No time to get out: Warnings came too late for the victims of Hurricane Audrey 68 years ago this week

AUSTIN, Texas — On June 27, 1957, one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history slammed ashore near the mouth of the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana border.

The storm, Hurricane Audrey, caused the deaths of more than 400 people.

In the era before there were weather satellites, it was harder to predict when a hurricane would strike and the timing of a storm’s arrival. Back then, only ground-based radar near the shore could capture the crude outline of a hurricane as it drew near the coastline.

For the people of Cameron, Louisiana, the warnings came too late to get to safety. The high death toll was blamed on the incompleteness of evacuations when the storm suddenly increased its forward motion.

Weather historians also blame a lack of urgency in the warnings that were issued, and even blamed local politicians for editing weather bulletins before they were broadcast to minimize the severity of the approaching storm.

Emergency workers said there were many lessons learned from the tragedy of Hurricane Audrey – above all, the importance of evacuating those areas that are in the path of a Gulf storm.

With the advances in forecast technology today, we now have days and sometimes weeks to follow the path of a hurricane and to prepare before time runs out, which is sadly something that didn’t happen for the people of southwestern Louisiana all those years ago.