Texas Hurricane History:
Early 20th Century (continued)

June 28th, 1929: A very compact, but minimal, hurricane made landfall at Port O'Connor at about 4:30 P.M. on the 28th. Port Lavaca saw 90 mph winds howl through town. The area of destruction was only 20 miles wide, and the lowest pressure reported was 29.12". Damage totaled $675,000 and 3 were killed.

August 13-14th, 1932: A disturbed area of weather was noted near Belize and Honduras on the 10th. It moved northwestward across the Gulf before intensifying rapidly about a day prior to landfall. A ship 200 miles southeast of Galveston radioed in a pressure of 28.88" on the morning of the 13th. The center passed slightly east of Freeport and directly over East Columbia where winds were estimated at 100 m.p.h. with a lowest pressure of 27.83". In Galveston, telephone and electrical services were out for days. This storm was very compact. Eight hundred birds died in Wharton during the rain. As the system continued north into Oklahoma, an additional 12" of rain fell. Forty died in Brazoria County and total damage was near 7.5 million dollars.

1933: The year when the Atlantic Basin woke up. After 1929 and 1930, which had 5 storms combined, subsequent hurricane seasons began picking up the statistical slack. This culminated in the 1933 season, where 21 storms formed. Only 1995 and 1969 come close to this amount of activity during a single season. Also noteworthy, seven of the systems made landfall between Corpus Christi and Tampico in 1933.

The path to the first hurricane of the season was unique, to say the least. The storm formed at very low latitudes in the Atlantic (8.8 degrees latitude) late during the month of June, moved south of Trinidad, scraped the South American coast westward to Venezuela, before moving northwest across western Cuba, surviving a Caribbean Sea passage during a period normally quite hostile towards development. It then turned west, and southwest through the Gulf of Mexico, making landfall between Brownsville and Tampico in a sparsely settled region of the coast, causing considerable property damage.

The fifth storm of the season formed in the late July near the Lesser Antilles, moving west- northwest across Southern Florida, then westward across the Gulf, striking just south of Brownsville on August 4th. Winds there reached 72 m.p.h., and its associated rainfall caused considerable damage from Brownsville to Monterrey. Waters overspread South Padre Island.

September 4-5th, 1933: The 11th storm of the season was stronger and struck the furthest north. It passed over Turks Island in the Bahamas with a pressure of 27.47" on August 30th. Havana saw winds reaching 94 m.p.h. on late afternoon of September 1st. The next day, in the east central Gulf, a ship reported a pressure of 27.99". During the night of the 4/5th, it moved inland just north of Brownsville. The pressure fell to 28.02" at 1 am on the 5th with winds estimated at 80 m.p.h. in the city.

A 13' storm surge flooded areas near Brownsville, with high tides occurring along the entire Texas coast. The Don Patricio causeway from Flour Bluff to Padre Island was destroyed. All dunes on South Padre Island were leveled. Over 40 cuts were made in that area, which was then abandoned until after World War II. For a picture of flooding in Corpus Christi with this storm, There were 40 people killed and 12 million dollars of damage to property.

1934: The third storm of the season formed off the North Carolina coast on July 21st. It then moved south and southwest across Florida into the eastern Gulf...a move only 1 other cyclone on record has ever matched. It then developed rapidly south of Louisiana on the 24th and struck just north of Corpus Christi (Rockport) on the 25th as a minimal hurricane. Winds at Corpus Christi gusted to 56 mph as the pressure fell to 29.12". Rockport saw the pressure bottom out at 28.79". St. Joseph's Island had a 10.2' storm surge.. Damage estimates were near 1.5 million dollars and 19 deaths occurred in Texas with this storm.

In Late August, another most unusual storm formed in the eastern Gulf. It moved west- northwest, grazed the coast near Freeport, before moving due south, then west into Mexico south of Tampico. It was a minimal hurricane at its most intense. High tides were its main impact.

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