Remembering Hurricane Carla

Watching the imminent arrival of Gustav this afternoon made me remember the arrival, on September 10, 1961, of Hurricane Carla. The day before it hit, we drove over to Galveston, from our home in La Marque, Texas, 14 miles away. The waves were hitting the seawall and throwing waves of water -- not only over our heads, but over the entire street that ran along the seawall. We felt a little like surfers, 'shooting the pipe'--- enveloped in a 'pipe' of water, completely enveloped by water, )except that we were standing on solid ground, and surfers have water completely around them). Water spray was thrown from the seawall onto the Galvez Hotel almost a block away from the seawall! I was a senior in high school and had never seen anything like this in my life!When the waves hit the seawall, the ground shook from the force of the water smashing into the concrete. It was awe-inspiring! We were drenched with seawater, but were transfixed by the power of the storm. The water would pull away from the seawall, just in time for the slamming of another wave into the wall. We went home, and the next day, I was outside our home and it fell very quiet. I looked off into the distance, and saw only a thin purple line on the horizon. You could hear a pin drop, it seemed, a block away. Birds weren't flying. Dogs weren't barking. It was so quiet and everything was so still. The leaves weren't moving in the trees. The purple line grew taller and taller. Then the purple line became a towering line, and we knew that Hurricane Carla was coming. Then came the wind and the rain. The wind grew and became a screaming torrent, like the rain. I could hear gravel, from the roofs of surrounding homes, hitting the sides of our house, stripping the exterior of our home like only winds of over 150 miles per hour can do so. I saw sheet metal flying down the street, hitting and then decapitating small trees. The winds were so loud that, in our home, we had to talk loudly to each other to even be heard. Finally, the eye of the hurricane arrived, and alll was calm and quiet again...for awhile. The authorities came through the neighborhoods of LaMarque and, with loudspeakers on the top of their automobiles, told everyone to leave-- immediately. We left---slowly, in our old Cadillac -- heading for Houston. We drove through water that looked like it would flood out the engine on the car. It didn't do that, but it did come into the car. We kept on driving away from the coast, heading towards Houston. Hours later, as we arrived in Houston, at the home of one of my dad's relatives, near Hobby airport, the eye of the storm had passed and the storm intensified suddenly again, with the wind now coming from the opposite direction. Ferocious winds and rain came at us again. We heard on the radio that tornadoes had been spotted in the area, so family members stationed themselves at the front and rear of the home, near windows. Below-ground shelters did not exist in Houston at the time, and they would have not been sufficient for such a huge population anyway. While we were watching the storm, tornadoes were spotted from both the front and rear of the home at the same time! We just knew that we would all be killed, but we rode out the storm safely. Several days passed before the left of the water in the street in front of the home where we had taken refuge had subsided enough to allow us to make our way home to La Marque. While we had waited for the flood waters to subside, we watched people run up and down the street in their speed boats. They couldn't get to work, so they enjoyed running about the streets of Houston in their boats!As we slowly returned to La Marque, we passed amazing sights -- huge buildings, trees, homes, cars-- that had been swept away during the hurricane and had been deposited along the highway, randomly, like so many building blocks, scattered by a child at play. We passed one home and saw a concrete and steel suspension bridge, that had been deposited in a man's front yard! We also saw men, scrambling around in the flood waters, frantically grabbing the property that belonged to other people, and claiming 'salvage rights' to what they could grab. We saw two men in a fist-fight over a large boat to which they both laid claim. When we returned to our home, there was not much left. Our home was only about 14 miles from Galveston and there were no seawalls or other protection from the high water. The high water had been in our home and there was nothing left. We had dead fish, a dead snake, piles and piles of stinking mud on the floors. The walls had gotten soaked with water and the sheetrock had fallen. The ceilings were covered with mildew. Everything was ruined. Everything of value was gone. The entire neighborhood was destroyed. Hurricane Carla slammed into our little piece of the Gulf coast as a category four hurricane (and was a category 5 storm before it hit land)-- and was remembered as the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Gulf coast.I feel badly for the people who are facing their own version of Hurricane Carla this week. My prayers are for them and all the suffering and all of the loss they will experience.