Cajuns losing Louisiana island home to erosion

Isle de Jean Charles, US

DEEP in the bayous of Louisiana, time seems to move more slowly.

But it's not moving slowly enough to save a community of Native Americans living on a strip of an island that is being swallowed by the sea.

The southern US state has lost nearly 2,000 square miles (5,000 square kilometers) of coastal wetlands since the 1930s. Major efforts aimed at restoring the coast have slowed the erosion, but Louisiana is still losing about a football field of coastline every hour.

Maryline Naquin, 70, has a …