10. The Last Island (Isle Derniere) Hurricane 1856
The 1856 hurricane which made landfall on Last Island changed the island forever by first completely submerging it under a storm surge of more than 13 feet of water, and then cutting it in half as the waters receded, creating a new channel separating the remnants of the popular vacation resort. The island was home to hotels and gambling parlors in the antebellum south, where the wealthy members of society mingled with professional gamblers and card sharps who arrived on the steamboats to New Orleans and other coastal communities. Ferries carried the vacationers and those who hoped to fleece them out to the island.
When the storm struck in August of 1856, no fewer than five vessels were sunk when they failed to receive a timely warning of the storm, which was first reported near Dry Tortugas on August 9. Heavy rains pelted the mainland, destroyed crops, and caused flash floods. Of the approximately 400 vacationers and gamblers on the island at the time of landfall nearly 200 died, another 200 or so were lost at sea. The death toll did not include the number of slaves who were killed in the disaster. The true death toll was likely much higher. A great number of the victims were millionaire (a relatively new term) sugar and rice growers and the press treated the disaster much as it did nearly sixty years later when the Titanic went down with so many rich and famous personages aboard.