12:55 AM CDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2005

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

LAFOURCHE PARISH, Louisiana – The line of trucks idled impatiently in the muggy heat as residents waited their turn at the checkpoint blocking traffic into Grand Isle.

They wanted to see what was left of their resort homes. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, there wasn't much.

"I know most of these folks, and they just want to check on their things," said Kelly Besson, civil defense director for Grand Isle. "When they get on the island, they're going to see nothing."

When Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast 50 miles to the east, its fierce winds drove 12 to 20 feet of water across Grand Isle, the only inhabited barrier island in Louisiana. Twelve sections of the causeway bridge connecting the island to the mainland were moved sideways 4 feet by the hurricane's force.

More than 80 percent of the homes on the island were washed away, Mr. Besson said, many of them stripped to the foundations. The remaining homes all suffered significant damage.

Grand Isle, known for its fishing and recreation, is home to about 1,500 year-round. Summer visitors swell the population to 20,000.

By Sunday, as Katrina bore down on the coast, all but five people had evacuated the island.

"I've lived here 30 years, and I never left the island for a hurricane before," Mr. Besson said. "But I left for this one."

All five survived the storm and have been accounted for, Mr. Besson said.

Mr. Besson and the mayor, David Camballe, were the last people to leave the island Sunday evening. Monday afternoon, they returned, having to walk across the damaged bridge.

"The place is just devastated. That storm just tore us up," Mr. Besson said. "There is still 5 feet of water standing in parts of town. And so much of the really nice summer homes are just gone. It's going to take a while for us to rebuild. But we will. We're going to survive this."

David Chaisson, waiting at the check point, said he didn't know what to expect. His wife and family left the island Saturday. He left Sunday evening.

"They tell us everything's gone, that anything on the ground the water just took away," Mr. Chaisson said. "I want to see if I can salvage anything, if there's anything left."

The damage caused by Katrina on the southern end of Louisiana wasn't limited to Grand Isle. A few miles away, Port Fourchon, a major oil transshipment facility, was shut down by storm damage.

"Sixteen percent of the nation's oil supply and 30 percent of the imported oil comes through the facility at Port Fourchon, and it sustained considerable damage," said Windell Curole, general manager for the South LaFourche Levee District.

"But the good news is that Katrina didn't hit us head on," he said. "If the eye of the storm had hit us directly like we feared, instead of 50 miles to the east, we wouldn't be talking here today."

Katrina hit South LaFourche Parish hardest.

The northern part of the state, with its farms and sugar cane fields, escaped with relatively minor damage – uprooted trees, overturned highway signs and billboards and roofs stripped of shingles.

The entire county, population 109,000, is still without power or safe drinking water. It will be at least two weeks before a semblance of normalcy returns, Mr. Curole said.

"As terrible as it is for us – and we'll have economic scars from this storm for a long, long time – we just have to look at the terrible damage done to the rest of Louisiana and other gulf states to know how lucky we are."

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com