Lake Charles, LA history

Well it looks like I have been quite remiss in updating my blog. Well here is a short history of the town and area I will be living in here for the next month or so. I hope I can update you more soon.
The first settlers were a number of Native American Tribes. The area’s first white settlers were Mr. and Mrs. LeBleu a French couple who settle Le Bleu’s Settlement. When their daughter married Charles Sallier, settling along the Lake the area soon took on the name of Charleston or Charles town. It wasn’t until 1867 that Lake Charles became the official name of the town, and Charleston was incorporated into the new town name. The term Calcasieu is derived from the Indian term Quelqueshue meaning crying eagle. The people do not identify themselves as Creole but as Cajun.
The area was hit by hurricane Audrey in September 1957, killing around 520 people. Between 90 and 95% of the buildings in Cameron Parish and lower Vermillion Parish were beyond repair. The waves atop the storm surge were nearly 20 feet tall. Locals say that the re-growth of plant life to its pre-Audrey norm took nearly 30 years. An interesting note of fact on the National Weather Service page was the exodus of wildlife the evening before the hurricane struck. Crawfish were observed fleeing the marshes en mass. Some local residents took advantage and captured some to boil the next day. Unfortunately they never got the chance.
Hurricane Rita hit on September 25, 2005. It was the third most intense hurricane ever recorded in the gulf. Over 2 million residents evacuated the area prior to landfall. When Rita finally reached Cameron Parish she was down graded from a category 5 to a 3. The state of Louisiana reported the cost of damage at nearly 11 billion dollars. The total loss of life was close to 120 people.
While many people remained away from the area for as much as three months many people returned, bringing with them many residents from the Katrina devastated New Orleans. The rebuild and clean-up of Cameron and Calcasieu Parish is well underway but so much is left to be done. One woman we interviewed recalled surviving hurricane Audrey only losing a few shingles on the roof. She did however have to throw away nearly all of her belongings in the house because of flood damage. She reported that this was mainly due to the fact that their was no such insurance and the government was yet to be in the business of assisting people recover. People are rebuilding and are very resilient.