By LEONARD GRAY

NORCO – The fury of 1965’s Hurricane Betsy was memorable within the living memory of many River Parishes residents, who remember the widespread loss of homes, businesses and churches.

For John “Ikey” and Lola Lucas of Norco, Hurricane Betsy was a new the beginning. Among other things, Betsy helped inspire his later career as emergency operations director for St. Charles Parish, a 19-year career which boosted him into the national forefront of emergency planners.

However, back in 1965, Ikey and Lola were running the Ikey Lucas Hardware Store, which he had bought in 1958 from Nelson Kugler. With a hurricane on the way, the store was quite popular.

“We had toys, lumber, paint, cookware,” he recalled. “It was organized and nicely-arranged.”

Betsy neared the Gulf Coast, and Norco residents swept in to the Lucas store and bought out all the batteries, plywood and oil lamps as they could find. “So many people needed so many things,” he remembered. “You couldn’t get enough to satisfy them all.”

As the storm approached, Lucas drove to Destrehan High School to open the building for anyone wishing to take shelter there. Once there, he was unable to leave from the fury of the storm.

At one point that night, a tree limb came through a window and cut a boy badly on the chin. Lucas agreed to take him to Dr. Maurice Weilbaecher’s office, riding with the doctor. With the River Road completely blocked with fallen trees and tree limbs, the trio took to the crest of the levee – where the river had risen to within a foot of the top – and made their way to Weilbaecher’s clinic.

Meanwhile, back in Norco, Lola Lucas sheltered at home with the family. However, one family member was determined to stay outside – the family dog, Rusty. Rusty instead holed up in his doghouse to ride out the storm.

During the night, a large tree was split by a bolt of lightning and came crashing down to within an inch of Lola’s car. In the morning, with some neighbors surviving with little damage and others totally ruined, the Lucas house was in good shape except for the loss of their roof shingles.

Rusty, though, did not survive the night. “I think he died from fright,” Lola said.

That experience helped steer John Lucas toward his career in public service, working with the sheriff’s office, serving for more than six years as a St. Charles Police Juror, as sales tax collector and, in March 1977, as director of civil defense.

When the parish adopted the Home Rule Charter, his position became that of director of emergency preparedness, which he held until his retirement in July 1996. In his job, he soaked in workshops and courses, finally reaching the point where he was giving classes. Lucas lectured everywhere from Harvard University to the National Academy of Science and Engineering.

Lucas likewise contributed in other ways, with leadership roles in the United Way of St. Charles, American Red Cross and the Southeast Louisiana Technical Task Force on Hurricane Preparedness. Among his achievements was the development of the four-stage system of emergency rankings, now in use for integrated emergency planning.

“He had the ability to get people together and get people to listen to him,” Lola said of her 82-year-old husband.

Joseph Lucia Jr., owner of L’Observateur for many years, likewise covered the storm’s fury for this paper and for the Times-Picayune. “It was rough,” Lucia commented of that time. “So much destruction. So much tragedy.”

Lucia’s coverage commenced when Betsy slammed into southeast Louisiana on the night of Sept. 9, after an eight-day march on the city, leaving death and destruction in its wake.

Nearly a half-million people fled the region in anticipation of the storm..

In Reserve, St. Peter Catholic Church, save for its steeple, was completely wrecked, along with Garyville’s St. Hubert Catholic Church and New Zion Baptist Church in Gramercy.

Both churches were unoccupied at the time Betsy’s fury was unleashed, but three children died when New Zion’s walls collapsed, identified as Philomene Brown, 8; Alvin Gant Jr., 4; and his brother, Carl Evans Gant, 2, all of Gramercy. So far as is known, those were the only fatalities from Hurricane Betsy in the River Parishes.

Between 150 and 200 people had gathered in the church when it suddenly collapsed around midnight. Practically all those within were trapped inside for hours before they could be rescued.

At St. Hubert, the Rev. Sebastian Arjonilia reported he heard what sounded like an explosion around 12:45 a.m. He looked out of the rectory and saw the collapsed church.

He located the church’s tabernacle and recover the Blessed Sacrament. At St. Peter, the Rev. Michael Killoughey said: “I walked to the front porch of the rectory several times during the night and flashed a light on the front of the church. Everything seemed all right each time. It was not until daybreak that I learned that the front of the church was the only part of the building still standing.”

Msgr. J.M. Eyraud, retired pastor of St. Peter, cried when he saw the damage to the historic church, where he had labored for more than 50 years, and said, “I thought I would leave St. Peter’s. I didn’t think St. Peter’s would leave me.”

A report made to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, provided by the late Samuel Landry of Norco, reflects the damage made by Hurricane Betsy in the River Parishes.

St. John the Baptist Parish, with 144,000 acres, had 107,400 acres flooded. St. Charles Parish, with 194,600 acres, had 127,100 acres flooded.

In Montz, St. Isadore the Farmer chapel was destroyed and never rebuilt; knocked off the roof of Helvetia Plantation near Union; destroyed Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Taft; wiped out the original Pleasure Bend dance hall; finished off the Grand Point School; and wrecked the original St. Hubert Catholic Church in Garyville.

L’Observateur wrote at the time: “Not a home or business place n the entire (St. John the Baptist) parish escaped damage of some sort as Hurricane Betsy lashed the area from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., with winds estimated at their peak from 120 to 140 mph.”

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a month-long series of stories relating area residents’ memories of tropical storms. The articles began on June 1, the beginning of the 2002 hurricane season.