Cameron sat at the mouth of the Calcasieu River where it meets the Gulf — a fishing and shrimping town of twenty-five hundred, the parish seat of Cameron Parish. June 27, 1957. Hurricane Audrey made landfall with winds over 125 mph and a surge that swept inland twenty-five miles. The forecast had underestimated it. The evacuation had not happened in time. The surge came through in the dark.
Ninety to ninety-five percent of Cameron's buildings were destroyed. Only the courthouse was left standing. At least 371 people died in and around the town — the worst single-county loss in a twentieth-century American hurricane. The name Audrey was retired. Cameron rebuilt. Rita came in 2005 and battered what had been rebuilt. Laura came in 2020 and did it again. The town that exists in 2026 is not the town that stood on June 26, 1957. What Audrey began, the others have continued. And the coastline itself is moving inland.
What stood here
3 surviving images.
Storm damage after Audrey, June 1957
Aerial view of the destruction in Cameron, Louisiana after Hurricane Audrey, 1957
In this July 1, 1957 photo, homes in Cameron, La., lie in ruins after Hurricane Audrey, the first named storm to strike Southwest Louisiana and Southe, 1957