After riding canoe home, Cao calls on Obama for coastal protection

NEW ORLEANS -- Even as Ida faded away, the storm surge kept sections of Chef Menteur Highway flooded outside of the hurricane protection levee in New Orleans East, making Bob Arena think twice about a sales call in Venetian Isles.

"I was going to see a client, and he told me I got about eight inches of clearance," Arena said.

In Venetian Isles, the receding storm surge kept parts of some streets flooded. For some residents, it was an unexpected November aggravation.

"It's just a mess," said Joy Audibert.

"I don't know, you just get frustrated," her husband Benny added.

Neighbor Bert Boe said he and his wife are fed up enough to consider moving.

"It is getting to be a hassle really," Boe said.  "Like I say, we're stuck in here, we can't even get out to get our morning paper."

But Nick and Carolyn Russell call Venetian Isles paradise, and say the occasional storm surge and clean-up can't spoil it -- even for their dogs.

"Oh my God, they love the water. This is like their dream. When they see the water come up, that's the best thing in the world," Carolyn Russell said. "It doesn't bother me one bit."

But Congressman Joseph Cao, R-La., needed a boat to get to his Venetian Isles home last night.

"I asked a friend to get a canoe," Cao said.  "I put my wife and two daughters into the canoe, and we pulled them back to the house."

Cao said this situation is something he wants the Obama administration to see, and to understand that it illustrates a critical need in South Louisiana.

"I hope that the president will continue to be focused on our coastal restoration issues and make sure that we have the money that we need," Congressman Cao said.

Cao says erosion following decades of oil drilling across south Louisiana has left the coast more vulnerable than the state can afford to repair.

"We have sacrificed for the nation," Cao said.  "Now I believe that the nation has to do what it takes for us to protect our people."

He was asked about storm surges being a known risk for those who live outside hurricane protection leveees.

"It is incumbent upon the federal government to do what they have to do to protect people," Cao concluded.

Fisherman Nick Russell said he grew up in Venetian Isles, and has no plans to leave, ever.

"Bring another hurricane," Russell said,  "and I'll come back, and rebuild, do whatever we need to do."