Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - City braces for hurricane season

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Mesquite Street after the Hurricane of 1919. One survivor says the city resembled a lumber yard where everything was just dumped and left as is.

When the Great Hurricane of 1919 slammed into Corpus Christi, 3-year-old C.W. "Chile" Vetters took refuge with his family in the stoutly built Nueces County Courthouse. They watched the destruction from an upper-story window.
   "It was just total disaster," recalled Vetters, now an 83-year-old retired city secretary who still lives in Corpus Christi. "You could see people floating around in the water and grabbing onto things. . . . You'd see cars just being turned upside down and washed down the roads."
   Vetters' family survived. But with 110-mph winds and a big tidal surge, the hurricane left more than 280 people dead and more than $20 million in damage.
   Eighty years after that devastating storm, the Coastal Bend faces a hurricane season predicted to be more active than usual, and local emergency response officials are warning area residents to be prepared. Hurricane season starts Tuesday and lasts until Nov. 30.
   Today's storm prediction technology is better than it was in 1919, and building construction is stronger. But local emergency response authorities still worry.
   Hurricane Celia in 1970 was the last major hurricane to hit the Coastal Bend, and a lot of development has taken place in beach areas like Padre Island since then. Thousands of people who never have faced a hurricane and may not know how to prepare for a big storm have moved into the area in the past 29 years.
   "We have kind of a mixture of several things coming together - the development, the number of inexperienced people moving to the coastline and an active hurricane season," said Joe Arellano, meteorologist in charge at the Corpus Christi office of the National Weather Service.
   "It could mean we're in for a rough year."

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The corner of Mesquite and Laguna streets as it appeared on Sept. 19, 1919, after the hurricane hit the city.

Active season expected
   Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the National Weather Service, announced that this year's hurricane season is expected to bring more tropical storms, hurricanes and intense hurricanes than usual.
   Chances are better for greater-than-average hurricane activity, and three or more intense storms, according to the atmospheric administration. A normal hurricane season includes nine to 10 tropical storms, of which five or six become hurricanes and two become classified as intense hurricanes., administration officials said.
   The prediction for intensified hurricane activity comes partly because of La Ni§a, a weather phenomenon that occurs when sea water is cooler than average across the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, D. James Baker, who leads the atmospheric administration, said in a written statement.
   La Ni§a is expected to continue at its current strength throughout the hurricane season, Baker said.
   Hurricane Jerry, which struck the Galveston area in 1989, was the last hurricane to land on the Texas coast. If a hurricane does not hit Texas shores this year, it will be a record, Arellano said. The state never has gone 10 years without being hit by a hurricane since 1829, as far back as National Weather Service records go, Arellano said.

Preparation crucial
   Local emergency response officials are working to remind residents to pay attention to hurricane warnings and to evacuate promptly when the order is given, said Juan Ortiz, assistant emergency management coordinator for the city of Corpus Christi.
   "You can't wait until the last minute," Ortiz said. "You need to be prepared to evacuate and know what to take with you and know where to go."
   Emergency response officials are trying to educate the public about hurricane awareness through advertisements and by distributing information packets around town, Ortiz said.
   Among other recent hurricane season preparations by the city:
   The Corpus Christi Office of Emergency Management last week began meeting with city workers who have been called upon to stay in the city during hurricanes to handle emergencies, Ortiz said. Emergency management officials explained the employees' responsibilities and how they may take care of their families while handling their public duties at the same time.
   Ortiz met with San Antonio's emergency management coordinator May 24 and discussed how San Antonio could provide shelter for thousands of Coastal Bend residents if a hurricane forces evacuation. San Antonio has agreed to provide shelter in buildings such as community centers and gymnasiums, Ortiz said.
   City officials are finalizing an agreement with contractors who will help clear debris from Corpus Christi streets in a hurricane's aftermath, Ortiz said.
   Last week, the Coastal Bend Emergency Management Association met at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi to gear up for hurricane season. The association is made up mainly city, county and state employees who work together to improve readiness for catastrophes.

New forecast equipment
   The National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi is geared up for hurricane season too. This is the first full hurricane season during which the office will have a new computer system that will allow forecasters to process weather information faster and communicate more effectively with the National Hurricane Center in Florida, said Arellano of the local weather service office.
   The $750,000 Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System will allow forecasters to better gather local weather information and forward it to the National Hurricane Center for consideration in making forecasts on hurricanes' paths, Arellano said.
   Vetters, the 1919 hurricane survivor, looked to his grandfather for storm predictions.
   "We didn't have a weather bureau then, and he was kind of the unofficial weather bureau," Vetters said. "Being an old sea captain, he could figure those things out before they happened."
   A day or two before the 1919 hurricane hit, Vetters' grandfather pointed to some snails crawling on a tree trunk.
   "Ordinarily, the snail goes 2 or 3 feet up a tree to feed," Vetters said. "But these he was talking about, he showed my daddy and me, were way on up high where there was nothing to eat - just high enough so they could be out of any water that might come."

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A car sits on Peoples Street after the 1919 hurricane. After the storm struck the city, the tide was high for several days before the water receded.

Memories of 1919
   Vetters said he and his family were joined by many others who sought refuge in the county courthouse during the 1919 hurricane. For several days after the hurricane struck, they couldn't leave the courthouse because the tide was so high.
   They were able to live on apples and milk, because someone had brought a cow into the courthouse just before the storm struck, and because others occasionally stepped into the seawater surrounding the courthouse and swam to a tree to pick apples.
   When the waters receded and everyone finally was able to leave the courthouse, they found Corpus Christi in shambles.
   "It looked like 19 lumber yards were just dumped on everything downtown," Vetters said.
   The 1919 hurricane probably was the worst tragedy ever to befall Corpus Christi - aside from yellow fever epidemics in the 1800s, said Bill Walraven, a local historian and former Caller-Times columnist.
   Bodies of dozens of dead storm victims lay all over the city, blackened by oil that spilled from tanks burst by the hurricane, Walraven said. The bodies later were lined up on the courthouse lawn for identification, Walraven said.
   "It was about the worst horror you could imagine," he said.