Before Katrina- October 1893

[Pearl River]

Known as the Great October Storm of 1893.
The slender ridge that rises above the marshland leading to Grand Isle, Louisiana was once a densely-populated fishing community known as Chenier Caminada.

In the late nineteenth century, the French-speaking but multi-ethnic community of about 1700 persons served as the major supplier of fish and shellfish to the restaurants of New Orleans.

On the night of Sunday, October 1st, 1893, the history, economy, settlement, and ancestry of Cheniere Caminada and all of Southeastern Louisiana was forcibly changed forever.

Originating near the Yucatan Peninsula, a compact and fast-moving hurricane rode a low pressure trough across the river and bayou plains of extreme Southeastern Louisiana at such an angle that the wall of Gulf waters it drove traversed the peninsula of Cheniere Caminada three times. Before exiting the continent from North Carolina some ten days later, it had killed nearly 2000 persons, the vast majority from coastal Southeastern Louisiana. On Cheniere Caminada alone, it killed nearly 900, including half the women and nearly all the children.

The Great October Storm remains the second largest natural disaster in U.S. history.

[Ixolib]

Very interesting to consider that the two most worst natural disasters occurred in virtually the same place... Thanks