Hurricanes have long battered St. Mary Parish

Some hurricanes become notorious — Katrina, Rita and Andrew in recent memory — but others affecting the area are less well known like the three in 1860 that killed a total of 60 people.
David Roth of the National Weather Service produced his “Louisiana Hurricane History” that includes a list of all hurricanes affecting the state from 1527 through 2009.
The following information is from Roth’s report and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Only known by numbers at the time, Number 1 hit southeast Louisiana as a Category 3 with 125 mph winds on Aug. 11, 1860. It killed 47. On Sept. 14 to 15 the same year, Number 4 struck the mouth of the Mississippi River as a Category 2 with 105 mph winds. Finally, Number 6 hit the Atchafalaya region as a 150 mph Category 2, killing 13 on Oct. 2 to 3, 1860.
The earliest reference that can be found to a storm in the Gulf of Mexico was in 1527 as Spanish conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez passed the mouth of the Mississippi River, Roth said in his report.
De Narvaez, whose nemesis was Fernando Cortes, usually had bad luck and this mission was no exception.
“He was sent to settle Florida, until forced to leave by hostile natives and hunger. His five boats of less than 250 men hugged the coast and sailed westward. As they were passing the mouth of the Mississippi river, a storm caught the barges and ‘tossed them like driftwood’,” Roth’s report states.
This occurred Oct. 23, 1527, nearly 155 years before La Salle “rediscovered,” and then lost the location of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Other unnamed hurricanes affecting the Morgan City area in the intervening years include:
—Number 4, the Sept. 1, 1879, hurricane land-falling at Morgan City as a Category 3 had 120 mph winds. One person died.
—On Sept. 6 to 8, 1893, Number 8, a 100-mph Category 2 hurricane, struck Morgan City, nearly 100 years before Andrew.
—Number 8 struck on Sept. 20, 1909, at 120 mph. The Category 3 hurricane struck Thibodaux with a minimum central pressure of 952 mb. It killed 353.
—The Aug. 25 to 27, 1926, hurricane known as Number 3 was a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds and a minimum central pressure of 959 mb. It killed 25 when it struck Houma.
—In 1934, one of the earliest hurricanes to affect the state struck June 16. Number 2 made landfall at Morgan City as a Category 1 with 80 mph winds and a 966 mb pressure. Seven died from the storm.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s website, in 1953, the United States abandoned a confusing two-year old plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) when a new, international phonetic alphabet was introduced. That year, the United States began using female names for storms.
The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men and women’s names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
—Hurricane Audrey, June 26 to 27, 1957: Very large and deadly Category 4 hurricane, with a 40 mile wide eye, made landfall from Sabine Pass to Cameron and affected most of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas with hurricane force winds. Storm surge values of 10 to 14 feet occurred across most of Cameron Parish and 7 to 10 feet across Vermilion, Iberia and St. Mary parishes. More than 500 direct fatalities were attributed to Audrey, mainly across Cameron and Vermilion parishes, due to storm surge.
—Hurricane Carla, Sept. 10 to 12, 1961: Extremely large Category 4 hurricane (circulation covered the entire Gulf of Mexico at one point) made landfall across the Central Texas coast. Due to the large size of the storm, storm surge values of 7 to 8 feet were common across Southwest Louisiana.
—Hurricane Hilda, Oct. 3 to 4, 1964: Category 3 hurricane landfall across St. Mary Parish, where 6-plus foot storm surge occurred at the Atchafalaya River. Further west, storm surge ranged between 3 to 5 feet across Iberia and Vermilion parishes.
—Hurricane Edith, Sept. 16, 1971: Category 2 hurricane landfall across Cameron and Vermilion parishes and spread Category 1 conditions across Iberia, St. Mary, Lafayette, Acadia and St. Martin parishes. Storm surge values of 6 feet at Sabine Pass, with 8-plus feet across Cameron and Vermilion parishes were seen.
—Hurricane Carmen, Sept. 8, 1974: Category 3 hurricane that made landfall across St. Mary Parish, spread category two conditions across Iberia Parish, with category one conditions across Vermilion, Lafayette and Acadia parishes. Storm surge ranged from 4 to 6 feet across Iberia and St. Mary parishes.
—Hurricane Danny, Aug. 15, 1985: Category 1 hurricane that made landfall between Grand Chenier in Cameron Parish and Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish. Storm surge values ranged 5 to 8 feet across Vermilion, Iberia and St. Mary parishes.
—Hurricane Juan, Oct. 28 to 30, 1985: Very large hybrid-type Category 1 hurricane which approached Vermilion Parish on the Oct. 28 but stayed offshore to make a cyclonic loop, eventually making landfall in St. Mary Parish. Juan made another cyclonic loop inland across South Central Louisiana, moving offshore to affect Southeast Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. Storm surge values fluctuated between 3 to 6 feet across Vermilion, Iberia and St. Mary parishes.
—Hurricane Bonnie, June 26, 1986: Very small Category 1 hurricane that made landfall between High Island and Sea Rim State Park in Jefferson County, Texas. Storm surge values were 3 to 4 feet across central and western Cameron Parish.
—Hurricane Andrew, Aug. 26, 1992: Category 3 hurricane that made landfall west-southwest of Morgan City in St. Mary Parish. Storm surge values were around 8 feet across Iberia and St. Mary parishes, which were lower than expected due to Andrew paralleling the coast at landfall.
—Hurricane Lili, Oct. 3, 2002: Category 1 hurricane that made landfall at Intracoastal City in Vermilion Parish. Storm surge values were 10 to 12 feet across Iberia and St. Mary parishes.
—Hurricane Rita, Sept. 23 to 24, 2005: Very large Category 3 hurricane that made landfall between Johnson’s Bayou and Sabine Pass. It affected most of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas with hurricane force winds. Storm surge values across Southwest Louisiana were 12 to 18 feet across most of Cameron Parish, and 10 to 12 feet across most of Vermilion Parish, which was the worst storm surge flooding recorded during the last 150 years of record keeping.
—Hurricane Humberto, Sept. 12 to 13, 2007: Very small Category 1 hurricane that made landfall between High Island and Sea Rim State Park in Jefferson County, Texas. Due to the small size, storm surge values were only 3 to 4 feet across central and western Cameron Parish.
—Hurricane Gustav, Sept. 1, 2008: Large Category 2 hurricane that made landfall across Terrebonne Parish in Southeast Louisiana, but continued northwest across the Atchafalaya Basin, spreading Category 1 hurricane force winds across South Central Louisiana. Due to the storm making landfall east of the region, storm surge values were only 4 to 5 feet across St. Mary, Iberia and Vermilion parishes.
—Hurricane Ike, Sept. 12-13, 2008: Very large Category 2 hurricane that made landfall at Galveston, Texas. Storm surge values were 12 to 16 feet across western Cameron Parish, which was slightly higher than that observed during Rita only three years earlier. Across eastern Cameron, Vermilion, Iberia and St. Mary parishes, storm surge values ranged between 8 to 12 feet.
—Hurricane Isaac, Aug. 29, 2012: The Category 1 hurricane lingered near the coast before making landfall during the early morning on Aug. 29 west of Port Fourchon. New Orleans reported up to 20 inches of rain, and Isaac was blamed for five fatalities in Louisiana and two in Mississippi. Maximum sustained winds reported in Patterson were 35 mph, and 1.8 inches of rain was recorded in Franklin.
Not included in the list is Hurricane Katrina because its winds and weather did not strongly affect southwest Louisiana. However, it could be argued that given its dislocation of hundreds of thousands in New Orleans and Biloxi, Miss., it was a state-wide disaster.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Katrina reached Category 5 in the central Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds around 175 mph on Aug. 28, 2005. Katrina then turned on a northward path.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast early Monday morning hours of Aug. 29, 2005, as a Category 4 hurricane.
Sustained winds were around 145 mph in southeast Louisiana. Katrina continued northward, affecting areas from near New Orleans to near Mobile, Ala.