GRAND ISLE, La. — On an afternoon in late October, Londyn Resweber, 14, ran into the twilight of disaster. Little was intact two months after Hurricane Ida pummeled Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour and a storm surge measured as high as 11 feet. Almost everything that holds a town together had been blown apart.
Resweber ran past Grand Isle School, which may not reopen for in-person learning until after Christmas. Past dunes of sand bulldozed from the main road. Past a Green Lantern action figure that someone placed on the beach in seeming hope and defiance, as if only a superhero could protect this resilient but vulnerable place against the next major storm.