Why is Louisiana losing population compared to other red states?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Louisiana is the first state that is dying from the effects of climate change. It’s literally sinking (in part because of the levee works) and being battered by hurricanes. Why build a factory in a place with near annual flooding? Unless Shreveport, Monroe, or Alexandria has some sorta boom this decade it’ll continue to shrink, physically and demographically.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Does Louisiana have literally any beaches?

Grand Isle way down at the bottom of Jefferson Parish is probably the most famous one.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Does Louisiana have literally any beaches?

Grand Isle way down at the bottom of Jefferson Parish is probably the most famous one.

Yep, there's no developed beach resorts like in the other Gulf Coast states. Cameron Parish has a mostly beachy coast though. I've been to Holly Beach.

Yea it’s nothing like the rest of southern beaches. Outside of Holly and Grad aisle the rest are tiny tiny beach communities in the realm of two to twenty houses.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Louisiana is the first state that is dying from the effects of climate change. It’s literally sinking (in part because of the levee works) and being battered by hurricanes. Why build a factory in a place with near annual flooding? Unless Shreveport, Monroe, or Alexandria has some sorta boom this decade it’ll continue to shrink, physically and demographically.

I do think this could be a reasonable theory for why New Orleans didn't make it.  They also had the misfortune of having their flood disaster early enough that there hadn't really been any technological progress or significant investment in mitigating climate change. 

To take it a step further, maybe Louisiana really needed the very cold 17th-19th century climate to thrive and it was already past the point of no return by WWII or so?  They were already experiencing unprecedented flooding in the 1920's.  New Orleans seemed to have accumulating snow every few years back then, which would kill off a lot of the mosquitoes and tropical diseases.  And of course the sea levels were lower.

Louisiana had always experienced some flooding. The Mississippi used to switch out flowing from New Orleans or out what is now the Atchafalaya ever so often. This would disperse the flooding somewhat, but there was still floods. Modern dams, farms, towns, etc. stuck the Mississippi on one path which it really isn’t meant to do.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Compared to other Southern states, the cost of living in Louisiana is quite high (insurance + taxes, really), job prospects are pretty poor, and state law still hasn't caught up with more business-friendly reforms that were pushed in states like TX/FL in the 1970s-1990s

I’ll sound like a broken record, but this is also strongly influenced by climate change. Insurance companies are full believers in it and charge people accordingly. In fact some have stopped offering coverage completely in places like southern Louisiana.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Seawalls also aren’t a solution to climate change issues, because a sea wall in one place means worse impacts somewhere else.

Louisiana’s levee’s are a good example of this

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

New Orleans is not the only city that floods.  New York, Charleston, Miami, Norfolk, and even many inland cities (i.e., Omaha) are at higher annual risk of flooding than New Orleans.  

A Category 4 hurricane hit New Orleans in 2021 and the city didn't flood.  

Yes but those cities have reasons for people to come back. New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina. Though I will say parts Charleston are becoming perennial flooders.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Does climate change have any impact on car insurance rates? Louisiana has some of the highest.

Potentially? I don’t know as much about the interplay between weather and car insurance but I think it does have an impact. For example Colorado has the most hail damage and thus the most hail damage claims for cars. I know when there’s heavy rain some people’s cars (be it by chance or by driving it into water) get damaged from flooding. This happened with my cousin in the most recent storm in SC.