At 150 mph, Ida equaled two other hurricanes on Sunday for the strongest in recorded history to strike Louisiana.
One was Laura, still fresh in memory after blasting Cameron Parish and the Lake Charles area in 2020. It killed 30 people.
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The other 150 mph storm dates from 1856, before hurricanes were given official names, and killed more than 200 on or near what is today a series of islets known as Isles Dernieres.
“On the night of Aug. 10, 1856, a powerful hurricane struck Last Island off the southern tip of Terrebonne Parish. The sea rose in the darkness and trapped hundreds of summer vacationers visiting the popular resort. Wind-driven waves 8 feet high raked the island and tore it in two. By morning, everything standing upright was broken, splintered and washed away, including all of the island’s trees, its casinos, a hotel and the summer homes of wealthy New Orleans families. More than 200 people died. Many were crushed and others drowned after being struck by wreckage in the maelstrom.”
That’s what The Times-Picayune wrote in 2002, in its Washing Away series about the state’s loss of coastal land.
Author James M. Sothern drew this rendering of what he thought the Village of Last Island might have looked like before an 1856 hurricane destroyed most of the buildings. The view is from the Gulf of Mexico, facing north, with Caillou Bay and Cayambo (Caillou Boca) in the background. To the left would be located the numerous summer cottages belonging to some of the most prominent (and prosperous) families of south Louisiana.
Here’s how Smithsonian magazine set the scene in a 2017 article:
“In the 1840s, wealthy Louisianans built the first of 100 summer homes on Last Island. Visitors came by steamboat to swim in the sea, paddle out on excursion boats, walk the beaches, explore the island by horse and carriage and twirl on a carousel. Muggah’s Hotel, the largest structure on the island, included a restaurant and ballroom and offered bowling and billiards.”
As the hurricane advanced on Saturday, Aug. 9, “Isle Derniere’s marshes were submerged, and the cattle on the island were pacing and lowing. The storm grew to gale force. The Star, a steamboat ferry headed toward the island, lost its bearings in the storm, and by Sunday morning, the crew debated whether to turn back to its mainland port. But Captain Abraham Smith, concerned about the fate of those left on the island, insisted on returning amid the hurricane — a decision that saved many lives.”
The hurricane struck that evening.
“‘It seemed all the aerial currents in creation had been turned upon us,’ recalled Reverend R.S. McAllister of Thibodaux. ‘Fiery lightning almost constantly illumined the heavens. … The Gulf upon one side and the bay upon the other were advancing upon us.’
“Sugar planter Thomas Mille’s slaves fled their timber shack as it began to blow apart, and they ran to Mille’s house. One slave, Richard, tried to convince Mille to move his family and slaves into a stable built with sturdy, deeply driven pilings. Mille refused.
“Houses shook, slid down the beach, lost their roofs and tore apart. Many residents raced for the hotel, hoping for refuge, but it, too, was blown to pieces. The exposed men and women began to perish, bludgeoned by flying debris or drowned as a 13-foot storm surge inundated the island.
“Survivors outlasted the storm by clinging to anything they could. McAllister and 11 others raced to a carousel and hung onto it all night as it spun in the wind. Many refugees from the hotel … took refuge behind its cistern. Though the Star’s top decks were ripped off, its hull stayed afloat and provided cover for 160 people. …
“The next morning, survivors wandered Isle Derniere, surrounded by the dead. … A saloonkeeper and a crewman from the Star found a sailboat that could still float and set out for the mainland. Arriving in Brashear City (now Morgan City), they alerted the crew of a steamer, which arrived at Isle Derniere to rescue the survivors three days after the storm.”
The hurricane split Last Island in two. It remains uninhabited to this day.
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