The Informer: Record cold troubled Lake Charles for days in 1985

Published 7:49 am Saturday, July 26, 2025

Record-shattering cold temperatures caused a critical water shortage, a brief power outage and dozens of frozen pipes in Southwest Louisiana during the winter of 1985.

“If we had a major problem such as a fire, we wouldn’t have enough water to fight it,” Ben Hockey of the Greater Lake Charles Water Co. told the Lake Charles American Press for its Tuesday, Jan. 22, 1985, edition.

He said the storage tank at Center Street east was empty and the tank at Chennault was almost empty with only three to five feet remaining.

“We’re building up a little bit at North Ryan Street right now,” he said. “We had to let the elevator storage go flat. We can’t pump the underground start dry … we can only go down to about five feet and we went down to six feet Monday afternoon.”

A record low temperature for Jan. 21 was set when the mercury plunged to 15 degrees. According to the National Weather Service, the previous record was 21 set in 1940.

Becky Watson of Gulf States Utilities said 11,000 GSU customers lost power from 7:55 a.m. until about 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The outage affected an area stretching from southeast Lake Charles to Jennings.

The outage was caused by a frozen switch on a major transmission line bringing power from the east, Watson said.

Scattered power failures also occurred in the Starks-Toomey areas, she said.

In New Orleans, authorities said a man who had been drinking heavily went to sleep on a sidewalk and froze to death. In Houma, two teenage hunters were rescued from a small open boat where they had spent 26 hours iced in and huddled together for warmth. Buddy Trahan, 19, and Dwayne McClanahan, 17, were suffering from hypothermia when they were rescued just northwest of Grand Isle.

“The boat was completely surrounded with ice. The two guys were at the bottom of the open hull, lying down in the open boat,” Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Aubrey Authement said.

“If we get down around 10 degrees, I’m afraid we’re going to lose the entire citrus crop in Plaquemines Parish,” said Johnny Benel, a major grower, as he wrapped insulation around his fruit trees. “We may lose the tree, but the root system will be saved and the three can flourish in the spring. If it stays in the teens, I feel I will save my trees.”

The weather service issued warnings to livestock producers to take precautions to protect cattle and poultry.

The sub-freezing weather also brought an unusual shipment — nearly a quarter million pounds of Argentina white garlic worth an estimated $220,000 — to the shelter of a warehouse at the Port of Lake Charles.

Chuck Sagers, a representative of the importers, told the American Press for its Jan. 24, 1985, edition that the shipment arrived from Buenos Aires at the Crowley Maritime TMT facility on Industrial Canal. He said arrangements were made with James Sudduth, the port director, to store it in a warehouse at the docks, where heaters were used to protect it from the cold.