Place, Erased: A look at Gulf South communities transformed by forces beyond their control
The “Place, Erased” series focuses on three towns and communities devastated by natural or man-made environmental shifts in the Gulf South: Revilletown, Louisiana, Clermont Harbor, Mississippi, and Easonville, Alabama.
Drive throughout the South and you’ll encounter towns that have been erased. Places that were once full of culture and community are devastated, and in some cases wiped off the map entirely, after major environmental shifts — some natural, some man-made.
In a three-part series, Gulf States Newsroom reporters Danny McArthur and Drew Hawkins traveled across Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to examine the journeys of these towns.
Easonville, Alabama: Lessons from a drowned town
Easonville, Alabama was a rural, but thriving, town until an Alabama Power project drowned it to create the Logan Martin Dam.
Sixty years later, residents living near an Alabama mountain faced the same threat. In both cases, the project was touted as a potential green energy source.
Danny McArthur speaks to residents from both communities to determine the overlooked cost of progress in these man-made environmental shifts.
Read More: Place, Erased: How a drowned Alabama town still holds lessons 60 years later
Revilletown, Louisiana: Toxic neighbors
When industry brings toxic pollution to town, Black residents are often in the cross hairs for relocation.
The residents of Revilletown in Southeast Louisiana found themselves in this situation after a chemical company moved in next door to take advantage of the area’s resources. For decades, Revilletown was a close-knit community with about 100 or so residents. But by 1987, enough toxic pollution forced the residents to relocate.
But Revilletown’s story did not end there. Drew Hawkins details the yearslong legal battle over who owns the town’s cemetery.
Read More: Place, Erased: The fight for the remains of a Louisiana town
Clermont Harbor, Mississippi: Ghost town or not?
When is a ghost town actually a ghost town?
That question lingers over Clermont Harbor, Mississippi, an unincorporated town along the Mississippi Gulf Coast that technically doesn’t exist anymore —the town has been wiped off most maps in the years following Hurricane Katrina.
But, Danny McArthur talks to the residents who have kept the community alive in the face of climate change.
Read More: Place, Erased: Is this Mississippi community really a ghost town? It depends on who you ask
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
Judge rules head of watchdog agency must keep his job, says his firing was unlawful
A U.S. District judge sided with Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, in a legal battle over the president's authority to oust the head of the independent agency.
ACLU and other advocates sue to block migrants from being sent to Guantánamo Bay
The lawsuit says there is no legitimate reason to send migrants to Guantánamo because the U.S. has ample detention facility.
Trump signs executive order making English the official language of the U.S.
In the nearly 250-year history of the United States, English had never been designated as the nation's official language.
Kurdish militant group PKK declares ceasefire after decades of conflict with Turkey
Militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party have declared a ceasefire, in what may represent a significant political breakthrough for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
David Johansen, who fronted the New York Dolls, dies at 75
Johansen, a pioneer in punk music who found solo success under the moniker Buster Poindexter, died on Friday. His family announced last month that he had been in treatment for advanced stage cancer.
Up to 3,000 more U.S. troops are ordered to the border with Mexico
Up to 3,000 additional troops have been ordered to the U.S.-Mexico border by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the latest in President Trump's efforts to prevent illegal crossings.
