Path of Hurricane Carla in 1961.In 1961, when I was eight years old, Hurricane Carla hit Matagorda Bay, about 96 miles down the coast from Galveston. We lived in a town of 9,000 people named Rosenberg, thirty-three miles southwest of Houston. I remember being fascinated and scared at the same time. My brother was only five months old, so we had to get all his baby stuff together, along with canned food, water, flashlights, and pillows. We lived next door to an ancient gas station, probably built in the 1930s. It was really solid so we planned to move into the bathroom of the station if it seemed like our house didn't hold up.
We ended up not moving that night. I don't remember the force of the wind, but I recall trees that were four or five inches in diameter were bent to the ground with the strong winds. The next day there were branches everywhere, broken glass, pieces of buildings. We had made it through OK. The worst part for the Houston area had been the numerous tornadoes spawned by the hurricane, there was lots of destruction in other cities nearby.
This is when Dan Rather became famous. He was a reporter for the CBS affiliate in Houston at the time. He stood out there in the wind and rain and everyone was impressed. He went on to national news after that.
The experience of Carla left an impression on me. Twenty years later, when Hurricane Alicia came through, I couldn't sleep that night. I had two young children, ages five and ten months. They slept on pallets on the floor of the kitchen while I sat there listening to the news on the radio. The kitchen of our suburban house was the room with no windows nearby. The hurricane knocked down our fence. The Lutheran Church on Highway 6, a few miles from our house, was destroyed by a tornado. That is where my sons had been going to summer bible class. Downtown Houston was a wreck, broken glass was scattered everywhere. The windows from the high rise buildings had not held up. The city of Galveston was also trashed. Few people were hurt, but the property damage was significant.
Twenty-three years later came Rita. My husband, who grew up in Illinois, said he wanted to stay. I was for leaving, but now I'm really glad we didn't go anywhere. He boarded up the windows of our little frame house (we don't live in the suburbs anymore). I took my car to a parking garage in the medical center (we don't have a garage) and we brought in all our plants. Our house was so tight it felt like a bomb shelter, no light coming in... only one door could be opened from the inside.
It was just us and one set of neighbors that stayed around. The place was deserted. Rita took a turn, so the worst for us was that our back porch was almost ripped off by the wind, but it was my mandevilla that suffered the most. I had to cut the vines that had twirled around the banister of my front porch. Five months later we drove through east Texas where Rita hit land and found the landscape really torn up - lots of buildings were destroyed, trees had fallen. Not much had been put in order even though it was already February and Rita came in September.
So here we are again, three years later. I guess Hurricane Ike could change course, but thirty minutes ago the Houston Chronicle reported that it looked like landfall in Freeport. Not good for Houston. We will be on the dirty side of the storm.
Tomorrow we will board up again. We saved the 3/4 inch plywood from Rita, so the trip to Home Depot or Lowes won't be so expensive. My mandevilla will have to be cut - but it will grow back in time. Our neighborhood doesn't flood (because of very little new construction) - and this time I have one of the those wind up radios.
I'll let you know how it goes.
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