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.comwrites

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*