I heard that after Hurricane Audrey there were mass graves for those who could not be identified. Could you tell me where these grave sites were located?

Unidentified victims of Hurricane Audrey were buried in mass graves in Combre Memorial Park, on Opelousas Street, and Highland Memorial Park, on Common Street. 

The storm, which struck Cameron Parish on June 27, 1957, killed about 500 people. 

From a 1997 American Press story on the mass burials:

For Harold Mangum, who was 27 at the time and worked for Hixson Funeral Home, the experience was “quite a traumatic thing.”

Mangum recalls working at the Lake Charles docks at the time, where he helped number and tag bodies as they were brought in. “We were processing the fatalities and getting what identification articles we could and numbering them. People would come in and give us descriptions of clothing or watches.

“If and when identification was made, we would get in touch with the funeral home the family wanted to use,” he said.

Caskets were used to bury those whose families were able to make an identification, he said.

Pine boxes and mass burials, however, were standard fare for victims who were never identified, said Mangum. Those mass burials were mostly for blacks and were handled through black-owned funeral homes, he said.

“They had the largest number of unidentifieds,” Mangum said.

Raymond Fondel Sr. of Fondel’s Funeral Home was 17 at the time. He remembers all too well his days at Gilmore’s Funeral Home and the deaths from Hurricane Audrey. …

“It was one of the most bitter experiences that I have ever witnessed. I hope we never will experience it again,” Fondel said.

Fondel eventually helped bring in and prepare about 200 bodies. Gilmore’s became so filled with storm casualties that room had to be made in the back yard of the establishment, according to Fondel.

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Schools serve needs of specific students

A recent issue of The Informer stated that classroom pods are to be placed at some area schools.

Please give information about the referenced schools — Positive Connections and College Street T. & I — that are to receive pods. How does one qualify to attend?

“College Street T&I is CPSB’s Vocational Center. Any high school student who is interested in a career and technical education course and/or career pathway may take courses at College Street Vocational Center,” Holly Holland, spokeswoman for the Calcasieu Parish School Board, wrote in an email. 

“Positive Connections is CPSB’s Elementary Alternative School.”

For more information visit, www.cpsb.org.

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The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.