1957’s Hurricane Audrey

Hurricane Audrey strengthened rapidly just before landfall on the Gulf Coast near the remote fishing village of Cameron LA on the Texas/Louisiana border during the early morning hours of June 27, 1957.

Many residents went to bed the night before thinking that they had time to evacuate the next morning, but were caught by surprise by the faster moving and stronger than anticipated storm.

The storm’s central pressure dropped from 973 to 945 millibars (and perhaps even lower) in just five hours. Winds reached 150 mph. The rapid intensification generated a storm surge of at least 12 feet above normal which was not anticipated.

390 people died in Louisiana (127 of them unidentified) with another 192 were reported missing. The loss of life was the greatest in the United States since the 1938 Hurricane in New England.

Areas as far as 25 miles inland were inundated by the storm tides. As much as percent of the homes in the area from Cameron to Grand Cheniere, Louisiana were destroyed or floated off their foundations. A brick courthouse and cement block icehouse were the only structures standing in Cameron after the hurricane.

Just four buildings were left standing in Crede, Louisiana. A 78 ton fishing boat was tossed up and onto an offshore oil drilling platform. Fourteen people were injured in tornadoes in Alabama after landfall. $130 million in damage resulted from Hurricane Audrey.

Citizens brought several wrongful death lawsuits against the U.S. Weather Bureau for not warning them properly. But a jury found for the defendant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

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