Hurricane Audrey remembered 64 years later

Cameron, Louisiana (KTRK) -- It's been six decades since residents along the Texas-Louisiana border were battered by a monster storm that left an untold number dead and tens of thousands homeless.

On June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey roared ashore as a Category 4 hurricane near Cameron, Louisiana, changing the landscape forever. It was 63 years before Hurricanes Laura and Delta did the same.

Unlike recent hurricanes, Audrey claimed at least 500 lives, but there were estimates at the time that indicated it was much higher.

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KTRK was in its infancy back then and Hurricane Audrey was one of the first major disasters it covered.

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A small clip of film is all that survives of the coverage of the storm that struck the coast .

The National Weather Service said the exact death toll will never be known as many perished in the storm surge in Cameron and Vermillion parishes and many missing persons were never found.

Mass graves were dug in cemeteries throughout the region where the unidentified victims were buried.

The storm surge extended almost 20 miles inland, flooding an estimated 1.6 million acres. Most of the dead were from that surge, officials said.

Others may have been fortunate to survive the storm and surge, but their road to recovery was long and tough. More than 40,000 were left homeless by Audrey.