Higginbotham/Sunset LA Tornado Survivor account by Mr. Ed Meche
(used with permission by Mr. Ed Meche)

I am writing this to fill in what I can remember of the tornado
as described in my mother's handwritten account of the incident. 

First of all, I have absolutely no recollection of any of it. The
tornado hit us on my third birthday, November 7, 1957. Eula Marie
and James Francis were my elder siblings at the time. Oddly enough
we were all born in November two years apart, Marie the 14th,
James the 17th.  Must have been cold in February-March of 1950,
1952 and 1954!!!

As indicated in Mom's writing my parents were share-croppers at
the time. I have some vague recollection of being out in the
fields and riding on a sled being pulled by mules as my parents
and grandparents harvested potatoes. I also remember bathing in
a #3 wash tub...that water was cold coming out of the well! 

As my Mom states in her writing, everything was destroyed. The
house was a clapboard house on a pier and beam foundation,
probably not much better than a mobile home. My grandfather's car
was actually parked directly in front of the house and according to
reports didn't have a scratch on it. Both the mules were found dead
approximately half a mile from the house. All the crops that had
been harvested and stored in barn were also gone.  All the sheep
and cattle were also dead. Dad's bird dog survived.

Of the injuries suffered my grandfather had a concussion, and as
Mom said, Dad had strained shoulder. My mother and grandmother
suffered no other physical injures.

Marie's right arm was broken just above the elbow, and according
to what Mom told me, that happened when the tornado hit the house
and slammed the bed against the wall. Her arm was hanging over the
edge of the bed.

She told me that James actually had bailing wire wrapped around his
legs but he had no other injuries.

Since it was my birthday, I got most of the gifts...

My left ear was almost completely severed from my head and so was
my lower lip. I was partially scalped and had a deep laceration
under my left eye. Mom said that the reason I suffered so many
injuries was that she had hold of me by my ankle only and could
feel the debris striking my body as the wind tried to pull me away.

There are only two things I can remember about the whole thing.
The burning sensation when they were cleaning my wounds in the
hospital a visit from my uncle Amede, dad's brother. Got fifty cents
too!!!

For the rest of my childhood every time thunderstorms would build my
parents and grandparents would go and hide in the car...of all places.
I remember nights sitting in that car thinking "what the hell is wrong
with these people" - it's just a storm!  Probably a good thing I
couldn't remember anything about the tornado.

I can't think of anything that I truly fear...maybe that was the real
birthday present.

Mom obviously took her time finishing her story because the two
additional children are Christine and Michael...Michael is six years
younger than I.

To translate my mother's last statement...Man proposes, God disposes.

Ed Meche
Carencro, Louisiana

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Higginbotham/Sunset LA Tornado Survivor account by Ms. Juanita Meche
(used with permission by Mr. Ed Meche)

Thursday, November 7th, 1957 will always live in my memory as the day
of the most terrifying experience I've ever been through.  We were
farming then, my husband and I, living on a small farm a few miles west
of Sunset, Louisiana, which we rented on shares.  We had three children
at that time.  Eula, age 7, Francis, age 5, and Edward, age 3. 

We arose early that fateful morning, to finish digging our crop of
potatoes before the weather turned too cold.  I turned on the radio, as
I did every morning, to listen to the news before I started for the
field.  I was not, at that time, afraid of any kind of storms or bad
weather, but the newscaster's voice sent a chill down my spine when he said, "Tornado warnings have been issued along and ninety miles on
either side of a line from [unknown], Texas to Crowley, Louisiana." 
Right then and there I had a feeling of impending disaster which
persisted all through the day as the wind kept getting stronger and
black clouds began piling up in the southwest.

We had our supper early that night and I sent the children off to bed.
By 8:30, my husband and I were in bed too, but neither of us could go
to sleep.  Thunder kept rumbling in the distance, light rain was falling,
and gusts of wind blew now and then.  Both of us still had that strange
feeling that something terrible was about to happen.

As the thunder grew louder and the wind increased, I kept getting more
and more restless.  Finally I got up and had just lighted a cigarette
when Mom and Dad arrived.  They had heard the tornado warnings, too, and
had come to get us to spend the night at their house.  I thought it would
be best that they stay over, since it was then 11:00 and I didn't want
to wake the children. 

We had a cup of coffee and chatted for perhaps 15 minutes when a sudden
gust of wind shook the house.  We all stared at one another and I'm still
wondering if we didn't all share the same thought - "what's going to
happen next?"

I brought the children into my bedroom (where we had been sitting) and
laid all three of them across my bed.  If something did happen we'd all
be together.  I then closed the door to their bedroom and the one to the
living room.

As my mother closed the door that led into the kitchen, there was a
sudden explosion of sound and the door flew open with such force that it
threw her off balance.  We saw, then, that the kitchen wasn't there any
more.  She tried to slam the door shut, but the wind opened it again and
threw her into Dad's arms (he was standing right behind her). The house
started shaking as though a giant hand had gotten hold of it and wanted
to see how long it would stay together.  I looked up and saw that the
ceiling was separating in a rapidly widening crack.  I threw myself over
the children in the bed and grabbed a hold of the mattress on each side.

The noise was deafening, like a combination of jet planes, fire engines,
and freight trains.  There was a sudden silence for perhaps two seconds,
as the center of the tornado was over us, then the house seemed to explode.
The last thing I saw of my home was a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
over my bed, and my silent plea was "Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on
us!"

The wind picked up the mattress, the children, and myself and literally
carried us (whirling 'round and 'round and going up and down) into the
field of corn about 300 yards from the house.  All this time I had been
keeping my head down and my eyes tightly shut, "If one of my precious
babies is to die, I don't want to see," was the thought that kept racing
through my mind.  We landed quite gently in the muddy field.  There was
not a breath of wind for about two feet off the ground, but Eula and
Edward would not lie still and kept struggling to get away from me.

I heard something strike my little girl with a "thud", and she fell
limply in the mud.  (I was "seeing" with my hands and ears.)  The wind
was pulling my baby away from me, but I kept hold of his leg.  God must
have been there, too, because I alone didn't have the strength to hold him.
The sound of those pieces of wood and possibly tin striking my children is
something I'll never forget.  I don't know what my feelings were during
those few short minutes.  Was it terror, pain, despair, or all of them
together?  The howling, screeching wind stopped abruptly and a deluge of
warm rain started falling.  The rain too stopped, then suddenly started
again, ice cold.  It revived my husband who had been knocked unconscious
and thrown into the field about 50 yards from us.  He called to me and asked if the children were all with me.  I was certain that I had only
Eula and Edward with me, but Francis piped up from the ground, "I'm here
Mommy."  He had been too scared to move!

Mother started calling for help at that time.  When the kitchen door had
pushed her into Dad's arms, he had grabbed her and hadn't let go.  We found
them there at the edge of the field.  He was unconscious, about to drown in
muddy water and still holding on to her so tightly that she couldn't free
herself.  My husband pulled Dad out of the water and shielded his face from
the rain with a board from the house, while he brought us to the car (which
had stayed at the same place!)  He went for help to carry Dad to the car.
He had a wrenched shoulder and Dad weighed 180 lbs., while he just weighed
125 lbs.

The neighbors set about trying to clear the road of telephone poles and
wires to get us to a hospital.  I won't try to describe the agonizing hour
it took to get us to Lafayette Charity Hospital.  All I know is that the
smell of blood was overpowering and I kept praying for them to hurry so my
baby wouldn't die.  I can never give enough thanks to those wonderful
doctors and nurses who took care of us, but I'm sure that God will bestow
his blessings upon them.

Our home was not the only one in the neighborhood that was damaged by the
tornado, but it was the only one that was completely demolished.  The
refrigerator, stove, and washing machine were twisted like paper bags. Not
a stick of wood from the rest of the furniture or the house could be found
that was over a foot long.  Shreds of clothing, dead chickens, broken glass,
splintered wood, rolled up barbed wire fences, twisted tin, and torn books
and papers were scattered for a quarter of a mile.  How can a person
explain the despair, the helplessness one feels when there's no home, no
clothes, no furniture left, three children, a husband, and a mother and
father in the hospital and not the first penny to start over again??

The Red Cross, our wonderful family, friends, and neighbors, all helped to
ease the pain and give us a new start. It would take the rest of my life to
repay their kindness.

We are all well now and have two more darling children, but the horrors of
that night can never be forgotten.  I pray to God that I never have to go
through something like that again, but "L' homme propose, et Oieu dispose!"

Juanita Meche
Carencro, Louisiana