SLSL hurricane warning, plot plausibility

[pynchonoid]

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/specialreports/sotc/honorable/1957.html

Storms of the Century: 1957 Hurricane Audrey 
Hurricane Audrey was one of the deadliest hurricanes
in the history of the United States, and is the only
recorded Category 4 storm ever to make landfall in
June. 

On the evening of June 26, 1957, people across
southwest Louisiana went to sleep believing they had
another day to prepare for the approaching Hurricane
Audrey. 

Unfortunately, Audrey both intensified and accelerated
overnight. 

Early the next morning, the hurricane's horrific
effects were already upon the coast. Approximately 400
people died, most of them from water associated with a
massive surge. Flooding consumed the flat, low coast
of Louisiana as far as 25 miles inland. 

http://members.tripod.com/~marshmom/susan.html

Hurricane Audrey began in the morning hours of June
24, 1957; its beginnings where in the Bay of Campeche,
in the Gulf of Mexico. The Bay of Campeche is located
in the southern-most part of the Gulf of Mexico that
lies between the Yucatan Peninsula, and the mainland
nearest Mexico City. Late in the day,a report was
received from a shrimping boat in the southern gulf of
rough seas and winds that where steady at 40 mph, with
gusts as high as 60 mph. Audrey was now about 400
miles south of the Louisiana coast.

The Weather Bureau issued a warning, and requested
that the Navy Hurricane Hunters investigate the storm
now brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. On Tuesday Morning,
June 25,th a Navy plane flew into the storm and found
a well developed eye with winds above 75 mph; at this
time the storm was named Hurricane Audrey, and
classified as a category 1 hurricane. Sometime during
Tuesday night Audrey began a forward movement. On
Wednesday the 26th of June the Navy flew
reconnaissance into Audrey, and recorded the pressure
at 28.73 and winds sustained at 104 mph. It was also
reported to be moving rapidly at 35 mph north towards
Galveston, Texas.

Late Wednesday afternoon on the 26th of June,
Hurricane Audrey tossed a fishing boat weighing 78
tons into an offshore drilling platform drowning nine
men. Meanwhile, people along the Texas Coast began to
take precautions. People along the Louisiana Coast
felt they were safe and continued to monitor the
storm. Storm flags were flown along the Texas and
Louisiana coast. Gale warnings where now in advisory
for the coastal waters from Grand Isle, Louisiana to
Corpus Christi, Texas. It was stated that the tides
where rising and would be 5 to 8 feet by late
Thursday. Sometime during Wednesday night of June 26th
the hurricane warnings where changed to evacuate the
southwestern coastal area of Louisiana. Some people
ignored this warning others found out to late. People
in this general area of Louisiana, at the time, had
little or no experience of hurricanes. They figured it
was just going to be gusty winds and rain. Little did
they realize it would be devastating and deadly. 

Early Thursday morning around 4 a.m. the tide began to
swiftly rise at Cameron, Louisiana. At Galveston,
Texas a 16 foot tidal surge crashed over the sea wall
and flooded the streets. In Corpus Christi, Texas a
400 ton tanker was washed inland. Early Thursday
morning a 10 foot tidal surge crested sand bars
located south of Cameron,Louisiana in the Gulf of
Mexico, and headed for the small fishing village of
Cameron, Louisiana. With recorded winds as high as 155
mph, the water built up a wave that crested at least
24 feet high, for houses where floating over the
telephone poles, and people knew the telephone poles
where 24 feet high. They say waves were rolling the
homes over, and tossing them like corks in the
swirling black waters. People were seen screaming
while sliding into the black waters that where
infested with snakes and other animals. Newspaper
reports stated that the tidal surge was felt from
Grand Isle, Louisiana to Corpus Christi, Texas. Winds
as high as 75 mph were felt in Mobile, Alabama. This
indicates it was a big storm. Without satellite we'll
never know just how big Audrey was.

June 26, 1957 -
The residents of Pecan Island, Louisiana were paying
close attention to a hurricane by the name of Audrey
which was threatening the Texas coastline. By all the
weather reports the storm was expected to hit the
Texas coast, somewhere around the Galveston or Port
Arthur areas. The residents of Pecan Island felt safe
enough (the awareness back then was not what it is
today) with the news the storm would not warrant the
evacuation of Pecan Island. Some residents knew that
if a storm went in to the west of the island it would
be worse, then if a storm went inland to the east. No
one on the island had any idea how strong Audrey was.
Most of the residents figured they would get gusty
winds and rain; they didn't expect much more, and
certainly didn't expect what was to come that fateful
day. Wednesday the 26th of June came with low lying
clouds, gusty winds, and scattered rains. As the day
wore on the people of the island listened to the
weather reports by radio, some listened on their car
radio. Most residents continued with their daily
lives; some had small farms, others worked for the new
oil companies that had came in the 1940's, and still
others were fishermen and trappers by trade. The oil
companies at the time where located in White Lake
(Union Oil), which is due north of Pecan Island, and
Humble Oil was located due south in the marshes; both
the companies had crew boats for their personnel.
Little did the oil companies know how important these
crew boats would be to the residents of Pecan Island
come June 28th. 

As night fell on the 26th of June, the winds continued
to be gusty with the rain increasing in frequency.
(*this is from one of the residents who lived on the
island) Everyone of the residents of the island went
to bed Wednesday night never expecting the horror that
would greet them early Thursday morning. [...] "

http://www.americanpress.com/columns/beam/docs/2002_1003.htm

" [...] I will never forget the way I found out about
Hurricane Audrey hitting this area in 1957. 

While serving on the short side of a two-year tour of
duty at Fort Benning, I was assigned as officer of the
day in late June and had to spend the night at
battalion headquarters.

I got a telephone call in the middle of the night — I
don’t remember from whom — telling me a terrible
hurricane had hit Cameron Parish and that two of my
uncles and an aunt had perished in the devastating
storm.

When I woke up the next morning, I wondered whether it
was a just a bad dream or whether it really happened?
I had to call home to verify it wasn’t a nightmare
after all.

The Army gave me emergency leave to return home to
survey the damage and check on loved ones. My
immediate family had stayed home during the storm, and
escaped with some tree and roof damage. However, some
of them said it was a scary time.

My mother was a native of Cameron, and many members of
her family were living there when a storm surge
preceding Hurricane Audrey arrived on shore earlier
than expected.

Audrey was described on Wednesday, June 26, as a “big
and fierce lady” that was born in the Gulf of Mexico
two days earlier. It was reported to have winds of 100
mph at its center and to be some 350 miles south of
the city at 4 a.m. that morning, “and headed straight
this way.”

The full force of the hurricane wasn’t expected to hit
Lake Charles until Friday morning. Tides were reported
to be two to three feet above normal, but weathermen
said it would take 4-foot tides to put water in the
streets of Cameron.

As everyone is well aware of now, those predictions
were way off base. Residents of Cameron Parish went to
sleep the night of June 26 thinking they could get up
the next day and head for safer ground. A gigantic
storm surge caught them off guard in the middle of the
night, and those who survived relived their nightmares
for years.

The death toll eventually exceeded 500, and Audrey has
become the storm by which all others are measured by
the people who lived through it.

Communications to Cameron were lost about 7 a.m.
Thursday, June 27. Damaging winds of 75 mph with gusts
up to 100 mph hit Lake Charles just before noon.

Telephone and electric services were quickly
disrupted. Only six telephone poles were still
standing between Jennings and Welsh. All areas between
Sulphur and Lafayette were without power. Many roads
were closed.

Most homes and businesses had some damage, and there
were hundreds of fallen trees.

The late Doug McFillen of Lake Charles flew a KAOK
Radio reporter over Cameron, and the two men described
what they saw.

“As we came over Big Lake we first began to realize
the immensity of Hurricane Audrey,” they told the
American Press. “The shores of Big Lake were littered
with dead animals — cows, horses and all types of
livestock.

“We counted six or eight houses still standing in the
Big Lake community. The rest of the houses were
completely demolished.”

The two men flew from the western end of Cameron for
50 miles to Pecan Island. They saw 75- and 100-foot
boats hundreds of yards inland. A drilling barge was
resting across the highway. Only the foundations or
pillars of homes remained in most places. 

Bill Mertena of the American Press flew to Cameron on
an Air Force helicopter and talked to survivors. He
said the Mermentau River bridge had been swept away.

Death and destruction were no more evident than on
“The Ridge,” a strip of land higher than the rest that
runs along the Gulf Coast from the Sabine River
eastward. That is where my relatives lived, and those
who survived told harrowing stories about the dark
night they spent in raging waters.

A huge hole in the ground was all that remained of my
grandfather’s two-story home, a place where we spent
many enjoyable hours when we were youngsters. 

Geneva Griffith, well-known Cameron journalist, said
she had to wait 10 years before she could describe the
nightmare. And when she did, it was a chilling account
of how Hurricane Audrey changed lives forever. [...] "











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