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.
www.ladisasters.com
www.facebook.com/monumentallouisiana
https://twitter.com/@monumentalbook
www.pinterest.com/monumentalbook
https://monumentalbook.blogspot.com
Email: monumentallouisiana@gmail.com
