The 1916 Corpus Christi Hurricane
Well hello, Hurricane Dolly?
In August 1916, a category four hurricane crossed Padre Island with winds of 135 mph, and struck the mainland slightly north of Riviera, in Kleberg County.Texas. It’s called the Corpus Christi hurricane. It might have been called the Kingsville hurricane. It passed through rapidly and moved inland, without a lot of damage. Wikipedia says only 15 casualties?
Do any of you old Kingsville Texans have some family stories about it? The town was only a dozen years old at the time...
There were some early indications from the weather bureau in Corpus – erratic barometer readings – but there just wasn’t a good way to pass along the warnings to the surrounding areas.
Mother said that some of her brothers were fishing on Padre Island. They were okay, as it turned out, since they were north of the worst of it.
In Kingsville, it struck as a surprise. My grandparents Baird were in their downtown store when the wind and rain began to roar. My mother and her youngest brother, Julian, were at home several blocks away (perhaps on E. Johnson). Of course Grandmother panicked and sent grandfather home to check on the kids. By the time he got to the house he was crawling on his knees, blown by the wind. He found that Mom and Julian were fine; they’d propped a mattress against the big LR window. Then, Pop had to crawl back to assure Grandma (this account from my mother).
In Corpus, Great-grandfather Crossley’s house was on the west (far) side of Artesia Park, where the Corpus Christi Caller building stands today. The ground floor was flooded by the storm surge. He picked up his wife and carried her upstairs. (this from my father, who was in CA at the time). The house survived; my dad lived there as a youngster and had many happy stories about it.
This all happened before that sea wall was built. Water Street really was right there at the water. Some of you old timers will remember, when we were little, those sets of steps leading to nowhere along Water Street; houses had been washed away. My grandmother’s girlhood home, on the east side of Artesia Park, survived for many years as the Horne Apartments.
Any other family stories of the 1916 Hurricane?
dac 7/21/2008