The 1893 hurricane struck south Louisiana on the night of October 1 and claimed over 2000 lives. Among the survivors was 25-year-old Paul Harris, who was working as an orange picker on the Pizzati Orange Plantation near the present site of Citrus City in Buras, Louisiana. Through the darkness, Paul and his fellow workers braved wind and swirling waters, carrying women and children to safety from the Pizzati house to the Pizzati warehouse. In 1905, Paul Harris, then a lawyer in Chicago, founded Rotary.