An American Tragedy: 50th Anniversary of Hurricane Audrey

[Ptarmigan]

Fifty years ago this evening--on the night of June 26, 1957--residents of Cameron, Louisiana slept uneasily. Cameron, population 3,000, sat on the coast just above sea level, about 30 miles east of Texas. Hurricane Audrey roared across the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico towards Cameron that night, lashing the coast with high winds and heavy rain. Many residents had heeded calls to evacuate from Audrey's 100 mph winds and predicted 5-9 foot storm surge that afternoon. But the old timers, familiar with how the surrounding dunes had protected Cameron in the past, stayed put. It was, after all, June, and severe hurricanes in June were almost unheard of. Besides, the storm was not expected to hit until the following afternoon, so there was still time to evacuate in the morning if things looked bad. The remarkable mass exodus of thousands of crawfish from the marshes surrounding Cameron that night apparently did not concern the old timers, who figured they had more sense than crawdads. But the crawdads could apparently sense what the old timers could not--sea surface temperatures were a full 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit above average in the Gulf of Mexico, with a large upper level anticyclone bringing near-zero wind shear over Audrey. This perfect recipe for rapid intensification meant that Audrey was not going to be a mere Category 2 hurricane at landfall. An additional ingredient unfavorable for intensification--the approach of a trough of low pressure with increased wind shear--would not occur in time to weaken the storm. However, the approaching trough did bring an increase in steering current winds at mid- and high levels of the atmosphere, which doubled the forward speed of Audrey overnight.

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Hurricane Audrey was a disaster for Louisiana. It also affected Southeast Texas. Hurricane Rita was like Audrey because it affected the same area and almost all of Cameron is destroyed, unlike in Audrey. However, the lives loss was much greater from Audrey than Rita.

[GoldenTriangle]

CONNER WEATHER BUREAU NEW ORLEANS


On the evening of Wednesday, June 26, 1957, residents of Cameron Parish in far southwestern Louisiana listened with concern to the 10 p.m. newscasts out of Port Arthur. The 10 p.m. advisory stated that the center of Hurricane Audrey was 235 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana with top winds of 100 mph. The advisory warned that gales extended out 200 miles to the north of the center and that tides of 5 to 9 feet above normal would affect the coast. Although the advisory urged people in low exposed places to move to higher ground, the problem was in the wording. The advisory stated that the tides would occur by �late Thursday.�

Reconnaissance during the morning of the 26th indicated that Audrey had a central pressure of 973 millibars and top winds of 100 mph. No other eye penetration was done during the afternoon or night. A radar tracking flight did indicate that the rain pattern with the hurricane had become more intense during the nighttime hours. So the hurricane forecaster did not have complete information when he put the advisory to bed before the late night news shows. Audrey was intensifying rapidly and moving faster toward the coast.

more...

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/wxta ... p=4&cat=10
by Bill Murray in Weather History

[GoldenTriangle]

Library Introduction: The following account is one of the most graphic first-hand descriptions by a survivor of a major hurricane yet encountered in the Library collections. As opposed to most accounts of such events, this account was written by an eyewitness within a short time of her experiences. The author, Mrs. John R. Smith, was a young Coast Survey wife whose husband was working with a Coast and Geodetic Survey field party in southern Louisiana.

http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tal ... udrey.html

[CajunMama]

Our local newspaper has been featuring the hurricane audrey anniversary for the past several days. There's been personal interviews, pics and articles.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs. ... 70344/1002

My son, back in his 8th grade year in 1998, had to do a louisiana history report. His topic was louisiana hurricanes (i made him go all the way back to the 1700's). Audrey was an especially interesting hurricane. The woman who worked next door to me was from cameron parish and got my son a book that was a first person account from many survivors. Wow! is all i can say. The book was scary when you read what those people went through.

[Category 5]

Audrey was one of a kind. A cat 4 landfall in June. I can't think of another one.

Truely a devestating storm. A 1950s version of Rita.

$150 Million in damage, ranking it 58th on my likely flawed list of the 186 costliest U.S hurricanes. And around 500 deaths.

[Berwick Bay]

There are six months in the Atlantic Hurricane Season. June --Nov. In the history of the entire Atlantic Basin is there ANY June storm which could be compared to Audrey?? None I think. Think of how important this storm becomes in that light. June is included in the season. Yet June storms are often given short shrift and rightly so. But what about this one. An incredible story and storm in June. We may never see the likes of this again. And that is not an overstatement.