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Cameron is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the parish seat of Cameron Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area. After sustaining extreme damage from Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008, in the 2010 Census Cameron was recorded as having a population of only 406, a 79% drop since 2000. [edit] History
The town of Cameron was originally called Leesburg, although the post office was designated Cameron, like the parish. Its location at the mouth of the Calcasieu River made it a transhipment location for mail, cattle, and other goods to be taken by ship to Lake Charles. After the sinking of the first successful oil well in Louisiana in 1901, Cameron became a center of petroleum extraction. In 1957, Cameron was nearly destroyed by Hurricane Audrey. A storm surge of and winds of devastated nearby oilfields and caused the deaths of more than 300 residents of the town. Nearly fifty years later, in late September 2005, Hurricane Rita hit Cameron with [1] winds and the highest storm surges ever recorded in the state, at Cameron and possibly in some locations. Much of the town was destroyed, but everyone had evacuated beforehand. On September 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike leveled Cameron with a storm surge while the town was still recovering from Rita in 2005. Ike destroyed more than 90 percent of the homes in the parish seat and caused catastrophic flooding in every part of the parish. After Rita and Ike, the parish instituted stricter building codes, and insurance rates rose dramatically, making rebuilding too expensive for many residents. The population of Cameron fell 79 percent between 2000 and 2010.[2] By 2010, when the First Baptist Church was rebuilt, the town had lost its grocery stores and drug store and had only a gas station and a bank, and the post office and a restaurant, both housed in trailers. Most residents were still living in mobile homes. The main parish library, destroyed by Rita and again by Ike, was rebuilt on tall stilts; South Cameron Memorial Hospital, destroyed by Rita, was also rebuilt to withstand tropical storms. A new government complex was completed in 2015 but repairs to the parish courthouse were still needed.[3] On August 27, 2020, at 1:00 am CDT, Hurricane Laura made landfall near Cameron with maximum sustained winds of , a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. A storm surge measured between 9 and 12 feet inundated the immediate areas surrounding Cameron according to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. Much of the town was again destroyed or severely damaged, including the hospital.[4] Six weeks later, Hurricane Delta made landfall not too far east of Cameron as a category 2 storm. It caused further damage following Laura. Clean up from Laura was paused in preparation for Delta. [edit] Research Tips
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