T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME:    Lucille D. Duminy                         COLLECTION:  4700.1685

IDENTIFICATION:  Hurricane Betsy survivor; Ninth Ward resident

INTERVIEWER:  Nilima Mwendo

PROJECT:  Hurricane Betsy

INTERVIEW DATES:  November 20, 2003         

FOCUS DATES:   1965-1969

ABSTRACT:

Tape 3338, Side A

Water went up to the roof in Hurricane Betsy; nobody warned them about the flood; National Guard trucks were passing, evacuating other people before flooding; finally someone came by in a truck hollering to evacuate; uncle identified rising water as river water; people from Chalmette rescuing people in boats; the shelter at McCarty School; dividing up canned goods from the school cafeteria; neighbor with heart problems; no usable bathrooms in shelter; trying to keep track of family during rescue by boat; boat dropped them off at dry spot, long walk to parents’ house; police warned them against walking, because power lines down; wish that water could have been spread more equally through city, instead of just in Ninth Ward; husband Walter sick with kidney stones; staying with relatives after storm; mostly white workers providing relief services after flood; children wanting to go home, but house not ready; relatives fixed up house; friction with man providing relief who thought she didn’t need new appliances; thought food should come before garbage removal in relief efforts; Walter in hospital, had to take care of cleaning up house without him; checking on parents, who were in Belle Chasse; everybody had to help each other after flood; boat rescues during flood; neighbors helping each other; mandatory tetanus shots for people in flooded areas; relief lady coming around asking personal questions; husband had private room in Charity Hospital; losing family pictures in flood; heard about child drowning at the shelter; rumors of rape and mayhem; hardest part was getting relief services; slow relief process; getting fingerprinted to receive relief services; humiliation of and objection to fingerprinting; guards monitoring traffic into Ninth Ward; having to show identification to go to her own house; frightened to return to her house alone, while husband in hospital; washing blankets; nineteen or twenty people staying in one house; collection taken at husband’s work to help out Duminy family; Red Cross wanted to see their birth certificates, which were lost in flood; hanging important papers to dry, but they were ruined; endless questions from SBA; insurance company wasn’t much help; trouble washing filth out of clothes.

Tape 3338, Side B

Relief agencies stipulated how money was to be spent; man from SBA objected to Duminy’s spending loan money on a car; breaking down into tears when harassed by lady from SBA; SBA continued to check up on them for a year, to see what they were buying with loan money; had work done on car just before lost it in storm; wanted to be back in her house, even though danger from robbers and looters; had washing machine but no dryer; friction with doctor when daughter Hope treated for convulsions; a baby died while waiting to get into Charity Hospital; arguing with doctors over treatment of her daughter; neighborhood activist Mr. Hebert; Lyndon Johnson visited city by helicopter; friendliness and helpfulness between neighbors; people who left neighborhood after storm; neighborhood before Betsy; relationship with neighborhood children and parents; Betsy memories came back during Hurricane Camille; description of Camille; after Camille, Leander Perez distributed relief money to people in Plaquemines Parish; after Camille, son went to Charity Hospital, suffering from convulsions; son put on white side of Charity instead of black; discussion about scope of interview; every hurricane season brings back memories; relatives who still live in area; evacuated for first time during Hurricane George; driving conditions during evacuation; insurance wouldn’t reimburse her for evacuation motel; family members returning to their houses after Betsy; clarifying questions about words and proper nouns; explanation of term “long stew”; white people on Tennessee Street knew levee was about to be busted; levee busted at Florida Street Bridge; official story that levee burst on its own; in earlier hurricanes, sometimes rode them out on a boat; hurricanes seemed fun when she was a teenager; in those days, everybody had boats instead of cars; mother’s stories of 1915 storm in Empire, Louisiana; 1915 storm ruined family’s gardens and livelihood; rice farming during World War One; rice tasted better in those days; animals on farm of her youth; bartering for farm products in her grandmother’s day; selling eggs to poor old man in neighborhood; got whipped for cheating old man out of money; spoke French with her grandmother; storytelling uncle; description of schoolhouse when she was a child; children separated by color; played with white children.

TAPES:  1 (T3338)                                        TOTAL PLAYING TIME:  1 hour, 34 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT:  64

OTHER MATERIALS:  Correspondence (2 pages), Interviewee Biographical Form

RESTRICTIONS: None