Louisiana Is Sinking: What Does That Mean For Lake Charles?

The state of Louisiana is losing coastline at an alarming rate, but did you know it's sinking too?

Drew Marine from KPLC had a conversation with the Chief of Geodesy at LSU’s Center for Geoinformatics, Cliff Mugnier.

She found out what the state's sinking means for Lake Charles.  The first time Lake Charles was surveyed was back in 2003.  Since then the city has sunk sixteen millimeters in sixteen years.

Mugnier states that sixteen millimeters may not seem like much, but if you think about it in the context of inches, twenty-four and a half millimeters is an inch.  So if you take that at the rate of sixteen millimeters every sixteen years, Lake Charles will be under sea level in less than 100 years.

And to pour more salt on the wound of this issue, Mugnier says that there's nothing we can do to stop the sinking, it's not preventable.

To watch a video of this special report, click here.