![]() ![]() Moreover, the government has raised other interesting defenses: (1) That the statutory duty of the Weather Bureau to forecast the weather does not create a right-duty relationship between officers and employees of the Bureau and individuals as to afford the basis of a tort claim pegged on erroneous forecasts (2) that the activities by reason of which plaintiff seeks to hold the United States liable fall within the discretionary function exception to the coverage of the Tort Claims Act as that provision has been interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States in Dalehite v. The government denies all allegations of negligence and pleads that the plaintiff himself was guilty of negligence proximately contributing to the death of his family by remaining in his home after he had received warning of impending peril. Passing over the pleader's legal conclusions, the complaint asserts that the United States, "through its employees and agents, particularly those of the * * * Weather Bureau, was negligent in failing to give adequate, clear, correct, and proper warning concerning the nature, intensity, location, path, velocity and speed, existence of tidal wave of Hurricane Audrey as well as the correct time it would strike the Louisiana Coast" and that the plaintiff "relied upon the advisories and warnings issued by the * * * Weather Bureau and remained in their home that in the early hours of the morning of June 27, 1957, contrary to such advisories and warnings, the hurricane struck in full force." Plaintiff's counsel also urges by brief that it was the intention of Bartie to leave Cameron Thursday and that he and his family did not previously leave when advised that persons in low lying areas should move to higher ground because they considered themselves to be on higher ground. It is one of several hundred wrongful death actions now pending as a result of this devastating catastrophe. ![]() It is filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. This action for wrongful death is brought by Whitney Bartie for the death of his wife and children. Winds of over 100 miles per hour, driving rain, and a storm tide of over ten feet above mean sea level killed more than 400 persons and inflicted property damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This, the story of Whitney Bartie, is the story of hundreds of others who perished as Hurricane Audrey struck the Louisiana coast with devastating fury on the early morning of Thursday, June 27, 1957. As it passed a tree he grabbed onto a limb where he hung on until 4:30 P.M. The house disintegrated and as a deep freeze floated by he grabbed it and rode it for about four miles. They climbed on the roof of the house and one by one they were washed away. He and his family joined hands, with the wind raging and the water rising. He tried to start his car but it drowned out. hearing water underneath the house making a noise slosh, slosh, slosh. Whitney Bartie and his family (wife and five children) went to bed around 10:00 P.M. Laughlin, Chief, Torts Section, *11 Dept. Jones, Jr., Cameron, La., for plaintiff.Įdward L.
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