1965 Hurricane Betsy Review

As IDA approaches a landfall near or around Grand Isle and heads north somewhere between BR and NOLA, I thought it would be worthwhile to review what other storms have occurred in this area to understand the effects of those storms and predict what is likely to happen today.



There has not been a major hurricane to hit near Grand Isle since Betsy, a Cat 4, hit in 1965. There have been a few smaller storms like Danny (Cat 1) in 1997, but to my knowledge nothing like a cat 4 has hit this area of Lafourche/Terrebonne since Betsy.

Grand Isle Aftermath 1965:

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Betsy was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall in Louisiana, with wind gusts measured at 145 mph and sustained winds exceeding 110 mph. It left nothing more than foundations and debris in Grand Isle, and it washed fishing villages such as Yscloskey and Delacroix Island off the map.

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Betsy also drove a storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans, and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a deep-water shipping channel to the east and south. Levees for the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet along Florida Avenue in the Lower Ninth Ward and on both sides of the Industrial Canal failed. The flood water reached the eaves of houses in some places and over some one story roofs in the Lower Ninth Ward. Some residents drowned in their attics trying to escape the rising waters.

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It was ten days or more before the water level in New Orleans went down enough for people to return to their homes. It took even longer than that to restore their flooded houses to a livable condition. Those who did not have family or friends with dry homes had to sleep in the shelters at night and forage for supplies during the day, while waiting for the federal government to provide emergency relief in the form of trailers. In all, 164,000 homes were flooded at the second landfall.

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Betsy aftermath 1965:

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One of the direct results of Hurricane Betsy was construction of a massive flood-protection system by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, designed to prevent a repeat of the widespread flooding caused by the storm. For 40 years, it held -- and for 40 years Hurricane Betsy was the storm by which all other hurricanes were measured in New Orleans. Then came 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which laid bare the inadequacies of that federal levee system, in the process giving New Orleans a new hurricane high-water mark.

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Growing up in NOLA and living in other parts of LA the rest of my life, I have always heard the names of 2 storms (prior to Katrina) that were the benchmarks for devastation here - Camile (wiped out MS coast) and Betsy. I hope that with modern construction standards and better flood control measures, SE LA can withstand this Betsy clone today better than our forebears did in 1965. Good luck everyone.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Betsy

https://www.wafb.com/2019/12/12/years-later-betsy-upgraded-category-hurricane/