Editing Buras-Triumph, Louisiana (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2014}}
The town of Buras was established, informally, in the 1840s. Several small settlements on the West Bank of the Mississippi River north of [[Fort Jackson, Louisiana|Fort Jackson]] became known collectively as the Quartiers des Burats, the Burat Settlement, anchored on the property of Sebastian Burat, near where Cazezu Boulevard meets Parish Highway 11 today. Burat was later anglicized to Buras. In 1854, the Buras Post Office was established, along with a regular mail route by packet boat on the river. By 1864, a new church, Our Lady of Good Harbor, was established in Buras as the community grew.

=== Civil War ===
In April 1862, during the [[American Civil War]], the [[Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip]] took place near Buras. Union Flag Officer [[David Farragut]] led a fleet up the river to capture New Orleans and engaged the forts in the early morning hours of April 23. A single Union vessel, the [[USS Varuna (1861)|USS ''Varuna'']], was sunk near Buras in an engagement with the Confederate steamer ''[[CSS Governor Moore]]'' and the ''[[CSS Stonewall Jackson]]''. The heavily damaged ''Governor Moore'' also sank, not far from its Union opponent.

=== 20th century ===

In the first decades of the 20th century, Buras' primary industries were oyster fishing and citrus farming. In the 1930s, petroleum was discovered in the region, along with natural gas and sulfur. One of the first producing fields was established in Quarantine Bay, east of Buras, by the Gulf Oil Company. With the coming of the oil and gas industries, Buras began to slowly evolve from a farming and fishing village into a larger community.

=== Hurricanes ===

Buras-Triumph and the surrounding communities have been subjected to many devastating hurricanes over the years, including the [[1893 Cheniere Caminada hurricane]], which destroyed the original church, the [[1901 Louisiana hurricane]], the [[1915 New Orleans hurricane]], [[Hurricane Betsy]] in 1965, and [[Hurricane Camille]] in 1969.

More recently, this area was the location where, on August 29, 2005, the eye of [[Hurricane Katrina]] first made landfall in Louisiana. Although Katrina was one of the costliest natural disasters to strike the U.S., according to the Hurricane Severity Index, at landfall both Betsy and Camille were higher-intensity hurricanes than Katrina. However, the loss of surrounding marsh lands to erosion and [[subsidence]] allowed the energy of Hurricane Katrina's [[storm surge]] to overtop the [[levee]] system and the area was devastated yet again.

Emblematic of the rebuilding and recovery is the new Buras water tower. The image of the previous tower, collapsed in the rubble, was an icon of the destruction Katrina brought. (See photos.)