Hurricane Ike moved a lot of people out of their homes from Louisiana and Texas and all the way up through the country as it rampaged. Some left on their own. Others did not heed calls for evacuation, but were roused to action by wind and water. Still others, unable to react, were completely at the mercy of the hurricane.

Longtime Slidell resident Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown was among the latter. It was not exactly his home that was disturbed by the storm. It was his final resting place in Orange, Texas.

The historic Hollywood Cemetery, not far from the Sabine River, flooded. The top of Brown’s vault popped off, and his bronze casket floated away.

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown

“Somebody made the comment that he’s evidently still touring,” said Bogalusa’s Jim Bateman, Brown’s manager and friend for 29 years. “He probably wouldn’t care too much to be in the ground anyway.”

The tireless Grammy winner who played blues, county, jazz, zydeco and Cajun music once joked that he’d started off doing 300 gigs a year, then “backed off to 250.”

Apparently, he just can’t stop.

Brown has been credited with influencing performers as diverse as Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa and Joe Louis Walker.

He was a familiar presence, with his black cowboy hat and boots and his distinctive sound, at the Studio in the Country outside Bogalusa, where Bateman met him in 1973.

Brown died at his brother’s home in Texas at the age of 81.

That was on Sept. 10, 2005, just days after he’d been moved by another storm. The by-then-frail music man, who was battling lung cancer and heart disease, lost his Slidell home to Hurricane Katrina. He was reportedly devastated.

“It’s strange all that happened with Katrina, then this happened,” said Bateman.

After Ike, a small aluminum marker and three jars of jelly, perhaps left by a fan of Brown’s instrumental classic “Grape Jelly,” remained at his grave site. But Brown was gone.

“I saw an article where his brother was interviewed,” said Bateman. “He said there were a number of caskets out of place, dozens. He had a picture from the funeral, but there could be several that look the same. I don’t know how they’re going to match them up.”

He said Brown’s estate had been in the process of getting a permanent marker for his grave.

“I think they were about ready to do it when the hurricane hit,” said Bateman. “Hopefully, they’ll get him reburied and get the marker up.”

The work of reclaiming the bodies and restoring the historic black cemetery is reportedly under way. The dead await sorting.

And while Brown was displaced by yet another hurricane, one can almost hear him putting the story to music — blues mixed with a rich lifetime of other influences— with guitar riffs and a voice that sounds deep like a big old gate.

“Gate always had interesting stuff happening around him,” said Bateman. “I guess it’s not to be unexpected that he continues to stay in the news.”