"FADING MEMORIES"

Hurricane Audrey 
 June 27, 1957

National Weather Service picture of Audrey. NOAA

Sixty-one years ago today one of the worst hurricanes to strike the gulf coast had a direct impact not only on the landscape of Cameron Parish and southwest Louisiana, but also on its families.

Hurricane Audrey hit the Cameron Parish coast during the early morning hours of June 27, 1957.

Many people were unprepared for the storm because it arrived 2 days earlier than calculated.

With winds over 125 mph with gust up to 150 mph and waves over 20 foot, the Category 3 hurricane devastated the Cameron Parish coastal communities of Johnson Bayou, Holly Beach, Cameron, Creole, Oak Grove, and Grand Chenier.

Structures were completely destroyed. Houses, Barns, Hotels, Businesses, Schools, Libraries, and Churches.

The destruction forces from Hurricane Audrey reached from Galveston, Texas to Cocodrie, Louisiana. Many small communities like High Island, Texas to Pecan Island, Louisiana were greatly affected.

Along with the physical devastation there was something far worse. DEATH.

The official count of the death toll by Audrey was over 500 lost souls, but it is estimated over 600 perished.

My family knows first hand the force of Audrey. My grandparents Berton and Audrey, their 3 children Warner, Gerald, and Sandy, along with my great-grandfather Pierre Savoie, and my great-uncle Guidry Savoie and his wife Juanita, all rode out Hurricane Audrey from the attic of my grandparents home in Cameron.

Sandy, Audrey, Berton, Warner, and Gerald Daigle

After riding out the storm all day and night, they walked 6 miles to the town of Cameron. They waded through saltwater, mud, marsh grass, dead snakes, fish, cows, horses, alligators, nutria, muskrat, and worst of all, humans.

As they walked this heartbreaking journey, they were able to see first hand the death and destruction that mother nature can bring.

Warner Daigle ,14 years old, in white t-shirt, carrying a body. 

They passed friends, neighbors, and relatives old home sites, with no more homes.

They knew if there were no house then the family that lived there probably drowned.

My grandmother passed her Aunt Tilley's home place with no structure left.

Her Aunt and Grandmother rode out the storm until the house broke apart and floated away. Her Aunt Tilley was rescued 2 days later and 20 miles north, wrapped in barbed wire and clinging to pieces of wood from the house. Her grandmother did not survive.

There are many other stories such as this, from other families who rode out the storm. 

Some are far worse.

In one family, the only survivor was a 12 year old boy. He lost his entire family in one day. His grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters.

There may always be written records of Audrey's winds and water levels and there will be records of the death toll caused by the storm.  Let us never forget the impact the storm had on the lives of our ancestors.

61 years have passed since Audrey in 1957. There are not many first-hand survivors left who rode out the storm. As time marches on, so do the memories fade.

Hurricane Audrey 60 Years Later

Video

May the memory of Audrey's destruction never fade away.

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a 

tree without roots." 

~ Marcus Garvey ~