HURRY CANES

 Hurricane Sally is still pouring buckets of rain on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and the Florida panhandle. That reminded me of the various hurricanes I have experienced starting with one that brought its wind and rain 50 miles north of Corpus Christi to my dry little home town in the 1940s. I mention this one because I remember being at home with my parents and watching the heavy rain and wind. I was also watching my mother standing on our screened-in back porch yelling "come on wind, blow that old carport down!" And at about the third plea to the wind, her wish came true and the wind took that thing down.  Fortunately we had insurance so she got her wish and as soon as the weather settled down she painted a mural on the side of the new garage. It wasn't until 1953 that they started naming hurricanes. 

That one wasn't exciting or hair raising but the 1919 hurricane and tidal wave that hit Corpus Christi had an everlasting effect on my mother's family. My grandfather, Talvus DeWitt Wilson, had a pharmacy in downtown Corpus on Water Street (see photo below) and they lived in a big house on North Beach across the bridge from the main part of the city. It was where the aquarium is now. The house was two stories and it was made of stone. My grandparents, my mother and some of her other siblings were still living at home in 1919. There were seven children in all but the others were grown and married. My mother was 15, her brother, Sede was 5 and their sister, Elsie, was about 12. In those days, there was no early warning system so they had no way to prepare for that disaster. They saw the water rising and went up to the second story watching as it continued to rise. They knew they had to get out but how was the question. I never got a clear story on where or who appeared outside one of a second story window in a small boat, but that person was their savior. They climbed out the window and into the boat and were rowed to where they could get onto the railroad trestle that connected North Beach to downtown Corpus. They crawled on the railroad bridge over the harbor on their hands and knees, finally reaching safety in the County Courthouse where they stayed for three days waiting for the storm to play out.  That would have been difficult for anyone but it was especially so for my grandmother who had a stiff right knee from a botched operation.

When it was all over they learned that a tidal wave had completely washed away their well-built home. Not one stone was left. My grandfather's pharmacy was gone and in those days there was no FEMA or any help. They managed to find a small house up away from the bay and it was then that my grandfather had to become a traveling salesman in order to provide for his family.

The storm left such an impression on my mother because she had lost everything she and her family owned, that she became very aware of how precious memorabilia is. Family lore and photographs were very important to her and I have old photos starting from the years after the storm. She also felt it necessary to write down the family names and birth dates, etc., which of course , it is, because all those records had floated away. 

My father lived in Corpus at the time but not near the bay. Their home was up above the bluff and several blocks away from the damage. He and his family were very reticent and I never heard any stories about their experiences from the 1919 hurricane.