September 2018 — Alan Lampe

The 1915 Hurricane

This weather event did not happen in my book. But, I’m positive Bill overheard his father Woodrow and his Uncle Eustace talk about it. An unnamed category 3 hurricane hit Grand Isle, Louisiana on September 29, 1915. Grand Isle is due south of New Orleans, as the crow flies. Overland, you have to travel northwest along Louisiana 1 through Lockport and Mathews to US 90. Then east to the Big Easy. While in the Gulf of Mexico, the winds rated the hurricane a category 4.

The storm caused thirteen million dollars in damage and killed 275 people. The damage total is in 1915 dollars and is not adjusted for today’s inflation rate. In 1915, ships in the path of the storm were the only way to get meteorological data. Satellites in the sky tracking the storm weren’t imaginable back then. The storm began outside the primary shipping lanes, making early data hard to pinpoint. When it reached the Gulf and aligned itself with the shipping lanes, the data poured in. In the afternoon of September 29, the rising storm surge inundated the low-lying lands of Louisiana and areas next to Lake Pontchartrain. Western New Orleans flooded. Flood waters remained for up to four days in some areas. The surge of water crested between fifteen and twenty feet, a record for the region.

1915 Hurricane Car Barn

The high winds damaged almost every building in New Orleans. They demolished part of the French Market. The storm destroyed over 8000 telephone poles. The Presbyterian Church on Lafayette Square collapsed. The clock at the St. Louis Cathedral stopped at 5:50 p.m. The Times-Picayune building was damaged. In Leeville, only one house survived the storm. Winds blew down telephone wires in Morgan City. Many oyster boats sustained damaged in Plaquemines Parish, crippling the local economy. This was the deadliest hurricane to hit Louisiana until Betsy came along in 1965. Read about it in The Violent Mood Swings of Hurricane Betsy chapter in Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure.

For more information on this unnamed hurricane, click here.

* * *

What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. I finished reading The Hermit of Eyton Forest. My review is on Goodreads and Amazon. Next week I’m moving on to book fifteen, The Confession of Brother Haluin.

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.

West Florida Republic

Another Sunday and another historical day in Louisiana. Today’s event took place at Fort San Carlos in Baton Rouge in 1810. The star-shaped fort changed names, and hands, throughout its history. The British built the fort. The Americans held it for a brief time in 1778 or 1779. The Spanish overthrew the English. The West Florida Republic took it from the Spanish. The Americans ended up with the fort in December 1810. They demolished it nine years later.

With the purchase of Louisiana, the Baton Rouge fort was the only non-U.S. military post on the Mississippi River. The Spanish still held the fort and the West Florida Republic land. Inhabitants of Baton Rouge planned a rebellion. Today, back in 1810, the rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Fort San Carlos. They raised the Bonnie Blue Flag, a flag of blue with a white star, symbolizing the West Florida Republic. The Republic was short-lived, lasting only ninety days.

U.S. President James Madison believed the land of the West Florida Republic to be part of the Louisiana Purchase. He sent W.C.C. Claiborne to remove the fledgling republic and annex the land into the Territory of Orleans. The rebels offered little resistance to W.C.C. Claiborne and his forces. On December 10, 1810, U.S. troops raised the Stars and Stripes over the fort. Almost all the land that makes up the great state of Louisiana was now a part of the United States.

You can visit the site today. In Baton Rouge, walk south from the Louisiana State Capitol into State Capitol Park. Turn west, and you’ll walk right to the Pentagon Barracks Museum. Just south of the museum are markers for Fort San Carlos and Fort Baton Rouge.

For more information about this 208-year anniversary, check out Wikipedia and Fortwiki. Also, visit the Pentagon Barracks Museum website.

* * * *

What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. I’m almost finished with The Hermit of Eyton Forest.

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.

Hurricane Betsy

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure survived two physical hurricanes, Audrey and Betsy. Audrey hit Louisiana’s Cameron Parish in 1957. Betsy made landfall in 1965. Today is the 53^rd anniversary of Hurricane Betsy thrashing New Orleans. The storm moved northwest and affected Baton Rouge, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. While the storm passed near Bayou Cove, Bill had a heated exchange with a ghost that resembled Ariel, his dead fiancé.

Hurricane Betsy began as a tropical depression on August 27 north of French Guinea. It passed north of the Bahamas, then over south Florida on September 8. In the Gulf of Mexico, Betsy strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane. Hurricane Betsy breached the New Orleans levees. Flooding occurred in Gentilly, the Upper Ninth Ward, and the Lower Ninth Ward. The further north it moved, the less damage occurred. The remnants lasted until September 13 and dissipated over Pennsylvania. In the end, officials estimated Betsy accounted for $1.43 billion in damage. It was the most expensive hurricane at the time. A total of 81 people, mostly from Louisiana, died from Hurricane Betsy. The United States Weather Bureau retired the name Betsy from the hurricane roster.

Hurricane Betsy sunk several barges on the Mississippi River. One of the barges was MTC-602. It was loaded with 600 tons of deadly chlorine gas in cylinders. It was estimated that amount of chlorine could kill 40,000 people. It sunk near Baton Rouge. Navy and Army engineers were tasked by President Johnson to raise the barge and prevent another disaster. On November 12, 1965, the barge, and all the intact cylinders were removed from the river.

Bill had to get three new travel trailers for his employees. He also replaced the siding on the house of pleasure. It didn’t take long for him to open back up and make money again.

* * *

What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. I finished The Rose Rent as well as Ghosts of Arkansas Highway #7 by Gary Weibye. My reviews for both books are on GoodReads.com. Tomorrow, I start reading book 14 of Brother Cadfael, The Hermit of Eyton Forest.

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.

Long Live J.R.R. Tolkien

Fans of high fantasy tales should give pause today. On this day in 1973, forty-five years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien breathed his last. The great mind that vibrantly brought us Middle Earth, and its extensive history, died from a bleeding ulcer and chest infection. His wife Edith died twenty-one months earlier. They are buried together in Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford, England. His works include The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and posthumously The Silmarillion. The Hobbit was published in 1937. The Lord of the Rings published in three volumes, from July 29, 1954, to October 20, 1955. I wish most of the trilogies of today would get published that quickly.

A black and white 1967 photo of J.R.R. Tolkien.

This is a 1967 photo of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien is the author of “The Lord of the Rings” and an Oxford University Professor. (AP Photo) From William Bjornstad on Find a Grave website.

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy spiked my interest to read the great master. I read The Fellowship of the Ring right before the movie premiere. Actually, I had one more chapter to go before I saw the movie. Peter did a great job of following Tolkien’s tale. With only a few pages to read, I was surprised at how much action Peter put into the end of the movie. The Uruk-hai attack and Boromir’s death take place in the book The Two Towers. Frodo and Sam leaving the fellowship ends the book The Fellowship of the Ring.

I’ve enjoyed my time in Middle Earth. It is a wonderful world with an incredible history. George R.R. Martin, likewise, created an extensive history for his Song of Ice and Fire series. These are the books the HBO series Game of Thrones is based on. Terry Brooks has an extensive history of his Shannara series. Although I have not read it, I’m pretty sure Robert Jordan knew the history of his Wheel of Time series before they were ever published. I’m developing the history of the new world I created in my second manuscript. A detailed history plays an incredible, and valuable, tool in your story. Don’t neglect it.

Next week, there’s a major anniversary of an event that struck Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. You don’t want to miss it.

* * *

What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading book thirteen of the Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series, The Rose Rent. I also started reading Ghosts of Arkansas Highway #7 by Gary Weibye.

Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.