My name is Wayne Hebert. I’m 78 years old and live three miles southeast of Iowa, La.
In June of 1957 I was 11 years old when I heard a hurricane was coming. I thought it was going to be a great adventure. I was young and naive.
We had a dairy. Power went out and couldn’t run the electrical milking machines, the water well, and the milk cooler. My father connected a vacuum hose from his pickup to the vacuum tank. We got water from a neighbor’s rice field well. Threw away whatever warm milk that couldn’t be consumed.
Mr. Spears from Leading Dairy contacted my father and said the hospital needed milk for the babies. Told my father they had power and to bring the milk over right after milking. My father covered the ten-gallon cans with a tarp and brought the milk over twice a day.
A dairyman from Cameron Parish lost his dairy and his cows. The local dairymen were going to donate some cows to help him get started again, but he decided not to.
The dairy barn is still standing. We use it for storage. There is a scar on the side of the old house. It was caused by a tv antenna. Every time I see it, I think about the poor people from Cameron Parish.