This is episode 74 of the Hidden History of Texas and it’s time to meet some of the Mean Girls of the 60s and 70s. The 1960s and 1970s saw Texas getting hit by several storms, all of which were given ladies names, but none of whom acted very lady like.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Let’s meet Hurricane Carla in 1961, in1967 Hurricane Beulah’s showed up, not to be outdone Hurricane Celia hit in 1970, and then in 1979 it was Hurricane Claudette. All of which devastated parts of Texas.

In September of 1961, the Texas coast faced one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes in recorded history — Hurricane Carla.

It turns out that Carla was indeed a monster of a storm. Out over the Gulf of Mexico, her winds reached 175 miles per hour, and by the time she aimed herself at Texas, hurricane-force winds stretched more than a hundred miles from the center. Even if you weren’t in the direct path, you were going to feel Carla’s fury.

On September 11, Carla roared ashore near Port O’Connor and Port Lavaca as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm pushed a towering wall of water ranging from 15 to 20 feet high across the coast. Entire towns were swallowed by the surge. Port Lavaca was nearly destroyed, and low-lying areas across Matagorda and Calhoun Counties disappeared beneath the sea.

Winds tore apart homes, ripped up piers, and flung debris miles inland. Even Houston, dozens of miles away, was shaken by hurricane-force gusts. And then came the tornadoes — more than two dozen of them, spinning off Carla’s circulation, tearing through Texas, Louisiana, and as far north as the Midwest.

By the time the storm finally moved inland and began to fade, 43 lives had been lost. But that number could have been far higher. Warnings from forecasters and state officials led to half a million people evacuating the Texas coast, the largest evacuation in U.S. history up to that point. —

NOT A COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT —