Hurricanes in the 1960s; Experiencing the eye wall in Betsy
Robert Gerdes by Caroline Gerdes, 2012; 4700.2441
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Robert Gerdes.
TEMPESTS:
Storms in the Archives
Caroline Gerdes: Do you remember hurricanes or floods when you were growing up in the Ninth
Ward?
Robert Gerdes: Yeah. It didn't seem like there was as many hurricanes as now. But there were
multiple ones in the 1960s I remember. Beulah [1967] and Hilda happened pre-1965. Hilda blew down a
pecan tree in the yard, so I remember it. And then Betsy was September 9, 1965, and it flooded the
Lower Ninth Ward. Flooded my yard until about three feet deep and maybe a little less than a foot in
the house. It drowned some of my chickens, other ones flew up and got away from it. Grandpa stayed
with his dog in the car in a part that didn't flood. We went to a shelter in the Upper Ninth Ward in
a high school.
C. Gerdes: Could you explain why he stayed with his dog?
R. Gerdes: Well, they wouldn't let his dog in the shelter, so he just sat out in the car. The
winds were supposedly 130 miles an hour. I know they were strong. I saw lots of windows and doors
blow out in the school. When you're in the eye wall, like with Betsy, it's just constant wind.
There's just some variation on how strong it is. Houses rock, there's always a roar from all the
wind encountering and moving things. It just turns into a low frequency roar.