Hurricane | Blue Eyes and Bluebonnets

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History – Disasters

Anyone who has lived on the Texas or Louisiana Gulf Coast for any length of time is no stranger to hurricane season. As for me—I can’t even begin to count the number of hurricanes I’ve seen. Fortunately, most of them were relatively minor, with little or no damage. Others, however, left their mark. Those are the hurricanes that stand out in my memory.

Sulphur, Louisiana, The Storm Country

In her photo album, my grandmother (Lucy Courrege Benoit) documented the aftermath of one storm that blew through Sulphur, Louisiana in the early 20th Century.

Sulphur, Storm Country

This photo was labeled “Sulphur, The Storm Country.” My grandparents are not in these two photos, but they were in other photos with these people on the same album page.

Ruins - Sulphur, Louisiana

Mystery – When Were the Photos Taken?

I wish I knew when these were taken. At first I thought they were taken after the devastating Southwest Louisiana hurricane of August 6, 1918. Then I realized that my grandfather was fighting in France at the time of that hurricane. So now I have no idea what kind of storm destroyed the two building in the photos. This may always remain a mystery to me. I hope not.

About 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History

For the third year, Amy Coffin of the We Tree Genealogy Blog has created 52 weeks of prompts for genealogy bloggers. The theme for 2011 is 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History. These are shared on the Geneabloggers.com web site, hosted by Thomas MacEntee.

Week 10: Disasters. Did you experience any natural disasters in your lifetime? Tell us about them. If not, then discuss these events that happened to parents, grandparents or others in your family.

Sabine Pass, Texas – Hurricanes Rita and Ike

Sabine Pass and Hurricane Ike – September 2008

The residents of Sabine Pass, Texas are all too familiar with hurricanes. After residents there spent years recovering from Hurricane Rita’s devastation, another hurricane, Ike, sent in another wave of destruction on Saturday, 13 September 2008.

Sabine Pass High School after Hurricane Ike. Photo by Beaumont Enterprise.

Sabine Pass Fire Station after Hurricane Ike. Photo from Beaumont Enterprise.

Sabine Pass and Extreme Home Makeover – March 2006

Hurricane Rita made landfall on 24 September 2005, between Sabine Pass and Johnsons Bayou, Louisiana, as a Category 3 hurricane.

In March of 2006, ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition team went to help the Sabine Pass community. But, which family should it help? All the families were devastated by Rita. They decided to help in ways to benefit the whole community by rebuilding the Firehouse and the High School Auditorium. We just happened to be on our way to Louisiana that day and volunteered to help out.

Sabine Pass High School. Photo by blue eyes and bluebonnets.

Located 30 miles southeast of Beaumont, Texas, the Sabine Pass Fire Station No. 4 was severely damaged when Hurricane Rita made landfall just east of the town in September 2005.

After securing the township and ensuring the safe evacuation of the citizens of Sabine Pass, the men of fire House # 4 joined forces with the rest of the Port Arthur Fire Department in the final frantic hours of Hurricane Rita evacuation operations. After working over 30 hours straight and successfully air lifting nearly 10,000 infirmed and elderly citizens, the firemen then evacuated themselves to higher ground to wait out the storm’s fury.

After reuniting with their families and returning to Sabine Pass, many of these heroes found their homes destroyed and were forced to make do as best they could, relying on church groups, friends, family, and federal aid.

The fire station had been out of operation for five months after Rita, forcing its firefighters to work out of a trailer at a local U.S. Coast Guard station.

03 March 2006. Extreme Makeover was working on the Firehouse while we were there that day. A school group of teachers and students was waiting to get inside.