Ham Radio Operator Remembers Hurricane Audrey:

The images from the devastation caused by Hurricane Audrey are still vivid in the mind of the man who is possibly the last living amateur radio operator who helped transfer information as the storm made her way across Louisiana in 1957. Steve Lumpkin, now 70 and living in Arkansas, operated a HAM radio from the basement of the Calcasieu Parish courthouse with other operators as Hurricane Audrey struck the Cameron Parish coastline. He was 10 at the time. "I was licensed at the age of 7, so it was something I knew how to do and I knew I was capable of doing it," he recalled. "That courthouse was the tallest building in the area at the time, so we put up an antenna on the tip of it and hunkered down in the basement for two to three days eating sandwiches and just passing along information. I remember when I got home my mom made a huge meal just for me because I was so hungry." In addition to putting out weather reports every half-hour, much of Lumpkin's job was to transfer health and welfare information to local authorities from surrounding areas -- including Oberlin, Jennings and Sulphur. A lot of times, he transferred requests for medical help or necessities, and took down information to compile lists of surviving family members attempting to find one another. Sometimes, he said, it was to gather information about a deceased family. "There were a lot of those, and that was so hard. It was really, really tough," he said.

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