I sat at the side of an iron-nerved pilot who flung his Cessna 175 into Carla's face."
More hype was to follow, but Carla hardly needed it. Except for the Great Galveston Storm of 1900, it was the worst hurricane ever to hit Texas.
Coverage began with a bulletin that ran Friday, Sept. 8, quoting the Weather Bureau's warning that people living in low areas along the Texas and western Louisiana coasts should leave for higher ground because Carla was considered "large and dangerous."
The next day, the Chronicle was reporting winds of up to 50 mph and above-normal tides. Thousands began evacuating but, according to one story, Galveston, "stormwise and weary," took the news calmly.
Early predictions had Carla's 135 mph winds curving northward toward the Galveston-Freeport-Beaumont areas. Houston, according to one forecaster, "stands a good chance to feel the brunt of the hurricane."
Photographs that ran on Sunday, Sept. 10, showed refugees flocking to shelters and workers readying hotels in Galveston for "a big blow."
Reports from staff members stationed along the coast said rising water was closing off roads. Another story reported that Freeport, Clute and Lake Jackson had to be evacuated.
The main story on Monday, Sept. 11, reported that Carla had hit Corpus Christi with 173 mph winds (later changed to 150 mph).
"For Galveston, Freeport and many Galveston Bay towns and communities, the storm has already taken a dreadful toll. Kemah, Shoreacres, Texas City and San Leon were hard hit. Residents of the bay area were advised to leave or drown," Don Pickels wrote.
A box on the front page referred to four full photo pages with "exclusive pictures by the Chronicle's staff of skilled photographers," including "famed Chronicle photographer Larry Evans."
They included aerial photos taken by Rogers, who also wrote: "For over two hours -- in one of the most exciting adventures of my life -- I watched Carla's savage preliminary attack. I saw her fling a tidal wall of water like a battering ram against the door of Texas. I saw her engulf miles of beach in her moist mouth.
"I saw her smash houses, boats and piers with her damp fist, reducing them to kindling wood. I saw her winds toss trees and timbers about like an elephant tosses straw," he wrote. He ended the story with, "The human eye can absorb only so much destruction before the heart breaks. Mine was aching from what I had seen."
Another front-page story that day reported polluted drinking water in Galveston, which was "on the edge of disaster." Downtown Galveston was under 4 feet of water and a flooded John Sealy Hospital was working with only 10 percent of its electrical power. By Monday night, reports said, caskets began to float out of mausoleums.
Interestingly enough, Galveston wasn't supposed to have been in the "critical area." Towns and cities most at risk, according to the Weather Bureau, were Corpus Christi, Ingleside, Port Aransas, Rockport, Fulton, Goose Island State Park, Seadrift, Port Lavaca, Port O'Connor, Palacios and Matagorda.
Corpus Christi declared a state of emergency; Texas City was evacuated by force; the Kemah business district was two feet under water; levees broke in Freeport; residents of a Baytown neighborhood had to be evacuated from their rooftops; and power and telephone lines were down everywhere.
Houston escaped the worst, one story said, because a high-pressure system had caused Carla to swing toward the west.
As the hurricane weakened and approached Austin, the banner headline on Tuesday, Sept. 12, blared: "Waterspout Lashes Galveston, Killing 6 and Injuring at Least 50." Reporter Elmer Bertelsen wrote that a school board member was among those killed as the spout cut an 80-block swath through the city in the middle of the night. Twisters also hit Channelview and La Marque, but no one was reported injured.
Chronicle reporter Emogene Brummerhop, one of the last to be evacuated from Seabrook, wrote a first-person account:
"My heart is broken, but I'm too tired to cry. I'm sad because Seabrook, the town I've called home for 20 years, is just a ghost of what it was before raging tides from Hurricane Carla tore it to splinters Monday night. My home, I learned, was flooded to the roof. A giant piling from the bay was driven through my front door."
As people began to reach some of the more remote coastal areas, the reports were grim.
"Hoskins Mound is gone," wrote staff photographer Sam Pierson. "It was a community of homes, between Freeport and Galveston, and it was no match for Carla. The side of Texas ripped open by the hurricane's knife is still bleeding. The wound is raw and ugly."
Pierson ended with, "Carla rode the Gulf Coast with cruel spurs. The scars will be visible for months."
Another reporter wrote, "Hurricane 'Carla' waddled unlady-like across the weekend Gulf stage like a circus strong woman gone mad. Terrible to encounter, fearful to anticipate, tantalizing to predict, her unhurried savagery wrought havoc."
More calmly, agriculture editor Elmer Summers reported that damage to rice, cotton and pecan crops was estimated to hit $140 million.
On Sept. 13, the Chronicle reported that martial law had been declared in Galveston as Gov. Price Daniel toured the area. A looter was shot in the foot.
Outdoor editor Bob Brister filed the first report from the Matagorda Bay area in the Wednesday edition: "Port O'Connor is flattened out. The nearby communities of Olivia and Port Alto are no more. No one knows how many are dead. They've found two bodies so far."
Donations to help the ravaged areas poured in, with Harris County contributing $250,000. Even citizens of West Berlin sent donations. The Chronicle chipped in by selling special editions for $1, with the proceeds of more than $15,000 going to the fund.
One of the more poignant stories was reported by Dick Friedman, now an assistant city editor. He wrote about a 15-year-old boy and his brother who lost the rest of their family when a tidal wave hit Bastrop Bayou, 15 miles north of Freeport.
"The last time I saw my parents," Robert Wayne Dunn told Friedman, "they were holding hands and my mother was crying."
