from Sherry Clingan Armentor in Groves
I love our class website! You and Mike have done an awesome job putting it together. So much to enjoy. I have had a chance to look at only a fraction of it - great memories. So very sad to see the deceased classmates.

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GUESS/GUEST BOOK SNAFU

I sent out a poem a couple of weeks ago to give everyone a "heads-up" about new information & news on the website.  Well, not paying attention, I wrote GUESS BOOK instead of GUEST BOOK in the poem (referring to the link on our website home page).

(see below)

Southeast Texas' longest running annual summer concert returns for its 17th year, as the Gulf Coast Jam is back July 21 for another great night of classic rock 'n roll. 

Advanced tickets go on sale for $18 for all ages.  Tickets can be purchased at Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur , A&S Music in Nederland , Swicegood Music in Beaumont and the Penny Record in Bridge City .   

Tickets will also be available for purchase by credit card at www.boogiekings.com  . 

The show is being held at the Carl A. Parker Multipurpose Center on the campus of Lamar State College in Port Arthur .  The doors open at 7:00 pm with the show starting at 7:30 pm. 

Headlining the 2007 version of the Gulf Coast Jam are the Fabulous Boogie Kings with special guests G.G. Shinn, Jerry LaCroix, Jivin' Gene Bourgeois and Ken Marvel and the Swamp Rock Band. 

"The Fabulous Boogie Kings were supposed to retire after the show at last year's Gulf Coast Jam," said Don Ball of Triangel Concerts.  "They received so many calls and e-mails they decided to delay that for awhile.  In fact, the band just recorded a brand new album." 

The Fabulous Boogie Kings' new CD, "Never Go Away," features 14 tracks including the title track which is driectly about the Boogie Kings themselves. 

Ball has been the concert promoter behind all 16 previous Gulf Coast Jams over it's 18 year history.  The only year without a show in the series was affected by Hurricane Rita. 

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COOL CLOCK

1st  Line is  Seconds
           2nd Line is  Minutes 
           3rd  Line is  Hours
           4th  Line is  Days
           5th  Line is  Months
           6th  Line is  Years 

Http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf

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HURRICANE AUDREY strikes the gulf coast

CAMERON —

I n the early morning hours of June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey struck the Gulf Coast near the Texas/Louisiana border with a vengeance.

Nearly 500 people died as others —the survivors — huddled in the Cameron Parish Courthouse, in trees and in homes. And in the wake of the storm, emergency responders were left with the visual scars of dead and bloated cattle, floating human corpses, snakes, nutria rats and alligators.

Hundreds of people visited the Cameron Courthouse Square for a special program, “Remembering Hurricane Audrey,” in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the deadly storm on Wednesday.

Brigadier General Robert Joseph LeBlanc spoke to the hundreds who gathered for the event, highlighting some of the gruesome sights and what was learned from the storm.

“What we learned from this is that every parish needs to have a plan,” he said.

LeBlanc, director of the Vermilion Office of Emergency Preparedness, said there were about 500 causalities with Hurricane Audrey and no mandatory evacuation order. Comparing Audrey to a storm almost 50 years in the making, LeBlanc pointed out there were no causalities with Hurricane Rita, which took a similar path as Audrey in September 2005, and mandatory evacuation orders were in place.

The brigadier general hopes the area will one day have a seawall in place to protect the Gulf Coast from storm surge just as Galveston has a seawall. “We provide 50 percent of the fuel to the U.S. in the area, by God that is worth something,” he said.

LeBlanc was deployed to the coastal area after Audrey in a search and rescue mission of sorts.

“The sights I saw that day while rescuing people, I never want to see again,” he said. “It was total destruction.”

After speeches were made and memories relived Wednesday, patrons moved to the large tent for refreshments and a tour of a number of booths. News file footage from NBC affiliate KPLC showed local scenes of Audrey’s aftermath, while a second television showed national coverage of the hurricane.

The American Press handed out free special editions of the anniversary edition of the newspaper, while nearby historical photos of the hurricane were on display.

Audrey is considered the second deadliest hurricane to strike Louisiana — second only to Hurricane Katrina — and the seventh deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S.

According to the National Weather Service, Audrey left in her wake $150 million in damages — equal to $1.3 billion in 2007 dollars.

“While Audrey was classified as a strong Category 4 hurricane with estimated wind speeds of about 150 miles per hour, water was the real killer,” Andy Patrick, meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS forecast office in Lake Charles, La., said. “Nearly all of the deaths can be attributed to storm surge. Surges in excess of 12 feet were reported along a 24 mile stretch of Louisiana coast line from Calcasieu Pass to Grand Cheniere.”

Hurricane Audrey still haunts survivors 50 years later
CAMERON —

An eerie feeling overcame Paul Justice as he looked upon the Cameron Courthouse Square for the first time in 50 years.

The square, filled with people, brought back memories of the death and destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Audrey on June 27, 1957.

“We found the bodies of 14 women and children in the attic of a house,” the now white haired Justice said of the day after the storm made landfall. “As the waves of water came in, they were trapped. There was no way out.”

Justice was a 21-year-old Air Force Sergeant stationed in Lake Charles when the Category 4 hurricane hit Cameron. He was one of the many who volunteered to help in the aftermath of the hurricane. The event took an emotional toll on Justice, who said he didn’t eat for three days because of what he had witnessed in the sleepy Louisiana town.

“I haven’t been here in 50 years as of June 28,” he said. “The devastation and misery these people were in ... I can still see all the bodies. There was livestock everywhere. It’s a mess I never want to see again or go through again.”

Residents unable to reach the safety of the courthouse during the storm were stopped by W.F. “Frankie” Henry Jr. and brought to shelter in a two-story house. A total of 147 people survived in the house, Henry said.

“We had to open the windows on the first floor to let the water in or the house would have floated away,” Henry, now a senior, said while seated beneath a large tent at the courthouse square. “Then we moved upstairs into two bedrooms. We started writing names down and placing them in (glass) jars; we didn’t have Ziploc Baggies then, and tied the jars to us. The water rose 12 feet. I think the weight of the people in the house kept it from floating away.”

The house remained quiet even though 147 people were “jammed inside” the two rooms, Henry, 78, said — those riding out Audrey were waiting for the worst but hoping for a break in the vicious storm.

“The kids would see houses float by and laugh,” he said. “We let them laugh to keep them occupied. When more than one house floated by they would try and guess which would go past first.”

But it was the next day that sticks in Henry’s memory. The Cameron native volunteered for civil defense and had the duty of identifying the bodies.

“I only did that for two days. That was all I could stand,” he said. “There was an ice house nearby with 300 blocks of ice, and we had no power, that’s where we kept the bodies.”

Recognizing some of the deceased proved difficult, however, because many residents did not have identification on them when they perished. Henry, said many people placed their wallet in their top pocket as the waters rose above their waist. But as the water rose even higher, the wallets and the identification were lost.

Memories, like Justice and Henry’s, of one of the worst natural disasters to hit the coastal town of Cameron were revisited by survivors and those who heeded the call for assistance during a special 50th anniversary ceremony Wednesday.

Hundreds of people came from Louisiana and across the U.S. to the Cameron Courthouse Square to remember the fateful day — June 27, 1957 — when almost 500 people died during the hurricane.