TULANE SCORES 14 IN FINAL TWO MINUTES TO ESCAPE ARMY 1C
N O L A.C O M
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S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 19, 2025
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LETHAL HEAT LOUISIANA’S QUIET DISASTER
‘HELENA SHOWED UP’
Inside Moreno’s dominant campaign for New Orleans mayor
State’s count of heat deaths likely too low Many La. coroners lack standards for classifying fatalities as ‘heat-related’ Last in a series
BY JAMES FINN | Staff writer
BY SAM KARLIN | Staff writer
About an hour from Helena Moreno’s Mid-City campaign headquarters and a million miles off most New Orleans politicians’ radar is a bar on Chef Menteur Highway just before the Rigolets known as Crazy Al’s. Surrounded by the fishing camps and other homes that make up Precinct 45A in New Orleans’ 9th Ward (number of registered voters: 92), the corrugated metal building backs up to Lake St. Catherine’s brackish waters. Inside, a couple dozen regulars play video poker, snack on #2 crabs at plastic folding tables and sip Miller Lites. Owner Kayla Beaulieu offers a crab-and-shrimp special on Thursday, but even those are sleepy affairs. Things were different on a sweltering day in June when Moreno stopped by as part of a 70-event series where she met voters in each of New Orleans’ neighborhoods. Old people, young people, Black and White people flooded in to snap selfies and shake hands. “Politicians never come out here,” Beaulieu said as she served drinks five days after Moreno trounced her closest rivals in nearly every corner of the city to win the New Orleans mayor’s race. “Helena showed up.” Crazy Al’s is the kind of place politicians go when they’ve already gone everywhere else.
Summers in Louisiana are getting hotter and more dangerous, and the number of heat-related deaths in the state in recent years has hit record levels. But whether a death is classified as “heat-related” depends on an inconsistent, vague system: a patchwork of 64 elected coroners, each with their own protocols and standards for investigating deaths. Some coroners say they have no way of tracking heat deaths at all. Others say they don’t have any on record over the past decade. Those with the most training say they go as far as checking liver temperatures to determine whether heat played a role in a death. As a result, the state’s toll is likely inaccurate and undercounted. “You’re not going to find anything that’s standard going on,” said Dr. Todd Thoma, coroner of Caddo Parish. “I hate to say coroners are a ragtag group, but they are. There’s 64 parishes and 64 coroners. Some are better trained, some are less trained.” The consequences of Louisiana’s faulty data are stark, clouding the state’s visibility into who is dying and why. Many Louisiana residents are vulnerable to extreme heat because of high rates of poverty, lack of access to adequate air conditioning and widespread underlying health conditions. The lack of an accurate heat-related death count each year also obscures the scale of the problem: these deaths almost always occur out of the public eye, unlike deaths from crime or other natural disasters. They typically do not draw any
ABOVE: Then-mayoral candidate Helena Moreno has a microphone placed onto her lapel before a debate in New Orleans on Sept. 16. STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER TOP LEFT: Helena Moreno joins the front of the Satchmo Summerfest parade in New Orleans on Aug. 3. STAFF FILE PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER TOP MIDDLE: Helena Moreno, center, chats with residents during a campaign stop for mayor of New Orleans on Sept. 19. STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER TOP RIGHT: New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno celebrates with supporters at her election night watch party at the Civic Theatre in New Orleans on Oct. 11.
ä See MORENO, page 22A STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
‘The heart of Ukrainian New Orleans’ As war drags on, a refugee family’s gym becomes a community hub
BY JENNA ROSS | Staff writer A bustling gym inside a Metairie mall is split in two. On one side, kids in white karate uniforms and belts take a wide stance, then kick, kick, kick. On the other side,
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 63 PAGE 8B
girls in black leotards and buns stand tall, then jump, jump, jump. A wall inside the Champions Family Sports Club is split, too. On one side hangs the flag of the United States. On the other, the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.
Before Russia’s invasion, Ukrainians Sergiy Dolinnyy and Olena Zviagintseva coached a few hundred students at an Odesa gym in karate and kickboxing, tumbling
Sergiy Dolinnyy leads a karate class at Champions Family Sports Club in Metairie on Oct. 1. STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
ä See HUB, page 8A
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
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ä See HEAT, page 6A
13TH yEAR, NO. 68