Support for Louisiana.
The state we're in is provided by Entergy.
Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.
We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.
Because together we power lights.
Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.
The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.
And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
Thank you.
Misinformation in times of disaster can cause major problems for people needing help and those providing it.
We'll hear from FEMA about the risks caused by conspiracy theories.
Louisiana born and bred Olympian and world record holder Mondo Duplantis shares what's next in his pole vaulting career and personal life, and in November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month.
We'll look at recent breakthroughs that could give families more time with their loved ones suffering from the disease.
Erath, known as one of Louisiana's most Cajun communities, has its heritage on display at the Acadian Museum with big plans to boost business.
Let's get started.
Hello everyone.
I'm Karen Lichtblau and I'm Dorothea Wilson.
Much more on those top stories in a moment.
On this week's edition of Louisiana, the State We're In.
But first hurricane season is winding down, and FEMA officials faced new challenges this year after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Conspiracies were all over social media, leading to tense moments and direct threats against first responders.
I talked to FEMA to learn more about how those falsehoods put lives at risk, and how they plan to confront those conspiracies going forward.
Misinformation affects us all, especially in times of disaster.
The rate at which misinformation spreads can be overwhelming for even the most prepared people.
And often times, FEMA takes the brunt of it.
We've seen over the past several years that rumors and misinformation has had an impact on our ability to deliver for survivors.
FEMA Director of Public Affairs Jacqueline Rothenberg says misinformation interferes with response efforts, undermines public trust, and can escalate an already dire situation.
We really saw that during the wildfires in Maui, that misinformation was having an impact on our ability to deliver services to people and their trust in government.
But it was after Hurricane Helene in North Carolina that misinformation and rumors took a life of their own, causing many people to become lost, frustrated and confused.
Some even showed aggression and resistance to FEMA instructions.
So one of the rumors that we heard during Hurricane Helene was that the that people were required to pay back, that our $750 was a loan.
But that is absolutely false.
We have given over $1.5 billion to survivors of Helene and Milton.
So far, that's over 892,000 households and over $1.27 billion in public assistance to help repair roads, bridges, schools and infrastructure.
That is so critical while people are recovering from a disaster.
And so we really wanted to make sure that despite all the information that we were making sure that money was getting into the pockets of survivors, and they were helping these communities rebuild as quickly as possible.
Now, whether it's false information about evacuation routes, unverified reports of disaster impacts, available shelters, or the path of the disaster, misinformation can cause people to take unnecessary risks, endangering themselves and others.
But where does it start?
Sometimes we've found that it's a game of telephone.
Someone heard a rumor and they tell someone else, and then it just, you know, percolates throughout the community, right?
In some cases, I think people spread misinformation to spread fear.
And I think in areas where people aren't as accustomed to FEMA or they don't understand what FEMA does entirely, because it can be very confusing, admittedly, that that's where we have a lot of work to do to to make sure that people understand what our role is and where we can be helpful, and how do we counter it and eliminate fear, chaos and confusion.
Professor Becky Rouse from Tulane's Emergency Security Studies Program says the solution is simple.
We've got to debunk the myths by checking the facts and cleaving to reliable sources like FEMA to guide us through.
Have a steady flow of accurate information and places the person can go to to verify it.
In Louisiana was the Red cross that had kind of become the conduit for that good, viable information that people became dependent upon.
And that's a good thing.
Ultimately, getting the right information starts with looking to the right resources for answers.
FEMA wants to be a reliable source for people and to help them navigate through everything they need to know in times of disaster.
I want the American people to know that the FEMA workforce is here to help you.
I have been lucky to be a part of the FEMA workforce for almost four years, and I, the people I work alongside, are so committed to helping you rebuild and recover post-disaster.
And I know that it's hard sometimes based on historical inequities, to not have a trust in government.
But I can assure you that the people of Sema that work here, they are committed to doing everything they can to help you jumpstart your recovery.
And so I just want people to know that we are here to help you.
And if you are seeking help, to please do so from us.
So.
From hashtags to headlines.
Here's what's trending this week.
Some bad news for LSU Tiger fans, who are already probably a little down in the dumps with this not so stellar season.
That's right Karen, the five star recruit Bryce Underwood, he flipped his commitment from LSU, the number one player in the country, by the way, and he flipped his commitment and decided to stay in Michigan.
What a heartbreak.
You know goodness, Dorothy.
We can't blame him.
I mean, they which was motivated by a more lucrative Nil deal with Michigan.
I think LSU was going to offer him about $1.5 million.
Michigan's Nil deal would clock in at around $12 million.
So the business decision may be questionable, but athletic decision?
That's right.
Now talking about athletic, let's talk about this escape artist that is on the run in New Orleans now.
He's a little scrappy.
He has four legs.
Earlier this week, he chewed through a screen and jumped off of the second floor, 13ft.
Insane for the little guy.
He escaped from his adoptive family and he was on the run for about six months.
That little dog shook off tranquilizers and dark, so it's no surprise that scrim has inspired a lot of memes on social media, and some advocates cheering him on and others worried about his safety.
Where is this little Houdini?
Like where's Waldo?
Where is he?
All right, well, big news in country music.
Lainey Wilson turned out big at the CMAs, but she also turned up in Louisiana, in her hometown of Baskin.
She was honored with a marker on the Northeast Shelby Zana music trail.
And also, she had a stretch of state highway named after her.
Wilson.
She was Wednesday night at the Country Music Awards, where she won Female Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the year.
Speaking of good news and good things happening in Louisiana.
November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month.
Now it's a time to recognize families affected by the devastating disease as they confront daily challenges of Alzheimer's.
New developments are offering hope in the form of early diagnosis and new treatments.
I spoke with two experts leading the way.
And for both, the mission is personal and with the therapy.
Over 41 years ago, former President Ronald Reagan proclaimed November as Alzheimer's Awareness Month.
In 1994, he shared his struggles with the disease and was joined by 2 million Americans who were also suffering.
Since then, the number of Americans stricken by Alzheimer's has more than tripled, with over 95,000 confirmed cases coming from Louisiana.
But thanks to people like Professor Owen Carmichael from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, there is hope.
Alzheimer's disease is a very common disease among older adults.
It is a progressive brain disease that causes memory loss, that progresses over time to such a degree that towards the end of the disease, people become completely dependent on nursing care.
And ultimately they die of the disease.
Doctor Carmichael dedicated nearly two decades of his career to Alzheimer's research.
After experiencing the heartbreak of losing both his father and grandfather to the disease, he's made it his life's mission to answer the questions of why and how to prevent as many people as possible from experiencing the same pain that he did.
So I started studying Alzheimer's disease for the first time right after I got out of graduate school into 2003.
And at that point, it became very obvious that this is what I was kind of meant to do.
And I found myself just working on it all hours for after I should have been doing other things and relaxing.
I found myself working kind of obsessively on it, and that's kind of taken me to where I am today.
He and his team are responsible for major breakthroughs as a result of his research and two groundbreaking discoveries.
One being a drug that works to slow down the process of Alzheimer's if caught at the right time.
The people who take these new drugs appear to just have a few more months, or maybe even a couple of more years of intact thinking skills.
And so that's really tantalizing and promising.
The second discovery blood tests that can reveal whether or not a person is susceptible to Alzheimer's.
Based on the results, the patient can begin early treatment.
So what we've got now is a very, very exciting time.
We're coming closer and closer to the day where we can tell that Alzheimer's disease has started in the brain before you, the patient, show any signs or symptoms.
So again, it's a little bit like for, for example, getting a mammogram when you feel perfectly fine.
And it shows that there's breast cancer there so that we can nip it in the bud before it becomes something that's really life threatening.
Barbara Alton, executive director of Alzheimer's services at the capital, is also working to help families defy the Alzheimer's odds.
She and her organization work to help make Alzheimer's research possible by hosting fundraising events and providing resources to families with the loved ones suffering from the disease.
We're here.
People need to know there is help, and there that you shouldn't fear this disease.
It is the most feared disease because it's more of the unknown.
Because when you lose your memory, there's a very vast unknown of.
How am I going to handle this?
But there is hope.
And that is really what we need to, to look at, is that there's so much research going on now that we have hope.
There may not be a cure, but there will be some interventions, much like Doctor Carmichael.
Barbara has a history of Alzheimer's disease in her family.
But that's not the only place her passion comes from.
Providing hope to families is what drives her.
We're here as a one stop shop for the caregiver or the person who is diagnosed, but we provide all kinds of education programs to learn about what you can do for proper care, for risk reduction, for handling the finances.
That's a very long lived disease.
It's very hard on the caregivers.
You're saying goodbye for a long time.
The good news love conquers all.
It was the love that Doctor Carmichael felt for his father and grandfather that drove him to research possible solutions to the Alzheimer's epidemic.
It was Barbara's love for her mother and eight aunts that drove her to lead an organization to help raise money for research and provide aid and educational resources to families walking through the process.
Lastly, it was President Reagan's love for his country that prompted him to set a month aside to raise awareness, to provoke people to fight the good fight for their families.
He's a world record holder, Olympic gold medalist and one of the most exciting athletes in track and field history.
Louisiana's own Mondo de plaintiff has soared to new heights to capture the world's attention.
I sat down with Mondo to learn more about his passion for pole vaulting and his plans for the future.
Hey everyone!
I am super excited to bring you Mondo de plantas!
For those of you who watch the Olympics, you know this is a gold medalist who set and broke several of his own records.
Arguably the world's greatest pole vaulter and a beloved Louisiana sun.
So thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
Are you be here.
Thank you.
So first of all, a big congrats to your Olympic gold medal wins and the fact that you broke your own records.
As a pole vault vaulter.
Were you anticipating that to happen?
Yes I was.
You are.
Well it wasn't, it wasn't my first Olympics.
I was at the Tokyo Olympics, but it was a completely different experience because you know, the pandemic and everything.
And so we weren't able to have spectators.
I didn't have any of my family there, whatnot.
And then, also like for track and field athlete, it's really your only opportunity that you have to make like a global impact and do something that's a lot bigger than your sport.
It's like really like the only stage that we have, I guess, in a way.
So, I knew that it was like, now or never, this is the time I have to do it if I'm going to do something really special.
And so I've never been more locked in in my life than the year pretty much prior to, the games this past summer and, yeah.
No, I had all the confidence in the world that I was going to do what I was.
Yeah, what I did the whole time I was going in there, I wasn't focused on the gold, really.
I was just focused on breaking the world record.
So a lot of people are wondering, why did you choose to compete on behalf of Sweden as opposed the United States?
And I know your mother is from Sweden.
But you were born and raised, and your collegiate athletic career has been here in the States in particular Louisiana.
So, yeah, no, it's a fair question.
I'm a Lafayette native, born, born and raised.
And really, my time that I would spend in Sweden was really just the summers, I mean, in the United States as a whole, but also in Louisiana.
It was very tough for me growing up as far as finding competitions and whatnot.
I mean, you know, picture yourself as an eight year old trying to find pole vaulting competitions and Louisiana doesn't.
And it wasn't really anything that was possible, honestly.
And so, in the summers, we would we would go to Sweden for a month or so and we'd have a string of competitions that I would be able to do because, the track and field culture is a lot bigger there in Sweden, where my mother's from, I just kind of had to do what was best for me, what was best for me and my family, and what I thought was the best for me to achieve what I knew that I was capable of, which is to be the best poets in the world and compete at the highest level all the time.
So as a child growing up in Lafayette, Louisiana, as you said, there weren't a lot of pole vaulting competitions or or avenues for you to practice your sport.
What drew you to that sport as opposed to soccer or footballer baseball or something more mainstream?
Well, I did all the sports, really.
I mean, I played a lot of baseball.
My brother was a great baseball player, captain of the LSU team, drafted by the New York Mets.
All the whole the whole thing.
And so I did a lot of baseball, played a lot of soccer.
But my father was a pole vaulter.
He built the entire set up in the backyard.
And, which is like kind of the way that it has to happen, I guess, in a way, if you want to get into poverty at an early age, you have to have like that kind of in, and so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Father, he was a professional pole vaulter.
He, he, he toured around Europe back in his day, and then he built the whole set up.
And he's been my coach.
It's just it's a family operation.
Just my mother and my father.
So you currently live in Baton Rouge and you live in Sweden as well.
So you split your time back and forth, and it's like the same place.
Do you do you have plans to to remain in Louisiana and stay connected?
And if so, what are those plans as they relate to your ties to Louisiana?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm always going to be in Louisiana to some, to some extent.
I mean, I think I can't I can't live without it.
I mean, it's always going to have that home, home feeling to me.
And so, I love I love my time being able to come back here to Baton Rouge.
I spend the entire falls here.
Spend the spring here, too.
I mean, as far as the future, I don't really know what's going to happen.
It just depends on how everything happens in my career and poverty.
And and when I stop and what I'm going to do after poverty, in which I don't know what I'm going to do, really, I don't really, I don't really care to think about it almost.
Congratulations are in order, by the way, Desiree Englander.
And so and you're saying you dated for several years and popped the question in a big way like surprised your honor folks.
Scandinavia photo shoot.
Wow.
Yeah.
Well play my thanks.
Yeah I mean yeah well I wanted it to be a surprise.
And I knew that I felt like she doesn't think I'm very good of a planner, which I'm probably not, actually.
But I thought that it would be a really good way to show that I don't know, some type of sacrifice and commitment to where the most hectic time of my life, which is right after the Olympics.
So we're playing something as you as as an engagement.
You nervous?
Yeah, for sure.
It's very vulnerable.
I think that's really the main thing is it's like the most vulnerable you can ever be.
And you're asking somebody, you know, take your hand for a lifetime.
And so, which is, you know, beautiful and really special.
And so, you know, I can't, do a date set.
No, haven't there's there's still some logistics we have to figure out because it was a surprise and it wasn't like it was one of these things to where she knew it was going to happen.
And we already planned the wedding before I even engaged or anything like that.
It was a real surprise.
Surprise.
Do you plan to compete in the next Olympics?
Do you want a coach?
Of course.
Next Olympics easily.
That that shouldn't be a problem.
Probably the next even two, I guess.
I mean, as far as just the way that I'm jumping right now and the level that I'm jumping at compared to all the other guys, I think that I should be able to, to stay stay on the top for a little while.
I don't think that far into the future, honestly.
I feel like I'm I live in the present.
I try to enjoy as much as I can what I'm doing now.
I know that being an athlete goes super quick.
I mean, I've been jumping professionally since 2019 and which is like weird to think about because it's like five years just goes so fast trying to just soak in how amazing it was really to be able to win the Olympics, win it twice, break the world record at the Olympics like my biggest childhood dream ever, and I was able to accomplish like all of that at all, my family and everything.
So, but definitely still motivated to still have a lot of fire.
Still want to keep jumping Monday to play this.
We are glad to have you back home.
You have made Louisiana so, so proud.
So thank you for stopping by LPB and giving us an update on what's next for you.
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
That was just part of my interview with Mondo.
Now you can watch the full version on our YouTube page.
And I encourage you because he is adorable and so authentic.
Now, Mondo, he continues to rack up accolades during his recent designation as a Living Legend by the Acadian Museum in Iraq.
Now the museum hopes to raise funds for a complex downtown to replace vacant storefronts and attract visitors and local businesses.
Here's a look at the museum's rare collection of Acadian artifacts, which could foster Iraq's economic future.
The railroad, no longer in service, runs through downtown Erath.
It's a reminder of this once thriving business district.
This town was founded in 1890 when the railroad came through.
Most of the people lived on outlying areas along the bayous.
They just flocked here to be where the action was.
And the businesses started at one time.
There was a small grocery store on every block of the town of Erath.
Population has never been any larger than around 3000 people.
So this was the heart of a thriving community and slowly people have migrated to other areas.
It's very difficult to obtain flood insurance.
Many of the houses or elevated, you're almost at sea level.
The Acadian Museum is one of the few occupied buildings along this stretch of vacant storefronts.
It stands as the memory keeper of Iraq's famous residents and cultural contributions.
Welcome to the Erath Museum.
Beautiful downtown Erath.
Known as the most Cajun place on Earth, Walter Perrin, author and historian, serves as chairman of the Acadian Museum, a nonprofit grassroots museum borne from community contributions.
He believes these rooms filled with more than 6000 objects and artifacts, can serve as a collective economic catalyst for Erath.
We would hopefully be able to create five satellite museums in walking distance of this museum.
It's a dream that we have to try to use our culture and our history for economic benefits of all the citizens, and I think that would be a worthy goal to pursue.
The museum started with this photo.
Warren received it while practicing law in the building that would later become the Museum.
A client of mine, Miss Reba Duggan, Aaron, walked in one day carrying this beautiful oval frame.
It's a picture of a young boy.
I said, Miss Nair, tell me about this picture.
Oh, she says, that's one of my cousins, said Richard.
He was about 12.
They were playing one summer hot afternoon, and they dumped as a joke ice water on his head, and he died of a brain hemorrhage.
And this is all we know about it.
I simply typed, which she told me, and I'll put that in my waiting room.
And everybody wanted to bring me a story and a picture.
That's what started this museum.
The museum's only purchased item comes from Warren, a rare Acadian boy's cape.
It's part of the museum's extensive textile collection, including eight spinning wheels and 50 blankets woven from brown cotton unique to Louisiana.
Erath was known for its skilled brown cotton weavers.
Cotton was king in Louisiana.
Everybody wanted cotton to make clothes.
It was a market for brown cotton had no market because the filament is shorter, it's harder to work with.
And it's ugly.
It's not as pretty as beautiful white cotton sheets and bedspread.
So the Cajuns, not wanting to waste anything, decided to use the brown cotton to make their blankets.
Karen, center of this large room, an exhibit that people come from all over the world to see.
The renowned, twice nominated Grammy winner, Mr. Dale miner, was in the Hall of Fame.
Dia was a resident of Erath, and he made a living making chairs in a chair factory.
So music was a sideline, but he became so popular as a result of one song, la parte de nada.
The Back Door is a classic.
You cannot go to a Cajun dance where they don't play it at least twice.
Louisiana politician Dudley LeBlanc, who grew up in Iraq, invented how to call a concoction that claimed to cure whatever ailed you.
The former state senator is lauded as a marketing genius of his day.
He would get 18 wheelers, have had a call, and to get into the show to see these big stars, you had to have two box tops of how to call created a demand that didn't exist.
Warren was instrumental in authoring a petition hand-delivered to the British Crown, seeking a formal apology for the illegal deportation of 15,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia.
A copy of the Queen's Royal Proclamation Apology hangs in the museum.
It establishes a day of commemoration, July 28th, to honor Acadians who lost their lives in the Ground Zero hours.
It's the sixth time apology was extended in the 1200 years of the British Empire, and it's a recognition that the deportation was done against British laws leading to the deaths and sufferings of thousands of Acadian people.
A third of the people perished, and it was our ethnic cleansing, genocide from those ancestral hardships.
Cajuns emerged as resilient, resourceful people.
Erath is one of Louisiana's few remaining communities, a predominantly French speaking people, a legacy the town seeks to preserve for future generations.
Erath is a microcosm of what Louisiana is, the way I see it.
We can walk into many of these still existing stores and they will talk Cajun, French to us if we we start speaking French.
So we're trying to save a lot of the things that makes us unique.
That's our show for this week.
Remember you can watch anything LPB, any time, wherever you are with our LPB app.
That's right.
And you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.
And please like us on Facebook and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.
I'm Karen LeBlanc.
And I'm Dorothea Wilson.
Until next time.
That's the state we're in.
Support for Louisiana.
The state we're in is provided by Entergy.
Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.
We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.
Because together, we power life.
Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum.
Located in Jennings City Hall, the museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.
Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
Thank you.