Hurricane Audrey

Research - National Weather Service - Hurricane Audrey

An interesting post from GenForum's Louisiana genealogy message boards led me to search for records concerning Hurricane Audrey in 1957. It led me to a sad, but interesting, discovery in a cemetery in Cameron, Louisiana. After Hurricane Audrey hit, this particular cemetery had only two graves left. At the bottom of the transcription of this Leesburg, cemetery, or First Cameron Cemetery, was this note:

"In 1946, the skeleton of an airplane pilot still fastened in his seat belt was found on Broussard Beach. His unidentified remains were buried here..."

The GenForum post was looking for a list of Hurrcane Audrey victims:

"I am looking for a list of the people who died during Hurricane Audrey in 1957. I have a great great uncle, his wife and their grandson who is supposed to have died at Holly Beach during the storm. I have not been able to find a death record for them. His name is Arthur DeVillier. He had lived in Sunset, Louisiana. I have a letter he wrote his sister a few days before the storm saying he was heading back to the beach." April 1, 2009

Year

Age

Month

Day

Name

Parish

1957	61	6	27	DEVILLIER, ARTHUR	Cameron
Order		Page: 271 Volume: 9

 Louisiana Secretary of State Archives Death Records

You can read more about Hurricane Audrey in the Cameron Parish Louisana LAGenWeb USGenWeb archives here.

Update: April 6, 2009
See McNeese Special Collections Bibliography, Compiled July 14, 2003 by Pati Threatt

Book by Nola Ross
Hurricane Audrey
"...Over 425 residents lost their lives, 154 of whom were babies and children under the age of nine. Every home in Cameron, Creole, Oak Grove, the Cheniers and Pecan Island was either completely destroyed or sustained major damage. And the emotional misery caused by Audrey, even though immeasurable, reached the ultimate in human suffering..."
URL

"The exact number will never be known, as many perished in the storm surge in Cameron and Vermilion parishes, and many missing persons were never found..." - Hurricane Audrey at 50, Compiled by: Donovan Landreneau, Forecaster and Sam Shamburger, Forecaster



Beaumont Enterprise Forums
URL
Memories of Hurricane Audrey
"...We were living in Amelia when hurricane Audrey hit. We were all fairly young, but I remember helping my dad nail boards on the windows and back door of the house getting ready for riding the storm out. As the storm grew worse..."

"...I was thirteen when Audry hit. I remember that on the night prior to the storm hitting all the kids in our neighborhood were out after dark running around in the gale force winds. After we ..."

"...I was 16 years old that summer. It was the first summer for me to work. I was working for my uncle,..."


Google Newspaper Map of Hurricane
50th Anniversary







Google Newspaper Archive included a photograph. The Deseret News, June 27, 1957 caption 87 dead and 100 to 300 missing from town of Cameron, Louisiana. Page 2