BATON ROUGE — This week in WBRZ history, Channel 2 was on the air for a little over a year when a Category 3 hurricane struck the capital region.

WBRZ anchorman Brooks Reed and photographer Bob Durham were the first journalists on the ground when Hurricane Audrey made landfall on June 27, 1957, in Cameron Parish.

The damage was astounding. Audrey killed 416 people, marking the strongest June storm on record until 2024.

WBRZ’s 1957 storm coverage was unprecedented at the time before becoming a normal part of coverage in and beyond the capital area.

Watch more of WBRZ’s celebration of 70 years of local and community-driven coverage on YouTube at the playlist below: