Was the longest day and night I ever spent in my life. Also close to the most scared I’ve ever been. Hurricane Rita made landfall right on top of us with some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen and a storm surge that most have never seen. It was almost total devistation for 25 miles north of the coast. Most families on the coast never found any part of there homes. Some even had the concrete slaps washed away where the homes were. That was an extremely hard time on lots of people and I thank the good Lord everyday that no one lost their lives. The people of Cameron Parish Louisiana are a resilient bunch and the parish is back booming like nothing ever happened. [img]http://[/img]
Holly Beach before

Holly Beach after

That is amazing!

Wasnt that the one that caused the mass panic in Houston causing thousands to get stranded on the freeway without gas or food and then it swerved? Right after Katrina right? That picture is unbelievable, glad you made it through OK.

That picture just leaves me speechless.

It is unreal the power of mother nature

Yes sir it was.

Wow....speechless

Seems Rita kinda gets overlooked by Katrina that came a couple weeks before, unless you lived through it. Good to hear the parish is booming again.

It did and I’m not sure that many people kmow that 3 yrs later on in September , Hurricane Ike came and destroyed the coast again. Lots of people had moved mobile homes in and were staying in those FEMA campers. All to be destroyed and washed away again. Also had Goustov in there also. That was a tough chapter in many peoples lives.

A timber buyer friend of mine told me last Wednesday that he spent the morning with a 70 year old man looking at his 22 year old pine plantation, this was just east of Marianna. I think he said them man had about 2,000 acres of the pines. He said on the whole tract there wasn't 2 loads of green timber standing. He told the man there wasn't anything he could do with the trees. Hurricane Michael

I remember that fall very well. I was sent down to the coast to try and help assess damage on the cranes at the various ship yards. Not sure how but I stayed at the Treasure Bay. It was, I believe the only open hotel in the area. Barges were still blocking the Hwy from the storm surge. I’ve got a BUNCH of pictures from those couple of weeks on a hard drive somewhere.

I fell for you. We were living in Pensacola when Ivan hit in 2004. I worked until the power with off, then spent that night waiting the storm out at home, Me and the dogs stayed up all night. I'll never forget it because my son was stationed in California and our grandson born that night, We had minor damage but a lot of people were wiped out. The funny part of this when I worked at this plant over 25 years all the managers would haul ass out of town and tell us we had work until the power went off.

Man that storm did some damage. Marsh, I remember going to the club with your uncle John. The smell w is something I will never forget. Dead deer and gators everywhere. All the grass was gone gone, it looked a 14,000 acre lake. Went to Cameron and there were dead cows everywhere, even hanging 15’ up in trees.

Yes it was. That stench in that water was unreal. The worst part for me was hauling all those caskets out that was washed up in the marshes around grand lake. I don’t think they ever found the casket for that body I found on little pecan islands levee. That was a long ride with him in my boat. That was some long days and a casket full of water is heavy. And if you want to disperse a crowd, dump the water out where they are standing. Talk about haul arse. Do you remember how bad the mosquitoes got after all that water went down? Horses and cows were dying they were so bad. The mosquitoes were getting in there noses and suffocating them. I remember riding on the ridge road in Grand Chenier and seeing the power lines cut into those big live oaks about 4 inches. A 25 foot wall of water has a lot of power. I hope people never have to go thru all that again. If you remember the water didn’t get here till about a week later. I just turned 50yrs old and there was water in places I had never seen water before. It washed over the protection levee on the farm and it was a 6k acre of saltwater. It rusted all the pumps and everything else it touched. Man I could write a book about that adventure.

Life dealt a pile of blows years in a row. The storms then the oil spill after it was nearly all recovered. Sad times. The area is back getting better but never will be the same to me

You’re right, Matt. Sportsman’s paradise is a thing of the past. We had some of the prettiest marshes you could ask for around here. Rita pretty much pull out huge chunks of those marshes leaving big holes everywhere. Even the vegetation is all different now. You could walk all over in these marshes. They were what we call “ bull tongue” marshes. After Rita you couldn’t step foot in them. That nasty water killed all the roots and allowed for whips and cattails to take over. They are some of the ugliest things you will see now.

Best fishing I ever seen was in golden meadow around 2004. Great guides lights out fishing. Even was good in 2008. The spill hit and BP basically turned the guides into crackheads. Been back a few times but it ain’t the same

Mosquitos were unreal. I had to wear goggles driving that old mud boat. What was crazy were the frogs. I had only seen a few bullfrogs in the marsh up til then, I swear I saw 500 in that old blind at devils lake. I moved to your old blind 2nd split and there wasn’t 10 blades of grass between there and the flats. Saw all kinds of weird birds that year in the marsh, loons Sandhills and swans. Now the year after in 2006 I swear I’ll never see a season like that again in my life. We killed mallards, pintail and Speck like blackbirds.