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C names tend to cause catastrophe

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  • Originally published July 22, 2008 at 12:15 a.m., updated July 22, 2008 at 12:15 a.m.

The wind pushes against my back,

telling me to move forward;

I look behind me,

the wind blows in my face,

telling me not to look back.

Well, I was breathing easier in recent days as Hurricane Cristobal, the hurricane name beginning with that dreaded “C,” veered up and eventually away from the East Coast of the U.S., possibly headed for a slow death over the cooler waters of the North Atlantic.

Bertha had already fizzled, and I barely even remembered what “A” stood for this year (Arthur, which fizzled over Mexico), so I was feeling pretty good about dodging the early bullets of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

But wouldn’t you know it? Along comes Dolly, sneaking up on us from the Caribbean, crawling over the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico just as Arthur had done. But, instead of taking the route Arthur had taken to his death, Dolly emerged suddenly on Monday morning headed toward Texas – at least possibly.

So, here we are under a hurricane or tropical storm watch in the Coastal Bend once again, watching news reports helplessly while praying this storm, too, takes some path away from us.

There is precious little with which to tie our hopes except, as I said at the outset, at least Dolly starts with a letter other than “C.” That dreaded “C” has always spelled disaster for our vicinity.

Most recently, I remember the streets of Victoria lined with enormous piles of broken tree limbs and destroyed patio furniture, broken glass, roofing, and so on, after a particularly unpleasant lady named Claudette paid us a visit back on July 15, 2003. That’s right – Just like Dolly, it was a rare July landfall for one of these monsters.

Carla, the September 1961 hurricane, is the storm by which all others are measured in this area of the U.S. With 175-mph winds and a 17-foot storm surge, she forced a stunned Morris Roberts, the Advocate’s owner at the time, to drive through the rubble of the coastline, survey the damage and write, “The town of Port O’Connor has ceased to exist.”

Celia, almost a decade later, reached its peak strength as a Category 3 hurricane as it made landfall near Corpus Christi on Aug. 3, 1970. She killed 15 Texans and caused $400 million in damage, calculated in the dollars of almost 40 years ago.

And so, here we are again. All those Texans who cry, “We’re overdue for a big one” every June 1, when hurricane season begins, will most likely be right sooner or later. And this time, it could be a “D.”

Lord hope it won’t be – not this week, or this year.

Jim Bishop is a senior editor for the Advocate. Leave him a message at 361-574-1210 or jbishop@vicad.com or comment on this column at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.



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