Two devastating hurricanes, an arctic blast and a mammoth flood, hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, in less than a year

Two devastating hurricanes, an arctic blast and a mammoth flood, hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, in less than a year. Climate change has left residents without homes and employers without workers.

Louisiana is facing climate threats both acute and chronic, from the battering of more intense storms to the creeping erosion of rising sea levels. State demographic data are already showing people leaving the coast for higher ground. The state government considers climate change an existential threat to many of its communities.

Natural disasters brought on by climate change are forcing people from their homes from Central America to Southeast Asia. The United States is no exception.

As part of an in-depth exploration of climate migration worldwide, VOA traveled to Louisiana to document the impacts of a devastating year of natural disasters on the state’s Gulf of Mexico coast.