Louisiana Disaster History

New Orleans was just getting back to normal after the Great Conflagration of 1788 in which over 850 structures were destroyed, when the Great New Orleans Fire of 1794 occurred.  Burning primarily in the French Quarter, this blaze destroyed 212 buildings, including the royal jail.  The people were left to rebuild on their own. 

During the turn of the century Louisiana faced a disaster of much different proportions. Although the residents were unaware, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito was about to destroy the lives of many.  Unfortunately, children were most susceptible to the disease and many of the lives lost were to those four years old and younger. In the 1830’s in the small town of New Iberia, a woman of Haitian decent would nurse the sick back to health and help to bury the victim of the Yellow Fever.  This disease would proliferate across the country for the next 70 years.

By 1856 the Last Island Hurricane approached the Louisiana Gulf Coast.  Although it had a great effect on all of Louisiana, Last Island suffered its fury more than any other. One of the deadliest cyclones in Louisiana history, this great storm of 1856 left nearly every person on the island dead, and the island itself was demolished.

The Yellow Fever continued to afflict the citizens of Louisiana.  In May of 1878, because mortality records were not required for many Louisiana parishes, many lost their lives, were buried, and forgotten.  Finding headstones or monuments that remember those lost during this specific time is rare. One-fifth of the city of New Orleans’s population decided that they needed to leave to avoid the epidemic. Doctors and nurses watched helplessly as their patients died and although they struggled to treat the disease, their efforts constantly came up short. The state board of health declared the Yellow Fever an epidemic on August 10, 1878, after 431 reported cases and 118 deaths.  Eventually, more than 20,000 lives would be lost in the lower Mississippi region to Yellow Fever.

Hurricanes continued to affect Louisiana, such as the one in 1893.  The Cheniere Caminada Hurricane, also called the “Great October Storm”, flooded much of southeast Louisiana.  She caused over 2,000 fatalities in total.  In the city of Cheniere, 779 people out of the town’s 1,500 residents succumbed to the flooding from the storm surge and the high winds.

There would be more fires across Louisiana, the Great New Ibreia Fire in 1899, the Great Lake Charles Fire in 1910, the Allendale Fire in 1925, the 1946 Baudoin Foret School Fire, just to name a few. All of these would take property, life, and all leave a monument.

The 1960s and 1970s were full of their share of natural disasters:  Hurricane Carla in 1962, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Camille in 1969, Hurricane Agnes in 1972.

In 1976, Louisiana would see the first major river disaster in American history.  The George Prince Ferry disaster occurred on a stretch of the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling.  The George Prince was struck by a Norwegian tanker, the SS Frosta.  All told, 78 people perished.  This disaster warranted two monuments, one on each side of the river.

In 1979, the Belle Isle Salt Mine would explode and take the lives of 5 miners.  A scheduled blast occurred followed by a gas explosion.  Twenty-two miners were underground when the explosion occurred.  Using a make-shift telephone, an emergency call was placed to the surface.  A mancage was sent down to rescue survivors.  This mine has since been closed down, but a monument was placed at a local visitor’s center.

Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727-235, was a scheduled passenger flight from Miami to Las Vegas with an en route stop at New Orleans. On July 9, 1982 at 4:07:57 PM central day light time, seven crew members and 138 passengers began takeoff at the New Orleans International airport. Flight 759 was leaving New Orleans for Las Vegas during a heavy thunderstorm and suddenly crashed 2 minutes into the flight in a neighborhood called the Roosevelt subdivision in south Kenner.  All passengers and crew (145) and an additional 8 more on the ground were killed.

On August 14, 1992, a miniscule little tropical wave off the coast of Africa began to grow.  Not only did Andrew destroy the shores in Louisiana, but it spawned its very own F3 tornado that stayed on land for at least 10 minutes, crushing the town of LaPlace.  Fourteen more tornadoes joined Andrew’s army of villains in Louisiana, leaving the state with $1.56 Billion dollars of damages.

In 2005, the third strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall, Katrina was prepared to go down in history and take anything that she needed along with her.  With winds up to 175 miles per hour, making Katrina a category 5 hurricane, the preparedness of the category 3 sufficient levees proved useless.  By the time that she was finished with her show, Katrina’s 20 foot storm surge had rampaged over 90,000 square miles, killing nearly 2000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi, and leaving 705 missing.  The economic impact neared 150 Billion dollars and left thousands without homes, businesses, and livelihoods.  The warnings were clear and Louisiana tried to prepare as best as they could. 

By 2008 when Gustave and Ike decided to bless Louisiana with their presence, emergency management was keeping their fingers crossed that they were prepared this time.  They even went so far as to have psychiatric evaluations done for residents that had already survived Katrina and Rita and were bracing themselves for the next wave.  From August 25th through September 1st, both hurricanes came ashore in Louisiana.

Disasters are a part of the world that we live in, whether they are natural or man-made, catastrophic to many or life-altering for few.  They are stepping stones on our road to building the best emergency and disaster management system that we can, an ever evolving system as the world changes around us, and one that must evolve as well.  The key factor is to remember how we got here.  Now, let’s go on a journey of learning together so that hopefully one day, the things that we learn can create change from devastating situations, leaving our own stories and our own monuments behind for many generations to come.

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