The Cajun Navy Is Shaping Trump’s Vision for US Disaster Relief

This is the third story in Disaster Industrial Complex, a series that looks at the business of defending against and rebuilding from climate disasters and how it increasingly drives the economy.

As Rob Gaudet walked around his group’s Louisiana warehouse in June, the shelves he wants to fill with stockpiles of water and shelf-stable food were mostly empty. So were the shipping containers he maintains. Gaudet had founded his nonprofit in 2016 — originally called Cajun Relief Foundation, now known as Ground Force Humanitarian Aid — to help disaster victims. June was the beginning of hurricane season, but the group’s bank account was ...