POINTE-AUX-CHÊNES, La.—The closer you get to the marina, the stronger the smell. “Sewer mixed with swamp,” said Christine Verdin, who grew up in the community and serves on the council of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe. “I wish we could bottle this up as perfume and send it to people who haven’t been around and say, ‘You didn’t come to see what it looked like, but now you can smell it.’”

Two weeks after Ida ripped through this unincorporated bayou community of 3,700, 80% of homes are uninhabitable, said Chuckie Verdin, tribal council leader in Pointe-aux-Chênes, where around a third of residents are members of the tribe that includes primarily people of Chitimacha descent. Nobody has power or running water.