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S u n d ay, a p r i l 12, 2026
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Some coastal Louisiana camps lost power when their utility pulled out, and others could be next
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STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
A Lao New year Parade float sits in a front yard in Lanexang Village on Wednesday.
Fun festival turns to chaotic scene Calls for safety changes follow Lao New year crash
BY JA’KORI MADISON Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By BRETT DUKE
Jake Sanamo holds up a section of an old electrical line once used to power his family’s camp near Lake De Cade in Terrebonne Parish on March 26. BY SAM KARLIN
The Lao New Year festival, a celebration of culture, music and community, filled the streets of a tiny Iberia Parish community over the first weekend in April. But what began as a lighthearted celebration filled with traditional Lao dishes, vendors selling bamboo crafts, handmade jewelry and dancing along the parade route quickly turned into a scene of chaos. Within hours of the parade starting, Devin Eschette, who traveled from Baton Rouge to attend the festival with friends, recalls a moment he’ll never forget: A vehicle barreled into a crowded parade route, sending people scattering and leaving more than a dozen injured. “Everybody was having a good time. … Everybody was pretty much just hanging out,” Eschette said.
ä See FESTIVAL, page 7A
Staff writer
ABOARD THE LIL JAKE — Ben Sanamo hunched in the bowels of the tugboat and clutched one end of a garden hose. His dad, Warren, snaked the other end into a 55-gallon drum of diesel and flicked on a portable pump. The sun fell low in the sky, splashing golden light on their houseboat, the Aqua Lodge, moored next to the tug on the Voss Canal, a waterway cut long ago by fur trappers, deep in the brackish marsh in Terrebonne Parish. No neighbors were home. The swamp was quiet. The Sanamos pumped the diesel until the drum was dry. Ben cranked the generator, and it sputtered a couple times. “That’s the thing with generators,” Warren said. “You never know.” Ben cranked it again and it roared to life. The engine’s hum cracked the remote quiet of their nook in the marsh, where they’ve been coming for over a decade, raising Ben’s son, Jake, and fishing and hunting just about anything that swims or crawls in coastal Louisiana.
La. lawmaker again pushing ban on fluoride BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Ben Sanamo, left, and his father, Warren Sanamo, pump diesel fuel into their tugboat at their camp in Terrebonne Parish. The family relies on generators for power after electric infrastructure serving the area was not rebuilt following Hurricane Ida. This is the Sanamo family’s routine now. Their houseboat, which Ben and Warren built from the ground up, is one of nearly 300 properties spanning four remote outposts in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes that had the lights turned off — may-
be for good. Hurricane Ida damaged some of the electric equipment that powered the camps. For years, the South Louisiana Electric Cooperative
Local governments could hold a vote to stop adding fluoride to their public water systems under a proposal advancing in the Louisiana Legislature, resurfacing a debate that has emerged from the Make America Healthy Again movement. Last year, an outright ban on fluoridation of public water systems sponsored by Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, failed in the Legislature. This year, Fesi again pitched the ban, but other senators pushed him to pare it back. Now, his proposal would give towns and parishes that
ä See END, page 8A
ä See FLUORIDE, page 9A
Luxe Bay St. Louis homes selling for cash cash. economic boon invigorating ing second homes into full‘The secret is out’ in“It’s crazy,” said Shane cities across the Gulf Coast, time residences. New Ora broker and ap- which are surging with new leanians are spending weekon Mississippi Kowalski, ends house hunting in Bay praiser who often sees cash residents and tourists. beach town Real estate agents and St. Louis. Homes across the deals between $750,000 and
$2 million. “We’ve just become a little destination. People want to be here.” Staff writer The influx of wealth is All across the waterfront transforming the fast-growneighborhoods of Bay St. ing city of Bay St. Louis, Louis, Mississippi, real es- where locals and secondtate agents are tracking a homeowners from Louisigrowing trend: Newcomers ana could once buy beach from around the country are homes for modest prices. buying million-dollar homes It is also an example of the
BY MARTHA SANCHEZ
WEATHER HIGH 82 LOW 67 PAGE 6B
locals call the shift in Bay St. Louis striking. Milliondollar properties are selling along the shoreline, but also on small canals and streets a few blocks off the beach. Many high-end properties sell fast. Louisiana natives who grew up vacationing on the Mississippi Coast are turn-
city that were once passed down through generations are now selling to buyers from New York and Texas. In Hancock County, home to Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Diamondhead, the median home sale price has risen by more than than $80,000 in
STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
A young boy runs through a flock of seagulls on the beach in ä See HOMES, page 9A Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................2B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................7D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 286