Goodbye Holly Beach :(
When I heard that Rita took a turn for Port Arthur, a lump filled my throat. I knew that Port Arthur was only a few miles away (26 to be exact) from my favorite party town, Holly Beach and that Holly Beach wouldn’t be around very much longer.
While searching Google for some sort of comfort, I actually found it. Byways.com writes
The structures, which appear to be of a temporary nature, are "built to be rebuilt." Their close proximity to the Gulf makes them a prime target for the ravages of hurricanes and other tropical storms.
While I know that residents are aware of hurricanes, reading that it was built to be rebuilt makes me have hope that life will return to normal in Holly Beach in a year or two. Long live T&Ts!! Oh also, the San Francisco Chronical wrote an article about Holly Beach that’s truly heartbreaking. They refer to a huge Christian church that we stayed across from when we were in Holly Beach last night. I thought it was oddly shaped… perhaps, like a bar and sure enough, it was a bar in the early 90s.
All this talk about Holly Beach made me wonder exactly how close it was to the eye. To satify my own curiosity, I created this map that lists Holly Beach, Kaplan (where I grew up) and the two Louisiana towns currently making headlines, Lake Charles (or as we call it, Lake Chawls)
Click to enlarge
From the National Hurricane Center: VERMILION PARISH…MAXIMUM STORM SURGE BETWEEN 10 AND 15 FEET TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. THIS WILL FLOOD LAND AROUND PECAN ISLAND AND INTRACOASTAL CITY. SECTIONS OF DELCAMBRE WILL BE UNDER WATER.
Pecan Island is 27 miles south of Kaplan. Delcambre (Del-cum) is 18 miles east. *sigh*
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Yes, it is very sad that Cameron Parish has been destroyed. I lived in Constance Beach as a child. They will rebuild!
My co-worker is the owner of 4 campsites on Riviera Lane, Holly Beach. His grandfather built there in the early 50’s. The original house was destroyed in 1957 and has been re-built 2 times since. The family plans to rebuild as soon as allowed.
The front page of todays NY Times has a picture of what used to be Holly Beach, LA.
ohh so that IS holly beach. it totalllly looked like it but the papers cite it as Cameron. It’s on the cover of LA TImes as well
Wonderful to hear about the rebuilding too!!
I am so glad you put this up of the before and after of Holly Beach, I to love the cajun riviera and have been going every year since I was a child, this used to be our only summer vacation and I could not wait to pack up and go, now that I have my own family, my children look at it the same way, they love it, I am so glad to hear people are going to rebuild, life would not be the same without Holly Beach, I will just look at this as a rebirth of the Great Cajun Riviera and look forward to good times ahead in Holly Beach, again thanks for this website.
i was there when hurricane rita hit forked island.the water was 4′5 to 7′1 in some part in vermilion parish.
I been to holly beach every summer as a child not so many summers since i gotten older but i got married now and took my Oklahoma husband down to Cajun counrty (( MY HOME))) he’s hooked. I can’t wait for Holly to rebuild.. he want to take our camper and park on beach even though its nothing but sand.. i call that hooked how about you?
well i have recently stumbled across these comments and sites of Holly Beach as i was searching around to see what the net had to offer of Holly Beach.. My husband and and our entire families(almost entire)are born and raised in Holly Beach and Johnson Bayou. My husband and I owned the new store Hurricanes and the former Roys Cabins since 1999. When Hurricane season came close each year, in the back of our minds the distant worry of being demolished was always there. We always heard the stories of the old cajun ways Holly Beach was rebuilt after Audrey, never to my dismay could I have imagined what destruction those people incountered. The heritage of Holly Beach has lived so strongly in the hearts and minds of so many wonderful cajun people..There was so much history in that small one mile long cajun resort. So many beautiful people have long lost the spirit of our cajun riviera. Returning to Holly Beach has become a battle to many trying to hold on to their heritage. To those still holding on, may God Bless you and stay strong in heart and mind. It hurts my heart to see what has become of such a unique tradition of cajun gathering. To see so many come from northern areas,with totally disrespect to our heritage,makes me feel so empty. Many came to Holly Beach several years before Rita and bought property and built “retirement camps”as they call it. Since Rita, they have tried and just about succeeded in completly wiping out our home.. There are so many words i could say to tell them people where they belong, but if they didn’t like Holly Beach before Rita, then they shouldn’t have bought property there. We were a family, although many of us did not know each others names, we knew each summer to come we would celebrate another beautiful cajun summer in our special Cajun Riviera. As i bid farewell to so many memories and Holly Beach summer days, I hope you all continue to carry on the spirit and history of a once unique place that keep the cajun tradition and heritage going. And to all of you who don’t belong, your day will come when you lose, and when you do, I hope you feel the pain you are causing for so many.. Nothing is made to last forever, but one thing that is hard to kill is a cajun and their ways…Let tha good times roll…