Evacuating in Betsy to the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium
Lucy Thomas by Nilima Mwendo, 2003; 4700.1687
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Hurricane Betsy flooding as seen from Air Force One, 1965. LBJ Library photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto.
TEMPESTS: Storms in the Archives
Nilima Mwendo: When y'all were living in the evacuation center at the Municipal Auditorium, what were the issues that were happening there? The issues of concern?
Lucy Thomas: Well, it was . . . For one thing, it was overcrowded. The people weren't as friendly, you know. I was really glad to get out because I had all the kids with me. And I didn't want them to be in the building over the night. They were overcrowded. They had people walking on one another. You're trying to sleep, and everybody's walking all around you. No bunks. I could remember nobody slept that night. We stayed in one little corner, you know. Like wherever we was, but we was in one little corner.
"Francis [?], look at the water coming up to the first step." I said, "If that water get up a little higher we're going to have to get out." "Oh no." He says, "It ain't going to get up no higher than the steps!" He thought it wasn't, you know. And so, girl! That water came in this house, you wouldn't believe it! Just like a ship had then passed. Big furniture was turned upside down. Everything was tumbled up and down in this house.
I was worried about the kids. Man, I was worried about getting them out of here. So that's when I put all the kids in the attic. And I say, "Francis, that water's up to the step." "Oh," he says, "I don't think it's going to get any higher." [laughs] And the water got so high! And that's how we got caught in this house. Because if he had left when I first told him, we wouldn't have got in it either. A lot of people, like I said, they must have left when the water first was coming. See, because when that water was coming, it was coming in kind of slower. Then later on, that water was coming rough. Just like a dike just busted open. And that water started coming in here, boy, it wasn't funny. And that was something.
Mwendo: Never want to live that through again?
Thomas: Yeah. No, indeed. That water was something.