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10:31 AM 8/19/1999
Mystery storm
Preparedness specialist researches secret 1943 hurricane
By CAROL E. VAUGHN
ThisWeek Correspondent
For years now, industrial hurricane preparedness specialist Lew Fincher has been chasing stories about the "secret hurricane" of 1943, a no-name, power-packed storm with few records of its existence.
"Ever since I was a kid I had heard stories about this storm from my dad's family," Fincher said about the storm that affected his La Porte-based family on July 27, 1943.
"After being told all these tales as I was growing up, I thought someone was telling Texas tall tales in my family after not finding anything that remarkable about the hurricane in the official records," he said.
After digging in local archives, Fincher began to unravel the story.
"That's when I started to dig," he said.
In July, the city of Baytown's annual hurricane meeting focused on the mystery storm that struck Galveston Bay and Baytown during World War II.
The town meeting was filled with seniors who were eager to share anecdotes about the forgotten storm.
Fincher, a technician for the DuPont La Porte Plant, said he received so many stories that he now has more than enough material to write his book, The Surprise Storm of 1943, in collaboration with National Weather Service Meteorologist Bill Read.
Little has been recorded on the storm by the National Hurricane Center other than information that logged the storm as a Category 1 storm, with sustained winds of 95 mph or less.
Other evidence suggests the storm packed winds of 100 mph or more, said Fincher, who has extensive experience in industry and community hurricane preparedness.
In 1943, weather information had been restricted because of national security, Fincher said. In the height of WWII, German U-boats had been expected in the Gulf of Mexico, so all ships' radio broadcasts were silenced, he said.
Adding to the volatile situation was the fact that the Humble refinery in Baytown, now Exxon, was producing high-octane gas to make aviation fuel for Allied forces.
Any incapacity occurring at that a facility might encourage an Axis power counter attack.
"Another reason I feel (the storm was misreported) was that the forecaster felt that the storm as it came inland over Bolivar would only reach tropical storm strength, not becoming a hurricane," he said. "The fear of German U-boats taking advantage of weather information was great as well. We didn't know that all the U-boats had already left the Gulf by the time of the storm."
According to a 1997 National Hurricane Conference report compiled by Fincher and Read, the storm killed 19 people and left hundreds injured, causing estimated property damage of $17 million.
The pair gathered information about the storm supplied by newspaper accounts, insurance reports and personal accounts found in local books to piece together the actual significance of the storm and the damage it caused.
With virtually no reference of the storm in records kept at the local Houston NWS office or the former Galveston office, the National Weather Service recently has begun to recompile information about the storm based on the men's research.
Lifetime Baytown resident Francis Janelle Beaugh Milner wrote a letter to Fincher about conditions that day: "As the morning wore on, the sky turned from 'cloudy' to an oppressive darkness; the wind from 'gusty' to an unrestrained forcefulness; and the rain showers became torrential."
Milner, who worked at the Humble plant, said the storm was upon the employees before they could be warned. As she tried to escape from her office, objects were flying through the air like missiles, she said.
"Power lines were whipping like agitated snakes until they finally broke loose, lethal as land mines," she wrote.
At the Humble refinery, gusts up to 132 mph have been reported, Fincher said, and the Baytown-area was probably the hardest hit.
For a period, he said, production of high-octane fuel production was cut off from the U.S. Armed Forces.
At Ellington Field, air cadets and Army men were marched out to the flight line to stake all the planes down and then hang onto the wings as human weights as the hurricane blew in, Fincher said.
Glen Harbour of Baytown was in the Air Force and based at Ellington when the storm came through. He remembers several of the cadets being taken to the hospital with injuries from the storm.
"The impact of the flying shingles off roofs even tore the paint off of cars and buildings," Harbour said.
Myrtis Richard of McNair was 11 years old when the storm hit.
Her parents told a story about a young woman and her baby stranded in their home, in the process of being rescued.
As the woman left her doorway with the child, the wind caught the baby. The dead infant was found a block away from her destroyed home.
Stories like these are a grave reminder about the power of nature, Fincher said.
Fincher received the 1999 Oustanding Achievement Award from the National Hurricane Conference for his leadership in the DuPont Severe Weather Alert Team.
"The time to prepare for such occurrences is now, before the storm, not during it," he said. "I have always closed my preparedness talks with the words: `You can't raise Cain if you're not prepared for a hurricane.'"