In memory of Carla: Port O'Connor/Lavaca landfall, 9/11/61

[tallywx]

From Carla's write-up:

Carla moved inland near the Port O'Connor-Port Lavaca area on Monday, September 11. The leading edge of the eye reached Port Lavaca between 3 and 4 p.m. The storm followed a northwesterly course carrying the center near Inez, Yoakum, Waelder, Austin, Waco, Fort Worth, and Dallas. Gusts to hurricane force were reported from Galveston to Corpus Christi, a distance of approximately 200 miles. A peak gust of 170 miles per hour was estimated at Port Lavaca. At Port Lavaca, wind equipment blew away after reporting 153 mph. Gusts to 150 mph were estimated at Victoria, Port Aransas, and Edna. Sustained 1-minute winds were reported at 115 mph at Matagorda, 110 mph at Victoria, and 88 mph at Galveston.

Tides of 10 feet and over were estimated along the coast. The highest tide reported was 18.5 feet at Port Lavaca...

A low pressure of 27.62 inches (935 mb) was reported by the Bauer Dredging Company at Port Lavaca...

[Toni - 574]

There had to be many frightened people during that storm. I hope and pray that I never have to experience anything like that.

[therock1811]

How far did it get, before it weakened to a TS? I know with Opal it went into northern sections of AL as a hurricane, before weakening to a TS as it went into TN, it even hit me with strong winds and heavy rain!

[tallywx]

I guess it was a hurricane pretty far inland, considering that Austin reported a pressure of 973 mb and Fort Worth had 980 mb, the lowest respective pressures ever recorded in those cities.

[galvbay]

http://alvyray.com/Family/Stories/Indianola.htm

This area of the Tx coastline seems get it's share of storms. The once flurishing town of Indianola took two hurricane hits and never recovered. It would have been on the southern eyewall of Claudette. There are still summer/fishcamps located there but I'm sure they had significant damage during Claudette.

[GalvestonDuck]

Okay, I'm lost. Since I moved here and starting hearing all the storm stories, I've always been under the impression that Carla and Alicia were the last two Galveston hurricanes. But now I learn the Carla was actually a direct hit to the same area as Claudette.

So, how about Alicia?

[vbhoutex]

Okay, I'm lost. Since I moved here and starting hearing all the storm stories, I've always been under the impression that Carla and Alicia were the last two Galveston hurricanes. But now I learn the Carla was actually a direct hit to the same area as Claudette.

So, how about Alicia?

Alicia came in over western Galveston Island and traveled NNW up over W Houston. The "eye" went directly over my house in the Spring Branch area.

[Guest]

Carla was one year before I was born - but my parents have motion pictures of the east side of Houston where she left her mark. Carla was a cat 4 storm - the storm surge left massive flooding in its path and it hit in Port Lavaca just like Claudette.

So imagine what it would be like if a cat 4 hit Port Lavaca - being on the dirty side of the storm we would still see alot of damage.

Patricia

[KatDaddy]

Carla was a massive hurricane covering the entire GOM. The Texas Coast from Brownsville to Port Arthur had minimum gusts to 65MPH.

Hurricane conditions from Corpus Christi to Galveston. Corpus Christi recieved 90MPH winds

Hurricane forces gust over much of S Central TX. It was still a 40kt tropical Storm when it passed through the Fort Worth area.

[galvbay]

The only reason I can remember Carla is that I stepped on a nail after the storm. Kingsville (40m south of Corpus) had a lot of downed trees and power outage. What about Allen? From what I recall...the sat pictures of Allen showed that it pretty much covered the entire GOM. I think Allen went in around Port Mansfield. Kingsville had a lot of trees down and power outage with that storm also.

[galvbay]

http://www.hiline.net/users/daegle/hurricane.html

[JetMaxx]

Carla was a massive hurricane....sustained hurricane force winds extended over 140 miles NE and 60-70 miles SW of the eye......tropical storm force winds extended 300 miles to the northeast and 200 miles SW of the center -- tropical storm force (40 mph+) winds from Carla occurred along the entire Gulf Coast from Northeastern Mexico to the Mouth of the Mississippi River.

Even though Carla made landfall over 100 miles SW of Galveston, sustained winds there were near 90 mph with a peak gust estimated at 120 mph (after the anemometer was destroyed at 112 mph). There was also a F4 tornado that struck Galveston during the night...and 8 people died (violent tornadoes are EXTREMELY RARE in landfalling hurricanes; the only other F4 I'm aware of to occur during a landfalling hurricane occurred at Larose, LA during hurricane Hilda in October 1964...it killed dozens; in fact was the deadliest tornado of 1964).

Hurricane Carla was also a slow moving hurricane...which served to prolong the period of hurricane force winds. Officially, Carla's central pressure at landfall is listed at 931 mb (private barometers in the Port Lavaca area measured 27.50"/ 931 mb).

Sustained winds were likely 140-150 mph...and gusts likely reached 180 in a few areas. As bad as it was, the middle Texas Coast in 1961 was very rural. Let a hurricane of this magnitude make a direct hit on Houston/ Galveston in 2003 and the damage toll would dwarf what Andrew caused in South Florida....75-100 billion is my personal estimate.

The thought of a hurricane this size and intensity striking South Florida...the Miami to Palm Beach area is even worse.....IMO damage would exceed 120 billion dollars (and it happened there three times since 1900...in Sept 1926, Sept 1928, and Sept 1947).

To get a perspective on the size of Carla....it was very similar to 1999's Floyd at his peak....an extremely intense and very large hurricane; the kind that fortunately doesn't make landfall in the U.S. often.

PW