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Hurricane Carla


Vertigo58

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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.

Small world. My dad worked at that plant for years and was there during Carla. My uncle lived south of the plant on the League city side and clear creek ran right behind his property.

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I had posted these in another thread, but I will put them here for your viewing pleasure.

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Pic 1) Hurricane Carla I believe in 1962, notice how high the water mark is. This house was in the Brownwood Subdivision in Baytown.

Pic 2) another pic of the aftermath.

Pic 3) My Father at our summer beach house, well what's left of it after Hurricane in 1962, only the foundation was left. This house was out on Morgan's Point. That is close to where the Home Depot distribution facility is.

Pic 4) another pic of same stuff.

Edited by TJones
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That has to be the 1st time I have ever seen an actual photo of water actually flowing over the seawall. Amazing! Unfortunately, this hurricane (Carla) did serious damage to several historical buildings like the Urseline Convent, was an extremely ornamental and beautiful building. Had to be torn down.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I lived in Texas City in 1961 (I was 12yo)...never will forget Sept 9-11. On the Saturday morning before Carla, my Dad went fishing as he did every Saturday morning. He would come home at noon, cook his fish caught on the Texas city dyke, then watch baseball. This Saturday morning was different, he came home by 10:00am and looked like he had seen a ghost...he said in two hours, the water rose 3 feet...we had to leave. We rode out Audrey in 1957, he this one would be very different. By noon we were on our way to Houston, just took a few clothes...and we stayed at the Lamar hotel, near the under construction Texas Bank of Commerce (as I recall). I watched the radar and Dan Rather all weekend and it veered west the last 100 miles hitting Port O'Connor. Carla was travelling less than 10mph and it seemed over 24 hours that the wind in downtown houston was so strong, blew many windows out. Looking at a map, Port O'Connor was a long way away, but Carla was so big physically. All the homes at the resort on the shore side of causeway were gone. The railroad tracks by the county hospital in La Marque had 10-15 shrimp boats resting on it...we had a weekend home in Lake Alaska, it was gone.

I recall going to Galveston a week after Carla and besides the piers, most damage seemed to be from tornadoes. We lived 6 blocks from the seawall in Texas City, near Blocker Junior High...and had 4ft of water in our home, destroyed everything and we never found our fence. My Father's business was destroyed....I was in West Houston for Alicia and all of the others since Carla.

I just pray we never have one like that ever again....

MK

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I lived in Texas City in 1961 (I was 12yo)...never will forget Sept 9-11. On the Saturday morning before Carla, my Dad went fishing as he did every Saturday morning. He would come home at noon, cook his fish caught on the Texas city dyke, then watch baseball. This Saturday morning was different, he came home by 10:00am and looked like he had seen a ghost...he said in two hours, the water rose 3 feet...we had to leave. We rode out Audrey in 1957, he this one would be very different. By noon we were on our way to Houston, just took a few clothes...and we stayed at the Lamar hotel, near the under construction Texas Bank of Commerce (as I recall). I watched the radar and Dan Rather all weekend and it veered west the last 100 miles hitting Port O'Connor. Carla was travelling less than 10mph and it seemed over 24 hours that the wind in downtown houston was so strong, blew many windows out. Looking at a map, Port O'Connor was a long way away, but Carla was so big physically. All the homes at the resort on the shore side of causeway were gone. The railroad tracks by the county hospital in La Marque had 10-15 shrimp boats resting on it...we had a weekend home in Lake Alaska, it was gone.

I recall going to Galveston a week after Carla and besides the piers, most damage seemed to be from tornadoes. We lived 6 blocks from the seawall in Texas City, near Blocker Junior High...and had 4ft of water in our home, destroyed everything and we never found our fence. My Father's business was destroyed....I was in West Houston for Alicia and all of the others since Carla.

I just pray we never have one like that ever again....

MK

Thank you all for sharing these great stories, this is what I truly enjoy about this website/forum. Stories need to be told now, as father time marches on. :)

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Thank you all for sharing these great stories, this is what I truly enjoy about this website/forum. Stories need to be told now, as father time marches on. :)

Yes, we lost everything...no FEMA to help anyone, no rising water insurance then. All we had was each other to help survive and start over. The Salvation Army gave us food and water as my family tried to repair our home. The Red Cross charged us for everything they gave us, sent us a bill. I have never given a dime to the Red Cross, but give something back every year to the Salvation Army!

I think Rita had the potential to be devastating to this area had it not veered north...first time I was scared since Carla....I have since Audrey been a hurricane nut, tracked all of them and even wrote a speadsheet to forecast their movements...

MK

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I think Rita had the potential to be devastating to this area had it not veered north...first time I was scared since Carla....I have since Audrey been a hurricane nut, tracked all of them and even wrote a speadsheet to forecast their movements...

Having seen what Rita did to Southwest Lousiana and Southeast Texas, yes, it would have been very devestating had it hit Galveston and Houston head-on.

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