Southeast Texas hurricane history
Storms have drawn a bead on Southeast Texas
and Southwest Louisiana

Brian Pearson
The Beaumont Enterprise

Severe tropical weather has been as much a part of life in Southeast Texas as crawfish, humidity, fire ants and mosquitoes.

Here are the storms that made their mark on the area, according to Beaumont Enterprise archives:

• Sept. 8, 1900, a horrific storm struck Galveston. The unnamed storm killed as many as 8,000 people and damaged every structure on the island. Property damage was estimated up to $40 million. The storm, which came ashore west of Galveston, was believed to have been a Category 4 with 135 mph winds. Winds in Southeast Texas were estimated at 77 mph with gusts up to 120 mph.

• Aug. 16, 1915, an unnamed storm affected Galveston, Texas City, Port Arthur and Beaumont with wind gusts up to 120 mph. San Augustine received more than 19 inches of rain and storm surge reached more than 16 feet. The death toll was 275, with 100 listed as missing and presumed dead and damages exceeded $56 million.

• Sept. 23, 1941, an unnamed storm hit Texas City with 83 mph winds, killing four and causing $6.5 million in damage.

• July 27, 1943, an unnamed storm hit Galveston, killing 19 and causing $16.6 million in damage.

• June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey took 500 lives and sent about 50,000 people in Southwest Louisiana in search of food, water and shelter. Inadequate warnings and predictions that the storm would make landfall at Port Arthur were blamed for loss of life. The storm, a Category 4 with winds over 140 mph, caused an estimated $150 million in damage.

• Sept. 11-13, 1961, Hurricane Carla blew into Port Lavaca and Matagorda, packing winds with gusts up to 175 mph, along with 15 inches of rain and a 15 foot storm surge, killing 46 people and causing an estimated $400 million in damages.

• Sept. 16-20, 1963, Hurricane Cindy struck Port Arthur, bringing 24 inches of rain to Jefferson, Orange and Newton counties and causing $11.6 million in damage. The Category 1 storm caused three deaths.

• Oct. 4, 1964, Hurricane Hilda struck the Louisiana coast with winds of 135 mph, scattering residents from Lake Charles, Sulphur, Delcambre, Lafayette, Abbeville, New Iberia, Franklin, Berwick, LaRose and Morgan City northward to Baton Rouge. In La Rose, 20 people died as the result of a hurricane-spawned tornado. A water tower in Erath blew over onto city hall, killing eight.

• Sept. 18-23, 1967, Hurricane Beulah, with 109 mph winds, left 15 dead and caused $200 million in damages in South Texas.

• August 1969, Hurricane Camille, a full Category 5 hurricane, left more than 250 dead as it crossed five states, including Louisiana and Mississippi, causing an estimated $1.4 billion in damages with wind gusts up to 175 mph.

• Aug. 3, 1970, Hurricane Celia killed 11 and caused $50 million in damage with 161 mph winds in the Corpus Christi area.

• Sept. 4, 1973, Tropical Storm Delia fell short of hurricane strength as it headed for the coast, making landfall on the Bolivar Peninsula with wind gusts up to 68 mph. Delia caused little damage, but did attract attention because it made landfall, returned to the Gulf, then swept back inland, stranding some residents when the storm surge cut off evacuation routes.

• Sept. 8, 1974, Hurricane Carmen, with winds gusting to 180 mph, killed three in Jamaica and battered the Yucatan before heading into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm stalled in the Gulf for five hours offshore around Houma, La., before heading inland, striking the Lafayette, La., and Jennings, La ., areas. About 14,000 customers were without electricity during the peak.

• Aug. 9, 1980, Hurricane Allen hit the lower coast with extreme intensity and 120 mph winds, killing two and causing $55 million in damage.

• Nov. 14, 1980, Hurricane Jeanne entered the Gulf and threatened the Texas/Louisiana coast before cool waters sapped the storm's strength. Jeanne marked the first November hurricane since 1966.
  n Aug. 18, 1983, Hurricane Alicia hit the Houston-Galveston area, killing 21 and causing an estimated $1.2 billion in damage.

• Aug. 15, 1985, Hurricane Danny came onshore near New Iberia, La., packing 90 mph winds and driving rain.

• Oct. 28, 1985, Hurricane Juan, with 85 mph winds and waves up to 20 feet, sank an offshore oil rig off the coast of New Iberia, La., forcing the rescue of 141 and leaving at least three people dead. The storm, which made landfall at Vermilion Bay, La., flooded Delacroix, La., and several other low-lying coastal towns.

• June 26, 1986, Hurricane Bonnie, barely a Category 1 hurricane, hit south of Port Arthur with 85 mph winds, killing three and causing $1.7 million in damage. Winds downed trees and thousands of residents lost power.

• Sept. 16, 1988, Hurricane Gilbert devastated portions of the Caribbean and the Yucatan peninsula, roaring into the Gulf of Mexico headed toward the Texas coast. Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana residents prepared and evacuated before the storm turned and headed toward Brownsville. Only three Texas counties were declared disaster areas after they were struck by the weakened storm.

• Aug. 2, 1989, Hurricane Chantal made landfall at High Island, bringing heavy rains and 85 mph winds. The storm heavily damaged portions of Texas 87, forcing closure of a 16-mile stretch of the road. A Chevron-leased rig being towed to shore because of the storm capsized, killing 10 people.

• Oct. 15, 1989, Hurricane Jerry, with wind gusts up to 100 mph, struck Galveston, killing three people whose truck was swept over the seawall by high winds. It caused more than $8 million in damage. About 15,000 residents in Liberty and Chambers counties lost power, and parts of Louisiana 82 in Cameron Parish were damaged by high tides.

• August 1992, Hurricane Andrew threatened the Texas coast before hitting Louisiana, where the Category 3 storm killed eight and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage. The storm, the costliest on record until Hurricane Katrina of 2005, was a Category 5 storm when it slammed into Florida, where it left more than 250,000 homeless and caused $15 billion to $20 billion in damages.

• June 5-6, 2001, Tropical Storm Allison formed suddenly in the Gulf and moved into the upper Texas coast, where it stalled and produced heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding in the Southeast Texas and Houston area. Flooding closed major highways in Houston and caused about $5 billion in damages, putting it among the Top 10 costliest storms in U.S. history.

• Sept. 7, 2002, Tropical Storm Fay came ashore southwest of Houston with winds approaching 60 mph. Fay, which Southeast Texans feared might strengthen into a hurricane, dumped up to 4 inches of rain in some parts of the region. Other than some coastal flooding and scattered power outages, Fay did little damage.

• Sept. 28, 2002, Tropical Storm Isidore put a scare into Southeast Texans but came ashore southwest of New Orleans with 65 mph winds and 15 inches of rain in some coastal areas.

• Oct. 2, 2002, Hurricane Lili, at one point a dangerous Category 4 storm with 145 mph winds, sent tens of thousands of Southeast Texans scurrying onto the evacuation routes. However, by the time Lili came ashore near Vermilion Bay in Louisiana, it was only a Category 2 storm with winds below 100 mph. Southeast Texas received only a few sprinkles and light wind gusts.

• July 15, 2003, Hurricane Claudette, a Category 1 storm with 90 mph winds, sent 10-foot waves crashing into Bolivar Peninsula as she rumbled by to the south en route to making landfall between Port O'Connor and Palacios. Geotubes, or large tubes filled with sand, were credited with saving Bolivar from severe erosion and home destruction due to storm surge.

• Sept. 24, 2004, Tropical Storm Ivan, which as a hurricane caused extensive damage before looping back out over the Atlantic and heading westward, came ashore in Southwest Louisiana and dumped as much as 6 inches of badly needed precipitation in some areas of Southeast Texas. Ten days earlier, Southeast Texans rolled out the welcome mat for Hurricane Ivan evacuees streaming in from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Ivan came ashore Sept. 17, 2004, near Pensacola, Fla., with 130 mph winds.

• Aug. 29, 2005, As Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a stout Category 3 storm in New Orleans, thousands of evacuees were being sheltered in Southeast Texas. Residents here rolled out the welcome mat, working tirelessly to feed, clothe, shelter and provide basic needs. Some evacuees even found jobs, enrolled their children in school and decided to stay.

• Sept. 23-24, 2005, Hurricane Rita came ashore at Sabine Pass, a Category 3 storm packing 115 mph sustained winds. Prior to the storm, a mandatory evacuation sent hundreds of thousands of Southeast Texans fleeing the area, with many of them stuck in a horrific traffic jam with millions of evacuees from the Houston area. Rita damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, causing more than $5 billion in insured losses. Not only was Rita, which gained little attention in the national media, the seventh-costliest storm in U.S. history, it was the most destructive natural disaster in Texas history.