In 1889, Lafcadio Hearn wrote the novel Chita: A Memory of Last Island. It dealt with the very real hurricane two decades earlier that had nearly swept the barrier island L'Ile Dernière from the map. The 1856 hurricane, which he learned of through the writings of survivors, gave Hearn the perfect vehicle to elaborate these premonitions.

Chita: a Memory of Last Island was written while Hearn was living in New Orleans. Chita was a young white girl adopted by Spanish parents. The novella was based on the hurricane of 1856. The barrier island of L'Ile Dernière was totally destroyed and swept into the sea. The story tells of good people living on the edge of an abyss and the brutality of nature. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed portions of New Orleans this story by Hearn has even more significance.

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (27 June 1850 -26 September 1904), known also by the Japanese name Koizumi Yakumo, was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. In the United States, Hearn is also known for his writings about the city of New Orleans based on his ten-year stay in that city.