Anniversary Of Hurricane Betsy

[skywarn]

It was 39 years ago tonight (Sept.9,1965) that Hurricane Betsy roared in from the Gulf dealing New Orleans a devastating blow. Betsy was the last major hurricane to strike New Orleans directly. It was estimated that Hurricane Betsy caused 1 Billion Dollars in damage back then.(Imagine what that would equate to today). I can still remember that night. Evacuating to a shelter, how the winds were blowing so hard it was shaking the building as if a giant was outside shaking it. I can still recall the days after, seeing the flooding and destruction all about.It will be a night and a hurricane I will never forget. Are there any on the board that also experienced Hurricane Betsy and would like to share those experiences or any who would like to share their thoughts on this historic storm?

[Mattie]

I was right there with you - weathering the storm in Baton Rouge. What a terrifying night. My parents and I slept on my bedroom floor away from the windows holding on to a chest of drawers that was the heaviest piece of furniture in the house.

We watched the green "blip" of a radar screen as it approached, went outside and watched the eye pass directly overhead and home to weather the backside of the storm.

It was weeks before everything was "right" again. The trips searching for ice, necessities, the stillness of no air circulating and the electricity and power lines down everywhere. I still get butterflies in my stomach when I think about that night and the days after. What a lost feeling that was.

That was the last hurricane that we stayed in South Louisiana for except for a few minor ones that came through. Any large expected hurricane and we were packing up and getting out.

[paulorg]

It was 39 years ago tonight (Sept.9,1965) that Hurricane Betsy roared in from the Gulf dealing New Orleans a devastating blow. Betsy was the last major hurricane to strike New Orleans directly. It was estimated that Hurricane Betsy caused 1 Billion Dollars in damage back then.(Imagine what that would equate to today). I can still remember that night. Evacuating to a shelter, how the winds were blowing so hard it was shaking the building as if a giant was outside shaking it. I can still recall the days after, seeing the flooding and destruction all about.It will be a night and a hurricane I will never forget. Are there any on the board that also experienced Hurricane Betsy and would like to share those experiences or any who would like to share their thoughts on this historic storm?

Lived through Betsy as a kid! Still traumatized today about hurricanes & tornadoes. I remember hearing the awful sounds of debris hitting the house due to 135 mph winds! Our area flooded & my dad had to carry me in waist-deep water across the street to my grandparents' two-story home! Let's pray that New Orleans never gets another that bad. We are in a soup bowl, well below sea level. It would be completely devasting now that Louisiana has no barrier islands. New Orleans would be beach-front property.

God help those who get this one!

[paulorg]

Lived through Betsy as a kid! Still traumatized today about hurricanes & tornadoes. I remember hearing the awful sounds of debris hitting the house due to 135 mph winds! Our area flooded & my dad had to carry me in waist-deep water across the street to my grandparents' two-story home! Let's pray that New Orleans never gets another that bad. We are in a soup bowl, well below sea level. It would be completely devasting now that Louisiana has no barrier islands. New Orleans would be beach-front property.
We have left for every major storm since then...George, Andrew, Lilly!

God help those who get this one! I'll be praying extra hard these next few days!

[crabbyhermit]

I remember Besty, even though I was only 5 (nearly 6) years old. We lived (still do) in the uptown section of NOLA, about 12 blocks from the river. We didn't get any flooding, probably b/c of our location relatively close to the river (the lip of the bowl, as it were), but i remember the wind! My parents put us kids to sleep, but of course that didn't work out and I was awake all night. I have a vivid memory of my mama holding me in her lap and listening to the door rattling on its hinges. It was scary but exciting at the same time.

Then next day I remember not having to go to school, which was cool, and there being lots of roof shingles in the alley and the street. I don't think our house got anymore damage than that.

However, our beloved fishing camp on Lake Catherine (straight across the road from the Lake Pontchartrain camps, in the Rigolets) was pretty much blown down and we had to rebuild.

I've always loved violent weather, and i wonder why that is. The first hurricane to really really scare me with the prospect of it coming to NO was Andrew, many years later. I guess once you're grown up with property and kids and pets to worry about, hurricanes aren't nearly as exciting as when you're a kid and have little sense of what's really at stake.!

So that's my Besty story.

[Us 2 cajuns]

39 yrs ago I began my fear and respect of hurricanes. I was 15 years old and remember the hollering winds. Shortly after the winds calmed, the water began rising.....to the roof tops. (Lived in Arabi)
Boats transported those who could not swim. If you could swim (I could) you swam with rats and snakes and whatever for several blocks before you could stand and walk.
We than spent about a week at the Domino Sugar Refinery until the water went down enough to return home. Whild at the Refinery the source of food was from the ships in the river sending it to us via tug boats.
Once we were able to return home, we were in the same mess as everyone around us. We all loss everything.
AND MY KIDS DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY I AM A NERVOUS WRECK DURING HURRICANE SEASON. They suggest I get on nerve pills. LOL

[Us 2 cajuns]

39 yrs ago I began my fear and respect of hurricanes. I was 15 years old and remember the hollering winds. Shortly after the winds calmed, the water began rising.....to the roof tops. (Lived in Arabi)
Boats transported those who could not swim. If you could swim (I could) you swam with rats and snakes and whatever for several blocks before you could stand and walk.
We than spent about a week at the Domino Sugar Refinery until the water went down enough to return home. Whild at the Refinery the source of food was from the ships in the river sending it to us via tug boats.
Once we were able to return home, we were in the same mess as everyone around us. We all loss everything.
AND MY KIDS DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY I AM A NERVOUS WRECK DURING HURRICANE SEASON. They suggest I get on nerve pills. LOL

[Us 2 cajuns]

39 yrs ago I began my fear and respect of hurricanes. I was 15 years old and remember the hollering winds. Shortly after the winds calmed, the water began rising.....to the roof tops. (Lived in Arabi)
Boats transported those who could not swim. If you could swim (I could) you swam with rats and snakes and whatever for several blocks before you could stand and walk.
We than spent about a week at the Domino Sugar Refinery until the water went down enough to return home. Whild at the Refinery the source of food was from the ships in the river sending it to us via tug boats.
Once we were able to return home, we were in the same mess as everyone around us. We all loss everything.
AND MY KIDS DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY I AM A NERVOUS WRECK DURING HURRICANE SEASON. They suggest I get on nerve pills. LOL

[Us 2 cajuns]

Sorry for the three (3) post - I'm really not that nervous to hit enter 3 times. The computer was hanging up. Didn't seem to be posting.

[cajungal]

Betsy happened 11 years before I was born. But, my mom and dad went through it. (They were both teenagers and did not even meet yet) My mom was living with her family in Thibodaux and my dad was living with his family in Cut Off. They were both in the eyewall. My mom had winds in the 130 range and my dad had it in the 150 range. There was severe damage all over. No power or phone for 3 weeks.

[mawmawofseven]

I remember it well. I met my husband of 36 years that day in homeroom. School was just beginning for the year when they told us to go home today. We were told that a hurricane was coming that night!! I didn't see my husband to be for a couple of weeks. I lived next to audubon park and remember the howling of the animals, especially the lions and tigers. Remember tha this was the old zoo, they had no shelter so to speak. The monkeys died as well as the sea lions. It was horrible to hear the sound of 100 year old oak trees being uprooted and falling. The next day it looked like a war zone.

[DaylilyDawn]

I remember Betsey as well as Camille and Donna. I was 4 almost 5 when Donna came thru my hometown of Bartow FL. It scared us kids the next morning when we saw the power lines down sparking blue sparks when they hit a water puddle. The grapefruit tree outside my parent's bedroom ended up on the roof over the bedroom just like someone had picked it up and tipped it sideways. Camille and Betsey did not hit my town directly but we experienced the outer rain bands from them. It seemed like it rained for days. To this day I do not like to be out in severe thunderstorms due to having gone thru these storms.