Two hurricanes come near in 1926

The 1926 hurricane season was fairly average, but as The Weekly Gazette reported, two hurricanes that year hit pretty close to home.
The first one to approach Louisiana was the third of the season, which was before hurricanes were named. The September 4, Gazette reported that “several lives were lost in Louisiana.
According to National Weather Service records, the tropical storm formed August 20 west-northwest of Venezuela, approached the western tip of Cuba, then veered northwest as it became a hurricane. By the afternoon of August 24, it had winds of 100 mph and it turned north.
In the morning of August 25, winds peaked at 115 mph and later that day, it came ashore at Houma with those winds, which today would be classified a Category 3 hurricane.
The storm caused a storm surge of 15 feet south of Houma. Modern records show there were 25 storm-related deaths and $6 million (in 1926 dollars) in damage to crops and buildings.
The report in The Weekly Gazette stated “effects were felt throughout the state,” especially in Mary and Terrebonne parishes. It also reported crops and outbuildings in Evangeline Parish were damaged when the downgraded storm came through here.
But the biggest hurricane that year -- the sixth of the season -- was large enough to rate a name, The Great Miami Hurricane. But by the time it reached Ville Platte, the September 24, 1926, Gazette reported it was only a “good stiff breeze and a few hours of rain.”
According to National Weather Service records, when is now classified as a Category 4 hurricane caused more than 470 deaths and an estimated $105 million in 1926 dollars, some $100 billion today. It devastates Miami and surrounding areas when it struck there September 18.
It crossed over south Florida in a northwest track, entered the Gulf of Mexico, and made landfall again around Mobile, Alabama, and Biloxi, Misissippi, according to the Gazette report.
Modern records show it was downgraded to a tropical storm as it got to Mississippi, and to a tropical depression when it got to the Mississippi River heading for Evangeline Parish on September 21. It was again downgraded before it reached the Texas border.