You could almost call us Hurricane Alley

Galveston got it again. The Texas island was hit by the deadliest storm in history in 1900. More that 6,000 people were killed, many of them dying after being trapped for days under rubble.

Rescuers could hear the screams of survivors.

The storm’s path was similar to that of Ike – – crossing Cuba and then paralleling the U. S. out in the Gulf of Mexico  It crossed  into Galveston with wind speeds of more than 130 miles per hour possibly as a category 4 hurricane. A huge 17-foot seawall was built across the front of the island several years later which has helped protect it ever since.

In 1915, a storm of similar strenghth hit Galveston.  Only 53 people lost their lives in that one.

Among other memorable storms in our past was the 1856 debacle that struck Last Island, a resort at the sourthernmost tip of Terrebonne Parish. A plush hotel there where wealthy planters from the south gathered was to be the scene of a gala ball the evening that the hurricane struck. In that day and age, there was no knowledge that one on the way. The hotel was destroyed and all of the more than 200 people attending lost their lives. The island has been uninhabited ever since except for fishermen in boats who have found another use for it as it erodes away with other barrier islands along our coast.

In our more recent past, there were Hurricanes Audrey and Camille which brought devastation to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to our east and Cameron Parish to our west. The tolls were heavy for each of those. Pass Christian is still barren territory from the Camille destruction. Horrifying tales about the huge tidal wave that struck with Audrey told of people trapped in trees and climbing out of rooftops.

And of course, we all know about Katrina when more that 1,000 people lost their lives in New Orleans. But that was not directly from the storm but the failure of the canal levees after the storm.

Hurricanes have played such a big part in the history of the Gulf Coast that we could almost name it Hurricane Alley. But then again, even with all of the destruction we have suffered, the Atlantic Coast deserves that title more. We are usually second choice for the big winds that blow.