Hurricane Carla

[Vertigo58]

Since its been over 45 years I thought I would place here instead of under weather because of it's historical significance.

Can anyone understand what the significance was of placing families in school gymnasiums during a raging hurricane in during times? I was only a year old when Carla passed through Houston. The police were knocking door to door to alert my parents to take me and my 3-4 year old siblings to Jeff Davis High School for shelter. The announcement must have come on TV as well? My mom said the water was already rising fast near downtown and we barely made it to the High School in time to squeeze in with hundreds of other families/children. She said the wind was so fierce that the power lines were exploding outside and falling around. The police forced a big group of us away from a big window that cracked as the storm was passing. From what I have read Houston and surrounding areas were more wrecked by heavy rain than in recent memory. I still can't see the rational of being placed in a gymnasium or hall during a hurricane.

A tropical wave moves off the coast of Africa in late August of 1961. Perhaps, it was a large cluster of thunderstorms. We may never know. What matters is this tropical wave moves to the Caribbean. Conditions are favorable and becomes a tropical depression on September 3rd. Then it begins to strengthen into Tropical Storm Carla and becomes a hurricane. It moves between the Yuacatan Peninsula and Cuba and enters the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds. Once, it is over the Gulf, it rapidly intensify into a monsterous Category 5 hurricane. Carla's peak wind was 175 mph and central pressure of 936 millibars or less. Also, Carla is one of the largest Atlantic hurricanes on record with hurricane force winds extending at least 150 miles from the eye. Hurricane Carla heads towards the Texas Coast and it appears to make landfall on Galveston. However, a high pressure system push its further south. On September 11th, Carla makes landfall on Port O'Connor as a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph winds and central pressure of 931 millibars. Gusts as high as 175 mph is recorded. All of the Texas coast is affected by Carla. 15 tp 20 foot storm surge plagues the Texas coast and rainfall as high as 19 inches is recorded in the Houston area. However, only 31 people died in Texas because many people had evacuated from the coast. A total of 43 people died from Carla. Once Carla makes landfall, it weakens into a tropical storm andends up in the Midwest as a prolific rainmaker. Hurricane Carla is one of the most intense hurricane to make landfall on America. Carla is also the largest hurricane to hit Texas.

Edited February 5, 2007 by Vertigo58

[devonhart]

We rode the storm out in our house. There was no evacuation where we were. Lost power, but that was pretty much it.

[TheNiche]

My grandfather rode it out in the shrimp boat that he'd built in his back yard. He navigated it as far up Dickinson Bayou as he could, but after the storm, it was two miles inland, stuck in the mud of a coastal prairie. A total loss. He was unscathed.

[Firebird65]

My grandfather rode it out in the shrimp boat that he'd built in his back yard. He navigated it as far up Dickinson Bayou as he could, but after the storm, it was two miles inland, stuck in the mud of a coastal prairie. A total loss. He was unscathed.

With all the subsidence, if that were to happen today, I'd probably advise him to fix the boat where it lay and then wait a few weeks until the next inevitable flood and then float it back down to the bay!

[Croberts]

I have now been through Andrew, Charley, a couple whose names I have forgotten, Wilma and Katrina (cat. 1 over florida). I still remember Carla as the most intense. We sat in the living room in Westbury, and watched Ronald Reagan in the Santa Fe trail after midnight. I was perhaps 6-8. We lost power for a few hours. We heard that tornadic winds took down powerpoles nearby, and found water mocassins in several backyards, from willow waterhole, we thought.

[jm1fd]

With all the subsidence, if that were to happen today, I'd probably advise him to fix the boat where it lay and then wait a few weeks until the next inevitable flood and then float it back down to the bay!

Speaking of subsidence...my great aunt and uncle had a house in Brownwood when Carla blew through. Brownwood had become a bowl, not unlike New Orleans by that point in time...their house was underwater for WEEKS because the storm surge had filled the bowl up.

Most everything was a total loss...although we have some furniture that my father glued back together piece by piece after the pieces were recovered from the house.

[Heights2Bastrop]

I don

[FilioScotia]

Can anyone understand what the significance was of placing families in school gymnasiums during a raging hurricane in during times? I still can't see the rational of being placed in a gymnasium or hall during a hurricane.

That's not hard to understand. Have you ever seen an average house that was built as strong as a high school gym? Every gym I've ever seen was steel frame construction with a lot of brick or stone trim, reinforced steel in the walls and steel girders holding up the roof. Your typical hurricane can rip the roof off your typical residential house, but it won't scratch a high school gym.

If I lived right on the coast, and a hurricane was going to make a direct hit in my area, if I couldn't evacuate several days ahead of landfall I think I would prefer to ride it out in the gym instead of at home.

Edited February 6, 2007 by FilioScotia

[57Tbird]

I have now been through Andrew, Charley, a couple whose names I have forgotten, Wilma and Katrina (cat. 1 over florida). I still remember Carla as the most intense. We sat in the living room in Westbury, and watched Ronald Reagan in the Santa Fe trail after midnight. I was perhaps 6-8. We lost power for a few hours. We heard that tornadic winds took down powerpoles nearby, and found water mocassins in several backyards, from willow waterhole, we thought.

I, too, lived in Westbury when Carla hit. We lost a few shingles, had a power outage, and had a flooded street just over the curb. The thing that really worried me was the fact that my wife was pregnant with our first child, and was due right about that time. I had heard stories of the low pressure from a hurricane causing early deliveries, so I was more worried about having to drive to the hospital through the storm than what was going to happen to my house. Fortunately, our son was not born until ten days later.

Edited February 6, 2007 by 57Tbird

[PapillionWyngs]

I, too, lived in Westbury when Carla hit. We lost a few shingles, had a power outage, and had a flooded street just over the curb. The thing that really worried me was the fact that my wife was pregnant with our first child, and was due right about that time. I had heard stories of the low pressure from a hurricane causing early deliveries, so I was more worried about having to drive to the hospital though the storm than what was going to happen to my house. Fortunately, our son was not born until ten days later.

We live in Park Place - Sims Bayou was way, way, way back in the woods from our house.

It took my swing set and tied it in a knot.

We used to have pictures.

[FilioScotia]

My memories of Carla

I had just completed Air Force basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio the very day Carla hit the coast. We were scheduled to ship out for Mississippi that day, but we had to wait several more days for the storm to pass. The Air Force took steel bunk beds out of all the barracks and sent them to evacuation shelters closer to the coast, which meant that I and thousands of other Air Force basics had to sleep on our mattresses on the floor for several days.

When we finally left Lackland, four bus loads of AF recruits heading for Mississippi came through Houston. Being a Houston native, I had a lot of fun being the tour guide for all the other guys from other parts of the country. You may or may not be surprised to know that many of the guys from up north were genuinely surprised to see that Houston actually had paved streets and tall buildings. It has never ceased to amaze me how staggeringly ignorant people in other parts of the country are about Texas. This is still true today.

Our bus convoy stopped at Bill Bennett's Steak House in downtown Houston so we could get something to eat, and I grabbed the opportunity to find a pay phone to call my parents in Pasadena. To my great relief, I learned that my mom and dad came through it all in very good shape. Our house just off Harris St. in Revlon Terrace had only minor roof damage.

Edited February 6, 2007 by FilioScotia

[Vertigo58]

Maybe it depends more on how old the structure is. In our case that school (Jeff Davis) was already approx 40 years old even then (1961). I have been doing alot of research on the Galveston 1900 storm and understand numerous schools and churches crushed many refugees as the storm passed. Of couse that was 100 years ago, but many of these high schools in Houston are over 70 years old. That sounds scary. I imagine if I were forced to evacuate I would try to find something more new somehow. Guess it would be a good idea to check with experts in the field?

[TheNiche]

Maybe it depends more on how old the structure is. In our case that school (Jeff Davis) was already approx 40 years old even then (1961). I have been doing alot of research on the Galveston 1900 storm and understand numerous schools and churches crushed many refugees as the storm passed. Of couse that was 100 years ago, but many of these high schools in Houston are over 70 years old. That sounds scary. I imagine if I were forced to evacuate I would try to find something more new somehow. Guess it would be a good idea to check with experts in the field?

Comparing Galveston 1900 to Houston 1961 or 2007 isn't fair. We're way too far inland for storm surge to be the killer that it was in Galveston.

[marmer]

I also thought that one of the biggest killers during the 1900 Galveston hurricane was flying slate roof tiles, mandated by the new fire code after the big Galveston fire of 1885.

marmer

[TheNiche]

I also thought that one of the biggest killers during the 1900 Galveston hurricane was flying slate roof tiles, mandated by the new fire code after the big Galveston fire of 1885.

marmer

That was an issue, yes. But the water was the bigger and overwhelming problem.

One of my favorite semi-non-fiction books is Isaac's Storm. I highly recommend it.

[FilioScotia]

That was an issue, yes. But the water was the bigger and overwhelming problem. One of my favorite semi-non-fiction books is Isaac's Storm. I highly recommend it.

"Semi" non-fiction? Where did you get that idea? There is nothing fictional about that book. Everything in it is true, and I also recommend it highly.

But you are right about water being the overwhelming problem. In 1900, the highest point on the island was just a few feet above sea level. It's hard for us to imagine today but the entire island was inundated by the storm surge. Only the strongest structures survived it.

[TheNiche]

"Semi" non-fiction? Where did you get that idea? There is nothing fictional about that book. Everything in it is true, and I also recommend it highly.

But you are right about water being the overwhelming problem. In 1900, the highest point on the island was just a few feet above sea level. It's hard for us to imagine today but the entire island was inundated by the storm surge. Only the strongest structures survived it.

I'd say that it is probably >85% true. But it is dramatized non-fiction. He wrote a script that met the facts at hand.

By the way, not only was the highest point on the island just a few feet, but the dunes had been removed and streetcar tracks were placed near the beach, so that the water ripped them up and the steel ribbons tore everything to shreds, creating a huge wall of debris held in place by the tracks. In front of the tracks was pristene beach. Behind it were somewhat-intact structures.

[Heights2Bastrop]

My great grandmother and a daughter were killed in the 1900 storm. We know that for a fact, yet they are not included in the list of victims. I am sure there are so many more who died but were not accounted for, so we will never know what the death toll really was.

My grandfather went there after the storm to look for them, but he was commandeered into going around picking up bodies. He would have been around 18 at the time.

"Pop" never talked of his experiences in Galveston - not to his wife, not to my father, not to anyone that we know of.

[westguy]

Since the National Hurricane Center began using the modern list of hurricane names, three storms with names beginning with "A" have directly hit the Houston area. All were from the same list because the name 'Allison' was chosen as a replacement for 'Alicia'. Two storms that hit Houston were named "Allison" and all three storms with that name formed in June during the early part of the hurricane season. After 2001 'Allison' was retired and replaced in the list with the name 'Andrea', which is the name for the first storm of the 2007 hurricane season in the Atlantic. There's probably a better chance that this will form in June, but what if it also hit Houston? I guess people will say that list is cursed.

Edited February 7, 2007 by westguy

[nm5k]

>Our house just off Harris St. in Revlon Terrace had only minor roof damage.

I lived in Pasadena during Carla. I don't remember any big wind damage.

But I remember loads of flooding around that area.

I think we were in the same area. I was on Alistair. I remember Harris being

a block away or so. Might have even intersected Alistair, but I'd have to look

at a map. I went to Red Bluff Elementary at that time.

MK

>"Pop" never talked of his experiences in Galveston - not to his wife, not to my father, not to anyone that we know of.

It was pretty grisly...They set up a morgue and had loads and loads of bodies stored away. I have pictures of that

somewhere. Actually, now that I think of it, I have some old video of it.

MK

[Heights2Bastrop]

The most horrible aspect of the ordeal was that there were so many bodies recovered, it was decided just to load them onto barges and dump them at sea. Days later, many of those corpses floated back onto the Galveston shoreline.

The film of the Galveston damage was taken by the Edison film company, and was some of the first documentary footage ever shot.

[Vertigo58]

Trying not to stray from topic but Camille in 1969 stands out for me because of the heavy media coverage at that time.

I also recall a documentary was made a while back where people were interviewed and many before/after photos were shown. The Richielueu Apartment party story was the most horrifying. I think NPR is doing an update any day now. Focuses on Pass Christian area (yes once again hit). I distinctly remember an elderly lady being interviewed by a reporter in a neighborhood and she stated she had no idea where her house was and she happended to glance over to see the pile over a few streets away. Tidal surge was the main culprit. Google has many good photos of Camille aftermath. Check it out.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Vertigo58

[WestUNative]

Perhaps I was just older than you others or was in a prime spot, but CARLA will remain forever as a terrifying memory. I was 19 years old, living in my first house away from childhood home. It was on Lula Street in Bellaire, a few blocks south of Bellaire Blvd.

Saturday, we had a "Hurricane Party," and everyone was very excited about this big thing maybe coming our way. Idiot young people. When the guests were leaving, the sky was already roiling with ominous black clouds and the wind had picked up considerably. By Monday morning, the news did not look good, they had a better fix and surely enough, we appeared to be the target. Against better judgement, I called my employer, SWBT and asked if I should come in to work. The reply was, either that or you are fired.

Throughout Monday morning, it became obvious the weather was deteriorating badly. There were 56 women, Service Representatives in our office at Bellaire Blvd and Academy in West University and we staged a coup by early afternoon. All of us had homes and most had children at home, we left work, while we still could. The brick building was sturdier than our homes, but we needed to protect our own.

I remember we did not go out and buy scads of lumber, but got everything out of the yard and taped all the windows, put the 1955 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday in the garage, battened as much as possible. All the while a very young Dan Rather was going ape on television, filling us with great fear and yet, still excitement.

Then it hit. Never has there been such incredible sound. Inside the house your voice could not be heard. Immediately the electricity went and stayed gone for 3 weeks. The drop wire to the house broke partially loose and was beating against the wood structure with sparks flying for hours. I was so afraid of fire, it was unreal. However, the horizontal rains of enormous force saved it, I guess. Hunks of roof went flying off and the water cascaded into the house, first at a few places, then all over. I ran out of bowls and pots to catch it in and they had to be emptied constantly. So, in the dark, with end-of-the-world wind battering and heavy rain pouring into every room with sparks flying and slamming into the house, it wasn't exactly delightful.

At 10:30 PM, I heard something and saw lights outside, good old HL&P men were pushing their yellow slickered bodies at 45 degree angles to my backyard to cut off the fallen wires, bless them. The telephone was still working when the lines first went down and I had called it in. By the main force arrival, the telephone blacked out and stayed out of service for 4 weeks. The roaring went on most of the night and finally in exhaustion, was able to sleep for a couple of hours before dawn. The next day was beautiful and calm, but oh, the sights we saw.

There had been a huge tree in my front yard and it was completely uprooted - and had fallen across the drive-way. I am 5'2" tall and went out to stand by the now vertical root system and it towered over me. A terrible sight. Everywhere roofs were obliterated, debris all about, trees uprooted, power lines lying on the ground and windows smashed. When we finally got the tree moved and were able to get car on the road, it was a war zone on Bellaire Blvd. Electric lines all across the street, picture/display windows of the business all blown out and the parking areas in front as well as the street crystalline with crushed glass. Hunks of buildings and various types of debris scattered seemingly everywhere.

Actually had to move out of house for weeks to stay with family, whose damage was far less and whose power was restored more promptly. The city was clogged with Electric and Telephone workers from 4 or 5 states, who'd come to the rescue, so much of Houston was down and out. We were not supposed to drink the water, fear of contamination from underground gasoline tanks and snakes abounded. Gas stations were not operating, many stores and businesses closed. It was a nightmare.

I cannot believe the others here were not badly affected or at least too young to really remember. Should you have access to the newspapers of the time, you might get a better idea of the reality, at least for many areas of town. And, yes, because of Dan Rather's emotional reporting, before, during and after on Channel 11, CBS rang him up and offered him a job. The shelter ideas are good ones. The main problem is that school buildings usually have too many windows, a real danger.

A side note, my future husband (1963) rode out CARLA in the Galvez Hotel on the seawall in Galveston on an upper floor. I asked him how the Gulf looked and he laughed. You could see nothing in the pitch black, except the water flying into the room, not around the closed windows, but he swore, coming horizontally through the glass itself. Galveston had been evacuated, but some got stuck there and were herded into the Galvez.

[Guest danax]

^ So did Rather's reporting cause people to mass evacuate or was it too late at that point? Imagine the nightmare of even the relatively small population in Houston back then trying to get out on the few freeways and 2-lane highways.

[devonhart]

I cannot believe the others here were not badly affected or at least too young to really remember. Should you have access to the newspapers of the time, you might get a better idea of the reality, at least for many areas of town.

Could be age, I was only 6, but I also lived in a fairly new neighborhood at the time "Pamela Heights," no old trees to blow down, brick houses with new roofs. I recall we had a gas stove so we could still cook. Candles and flashlights when the power was out at night. Our wooden fence was still up. I don't recall any real damage in the neighborhood.

I think the snow of Feb. 1960 impressed me more.

Edited February 12, 2007 by devonhart

[Vertigo58]

I think the snow of Feb. 1960 impressed me more.

WestUNative described Carla as my mom did pretty bad, hence the Topic. We were on the Northeast part of inner city. It amazes me that our little house made it just lost many shingles and cracked windows. Our city is still not equiped or prepared 40 something years later.

and funny you mention the snow of 1960, we have great photos of this too.

[tbitzel]

We had just moved to south Houston (Meadowbrook) from Texas City. Our home in Texas City was completely flooded up to the second floor. We were lucky to have moved when we did, otherwise, we would have been in big trouble! Our home was right on the seawall in Texas City. We rode out the storm in our home in south Houston, and I remember it was really bad, but not anywhere near what my sister went through recently in Gulfbreeze, FL, they lost everything, nor the hurricane of 1900 in Galveston where so many lost their lives!

[ssullivan]

I've heard both of my parents talk about Carla my entire life. Dad was going away to college when it happened, and Mom was just starting her senior year at Bellaire High School. Mom's family weathered the storm at their home in Willow Meadows and came through it pretty well, but I had a great aunt and uncle who lived in Seabrook right on the water. They lost everything. After Carla they moved into the city. Their old house in Seabrook is still standing, having been restored after the storm by the new owners. However, as bad as Carla was, my mother says it was nothing compared to their experience of being caught in the direct path of the eye of Rita in September 2005.

[EastEnd Susan]

I've heard both of my parents talk about Carla my entire life. Dad was going away to college when it happened, and Mom was just starting her senior year at Bellaire High School. Mom's family weathered the storm at their home in Willow Meadows and came through it pretty well, but I had a great aunt and uncle who lived in Seabrook right on the water. They lost everything. After Carla they moved into the city. Their old house in Seabrook is still standing, having been restored after the storm by the new owners. However, as bad as Carla was, my mother says it was nothing compared to their experience of being caught in the direct path of the eye of Rita in September 2005.

I live in League City and we had to evacuate for Rita. It was total chaos. What a mess it was. Then the hurricane turned and all it did here was knock some twigs off the tree. My friends in Beaumont got hit hard. They were without power for weeks. I was here for hurricane Carla but I was very little and only remember being told we were going to stay with aunt Pauline because her house was brick. We lived in a wood frame home on avenue L in the east end. When the storm was over I was afraid to go home because like most children I thought cartoons were kind of real and I thought that when dad opened the door to our house that water would pour out with all our furniture floating on it like in the cartoons. Luckily that was not the case. We were missing some shingles and our plum tree lost a branch.

[Fringe]

Can anyone understand what the significance was of placing families in school gymnasiums during a raging hurricane in during times?

LOL. I'm still trying to figure out why we got under our desks during air raid drills in the 50's and 60's. Those must have been really strong desks back then to survive nuclear weapons.

I lived on a ranch at the time of Carla, just outside of Webster (behind the power plant). My parents took us into Houston to stay at some friends house. I don't remember it being that bad in Houston but I do remember seeing a lot of trees down upon our return home. Clear Creek ran right behind our house and almost flooded us. No major damage to any structures that I recall. I was going to Webster Elementary at the time. I remember a few windows got broken there.