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Cameron Parish (French: Paroisse de Cameron) is the parish with the most land area in the state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Cameron and as of 2000, the population was 9,991. It is part of the Lake Charles Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Organized in 1870, the Parish is named for Simon Cameron, a Pennsylvanian who was President Abraham Lincoln's first secretary of war. Cameron was carved from portions of Calcasieu and Vermilion parishes.
Cameron Parish was devastated by Hurricane Audrey on June 27, 1957, causing over 390 deaths, and then again by Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. Three years after Rita, Hurricane Ike came ashore and brought a 22-foot (6.7 m) storm surge, which was far worse than Rita's 10-foot (3.0 m) surge. Nearly every square inch of the coastline in that area was flooded heavily, with surge and floodwaters reaching 60 miles inland, as far north as Lake Charles. In Cameron Parish the communities of Cameron, Holly Beach, Hackberry, Creole, and Grand Chenier were essentially destroyed. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from atop rooftops, including 363 people who were rescued by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Search and Rescue teams in conjunction with the Louisiana National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard.
