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Hurricane Katrina led to a new era of art in New Orleans
Louisiana residents await relief on home insurance years into crisis, little progress evident in reducing rates
BY SAM KARLIN | Staff writer While Louisiana lawmakers debated auto insurance this spring during their legislative session, sky-high home insurance premiums continued to crush residents along the state’s coast. Homeowners insurance rates keep rising, forcing some residents out of their homes, while the state waits for the free market to look more favorably on Louisiana. So far, the approach has not led to lower rates for most homeowners in the state. Many saw their insurance premiums climb to unaffordable levels after a series of hurricanes in 2020 and 2021
ä See INSURANCE, page 6A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER
Jeffrey Holmes is reflected in his impromptu installation, called ‘Toxic Art,’ assembled just days after Hurricane Katrina flooded his gallery on St. Claude Avenue. It is thought to be the first public artwork that was created in reaction to the devastation. BY DOUG MacCASH | Staff writer It was just 30 days after Hurricane Katrina marauded across New Orleans when artist Jeffrey Holmes and his then-wife Andrea Garland hauled the waterlogged furniture out of their art gallery on lower St. Claude Avenue. They piled the moldy debris on the neutral ground, webbed it with yellow caution tape and sprayed it with graffiti, including the KATRINA inscription “RIP Lower Ninth Ward.” Here and there, the couple placed mirrors in the debris so onlookers would see themselves in the devastation. YEARS Though there was little audience in the evacuated city to appreciate the exhibit, the media discovered the display and it appeared everywhere from The New York Times to CNN to Al Jazeera. Holmes said he had the urge to create something in reaction to the cataclysm, because “that’s what artists do when they’re suffering.”
Federal program promising fast network falters
BY JENNA ROSS | Staff writer
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STAFF FILE PHOTO By KATHy ANDERSON
‘What does it mean?’ James Jones asks aloud as he walks past the Prospect.1 art installation called ‘Safehouse’ with his daughter Corian ä See NEW ERA, page 8A Florence, 3, on North Villere Street in 2008.
Lawyer suing Big Oil is no tree hugger John Carmouche just won a $745M verdict against Chevron
against Chevron for damaging wetlands, is taking on Big Oil in Louisiana and winning. But he’s no tree hugger. Nor, he says, a headline-chasing trial lawyer. Through three governors’ adBY ALEX LUBBEN | Staff writer ministrations, he and his firm have navigated political headwinds John Carmouche isn’t who you to keep their lawsuits against oil companies alive. Carmouche has think he is. The Baton Rouge lawyer, who helped quash bills and candidajust won a $745 million verdict cies that would have threatened
WEATHER HIGH 88 LOW 78 PAGE 8B
Spotty internet an ordeal in rural areas
his efforts. While his work seeks to make oil companies pay billions for damage they’ve done to the environment, he insists he wants the oil industry to thrive in Louisiana, as long as it doesn’t leave behind a mess. “I have a Democrat’s heart but I’m a Republican, because I understand business,” Carmouche
ä See CARMOUCHE, page 7A
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 1F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
EAST CARROLL PARISH — When the internet is iffy in Lake Providence, as it often is, Brittany Lyons, the owner of an in-home care service, has a backup. She drives a half mile to the hospital where her sister works and asks to use their network, which is a bit more reliable. At the local U-Haul rental outlet, manager Kyla Richardson is used to pulling out her smartphone to help customers when the store’s internet falters. To host a recent
ä See BROADBAND, page 4A
John Carmouche, right, speaks on recent litigation alongside his father and colleague, Donald Carmouche, on May 22 at their firm, Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, in Baton Rouge. STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
12TH yEAR, NO. 321