercial fishing being built along the waterfront includes an ice house, processing facility, and public dock. The $4 million project is being funded with a Community Development Block Grant, and the Cameron Parish Police Jury has partnered with a private firm to run the facility, he said.
The ice house is a significant step toward revitalizing the local seafood industry, Savoie said. “That, along with the need for some public docking facility, has really held things back.”
Cameron previously drew larger offshore shrimp and fin-fishing boats. “We do not see them in port at Cameron anymore,” he said.
Cameron has shrunk in other ways. “We lost about 80 percent of our population,” Savoie said. A town that counted 2,200 people in the 2000 census is down to about 400.
Residents moved north in the parish to Grand Lake, with others moving to nearby parishes. “Our population in the parish went from below 10,000 to 6,400 or 6,300, with most of them north of the Intracoastal Waterway,” he said.
Some residents who relocated still maintain cattle herds along the coast, but cattle prices are too high for most to be able to afford restocking, Savoie said.