deaths, though multiple twisters in the New Orleans metropolitan area caused extensive damage to several automobiles and buildings and injured five. The same tornadoes also knocked down power lines, knocking out power in localized areas. KLEB was knocked off the air as a result of these outages. Data from the hardest hit areas along the central Louisiana coast remains sparse due to the small population density of the area. Storm surge unofficially peaked at at the Point Au Fer Reef Light. At the mouth of the Mississippi River, tides reached as high as above mean sea level. The strongest wind report was from Franklin, Louisiana, where a station clocked sustained winds of . Near the coast in Erath, a high water tower succumbed to Hilda's strong winds and collapsed onto an adjacent town hall where civil defense personnel were operating. The incident resulted in the deaths of eight and six injuries. Although there were no stations to report the intensity of winds in Erath, winds away in Abbeville reached . Hilda's sharp curve eastward after landfall and the advection of cold air from the north resulted in gusty winds over the New Orleans area, causing waves to break and spill over the seawall protecting the city from Lake Pontchartrain. The resulting waterfront flooding damaged fishing camps and other shoreline property. Elsewhere in southeastern Louisiana, strong winds stripped pecans and other nuts off of trees. Despite Hilda's intensity at landfall, much of the damage attributed to the hurricane was a result of heavy rains associated with the storm and its interaction with a nearby frontal boundary. Rainfall caused by the storm peaked at northwest of Jeanerette. The strong winds and rain caused extensive crop damage; 98% of Louisiana's sugar crop sustained some measure of damage. Although most of the state's cotton crop was harvested prior to Hilda's landfall, the heavy rains flattened unpicked cotton in southern Louisiana, resulting in US$10 million in damage. Overall, the effects of Hilda in Louisiana destroyed or heavily damaged nearly 2,600 residences and inflicted minor damage on an additional 19,000. The United States Red Cross estimated that about 5,000 people were injured and that of those 357 were hospitalized. Elsewhere Effects in Texas were minimal, with gusts peaking at near High Island, Texas and areas of the state receiving trace amounts of precipitation at most. Damage was limited to the portions of the coast which were