1926 hurricane and the demise of one family's shrimping platforms
Louis Blum by Don Davis and Carl Brasseaux, 2009; 4700.2067
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Seabreeze Pass, "Barataria Bay to Terrebonne LA," 1908. NOAA.
TEMPESTS: Storms in the Archives
Don Davis: Now, your family owned [shrimp drying] platforms. I think a hurricane changed your mind about owning . . .
Louis Blum: Yeah. In 1926 a hurricane came right through Terrebonne Parish and blew away a lot of the platforms. And my grandfather and his partner had a boat and they sent the boat to go get the people on one particular platform, I think it was out by the Seabreeze [Pass]. And the boat broke down and they had nine people left out of the platform, including a little boy that had gone fishing with his daddy. And they got caught on that platform, and nine people drowned. My grandfather and his partner decided that, at that that time, they were going to try to get rid of those platforms because they didn't want to have that responsibility on them. If people wanted to dry the shrimp they could do it on their own you know, and we would buy it from them. And they parked the boats and stuff behind the shop and we still have . . . In fact, one of the masts off of one of the boats is supporting the building in the back, back there. If you want to go walk back there and look [laughing].