Windell Curole spent decades working to protect his community in southern Louisiana from the destructive flooding caused by hurricanes. His local office in South Lafourche partnered with the federal government's Army Corps of Engineers to build a massive ring of earthen mounds – also known as levees – to keep the floodwaters at bay. But after Hurricane Katrina called into question the integrity of those levees, Windell decided to take a gamble that put him at odds with his partners in the Army Corps. He decided that the best thing he could do to protect his community was to go rogue and build his levees as tall as possible as quickly as possible, without federal permission. On today's show, what the story of Windell's levee can teach us about how the federal government calculates and manages the risk of natural disasters, and how those calculations can look a lot different to the people staring straight into the eye of the storm. This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Mary Childs. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Valentine Rodriguez Sanchez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Hi, I'm Laurel Wamsley, and I cover personal finance for npr.
That means I report on some of the questions that might keep you or your loved ones up at night.
Like, will I ever be able to buy a home?
What about retirement?
As interest rates drop, where should I put my money?
Economic headlines can be confusing, but NPR is here to help you make sense of them.
To support this coverage, please give today@donate.NPR.org.
Hey, it's Erica Barris.
A quick word before the show to talk about this year and all the different kinds of stories you heard on Planet Money.
This year.
We brought you stories about inflation, disinflation, stagflation, skin inflation, dynamic pricing, what is Temu, banking apps, rum, taxes, the main potato war of 1976.
So many stories about so many different things, semiconductors.
And the one thing they all have in common, AI trade fraud, is we work really hard on each of them, international shipping so that they make you smarter.
And they're fun to listen to.
Tiny soda cans, zombie mortgages, why Flying sucks, and another edition of Planet Money Summer school.
So this is the time of year when we say, hey, if that stuff was useful to you, if you made us a part of your day in the car, on the train while you were doing dishes, chip in and help keep us going, your support matters so much that NPR basically invented an entire new product that we will give you to incentivize your donation.
We're talking about npr.
Maybe you're already a plus supporter.
If so, thank you.
If you're not and you sign up today, you get perks for more than 25 different NPR podcasts, sponsor free listening to all of them and bonus content for some of our biggest shows, including this one and exclusive access to special Planet Money merch in the NPR shop.