'It has been tough': Hurricane Ida turns Houma oysterman's life upside down

For more than six hours, fifth-generation Houma oysterman Jacob David Hulse; his girlfriend, Lindsey Willis; and his dog, Change; huddled inside a friend's oyster shop as Hurricane Ida slammed ashore Aug. 29.

“I really feared for my life,” Hulse said. “You hear everyone say it sounds like a freight train, well it does — a freight train that keeps coming and coming and coming, never sure when it ends.”

As the more than 140-mph winds started to subside, Hulse, 33, thought he had gone through the worst of it. But as many Louisiana fishermen are finding out, his troubles were only beginning.

More: Study estimates recent hurricanes inflicted $579 million in damage to Louisiana fisheries

As the hurricane approached, Hulse's 73-year-old mother, Gail Hedrick Hulse, with whom he shares a house, had evacuated to Kentwood with his older brother Jason. Jacob stayed behind to finish boarding up his home and secure his boat and truck.

“By the time I had finished, it was too late to escape what was coming,” he said. “I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic trying to evacuate, so my friend Keno [Kenneth Templet] told me to come on over to the oyster shop. He was staying to try and save $20,000 worth of oysters he had in the cooler.”

Hulse gave himself the job of keeping the gas-powered generator from failing. He had placed it outside a door so he wouldn’t have to fight the brunt of the storm to refuel, or so he thought.

“The winds were so strong, Lindsey and I had trouble getting out the door and even more trouble trying to put in gasoline,” Hulse said.

The generator continued its steady hum, unheard over Ida's wailing winds. Hulse watched as doors were ripped away, exposing his brother Jason’s oyster boat to the storm and damaging his own truck parked nearby. About three hours into the storm, the strong winds began to tear up the shop.

“One of the walls started to cave-in and wind and water was everywhere,” he described the situation. “We managed to brace it with a couple of cables and get some tarp to cover the opening.”

'It was spooky'

The trio was also concerned about a wall below the commercial air-conditioner. Using tables, they braced it as best as they could.

"It was spooky. It could have come down at any moment, and that would have finished us for sure,” Hulse said. “What we did was stay in the middle of the room and said our prayers, a lot of prayers, that everything would hold.”

At 9 that night, Hulse opened a door to venture into the unknown and inspect the damage.

“Although the door of the shed was gone, my brother’s boat was OK and my pickup only had a crack in the front windshield,” he said.

Related: Evictions continue for Houma public housing tenants displaced by Hurricane Ida

The following day, the two brothers inspected Jason’s house, finding it had lost its roof. Driving up to Jacob and his mom’s house, feelings went from hope to despair.

“We’re coming down the street and I’m looking up and it don’t look that bad," Jacob said. "It’s still there. When we got close, you could see it was bad.”

The house was severely damaged and winds had ripped away most of the roof.

'It ain't good'

“Everything inside was destroyed, soaking wet. It was horrible," Jacob said. "Mom didn’t see it till the next day. I told her that night, ‘it ain’t good.' ”

Jacob says his mom is nothing if not resilient. This is not their first hurricane; the pair lost everything to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The generosity of friends and family after that storm allowed them to get on with their lives

“It ain’t good” became the term that seemed to apply to the young oysterman and his mom’s fortune over the next few months. With no place to live, the two took shelter in his friend Keno’s camp in Dulac, living without water and powered only by a generator.

Trying to get his life back in order, the oysterman filed paperwork with FEMA in hopes of receiving money to help repair their rental house. The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied his claim, saying his landlord's insurance, paid for by the two Hulses, covered wind damage.

“For the past four years, Mom and I have been paying rent and insurance, all with proper paperwork that allows us to eventually purchase the house,” the Houma fisherman said. “We have been going back and forth with the landlord, the insurance company and FEMA. Four months after the storm, we can’t get an answer. My mom still has been paying the rent, yet the owner has started to clear the house and some of our stuff has gone missing.”

A struggle for aid

His brother purchased a used trailer for Jacob, the state provided a small camper for his mom, and the American Red Cross gave them a $500 debit card. Other than that, the two have been living hand to mouth.

“I have been working as much as I can on my brother’s boat, dredging oysters almost every day,” he said. “It has been tough. I have to decide whether I can afford food or buy gas. Gas was always more important.”

Two days before Christmas, Jacob took his mom to the bank to get a loan for a small parcel of land for the trailers, as well as withdraw her last $6,000 in savings, money she was hoping to use on needed dental work.

“Many in our Louisiana seafood families like the Hulses are still homeless from the hurricanes and not sure from where their next meal is coming,” said Ewell Smith a board member with the Gulf Seafood Foundation and a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition. “With other disasters like the Kentucky tornado in the spotlight, it’s more important now than ever for our legislators to work with their legislators on comprehensive legislation that will give everyone a chance to recover. Our fishermen, processors, dock owners and others in the business need their support."

The one bright spot in Hulse’s life has been the oysters. Unlike leases farther east, which have been covered with mud and debris from the storm, those the two brothers have been harvesting are in good shape.

“I love working with oysters,” Jacob said. “On my boat, I use tongs to harvest, but Jason’s is equipped with a dredge. It is kind of a nice change of pace working on his boat. We have been coming in with great-looking oysters.”

“Jacob is a young man who has a passion for shucking and harvesting oysters, as well as making oyster knives. I’ve known him since his shucking days at Pêche Restaurant in New Orleans, and his devotion to the industry left an impression,” said Jim Gossen, another member of the foundation and the recovery coalition. "Seeing his horrific losses, both financial and professionally, saddens me. Ida has taken everything from his mom and him. This is just one of thousands of other seafood stories from the hurricanes over the past two years remaining untold.”

— Ed Lallo is editor of Gulf Seafood News, an online news outlet of the nonprofit Gulf Seafood Foundation. To donate to the foundation's relief effort, Helping Hands for Hurricane Ida, visit gulfseafoodfoundation.org.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Hurricane Ida turns Houma oysterman's life upside down