Mighty Hurricane Carla battered the Texas Gulf Coast in 1961

In 1961 Hurricane Carla hit Texas as a Category 4 storm (after downgrading from Category 5), killing 43 people and creating wide-spread damage in Texas. It was the last category-4 storm to make landfall in Texas. less

FILE – Port Acres, which is now part of Port Arthur, was also flooded by Hurricane Carla in 1961.

Galveston, Hurricane Carla, 1961

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

Tri-City Beach, Camp Allen is in the upper right, after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

This is how Hurricane Carla looked on the radar screen at the isolated United States Weather Bureau Station at Galveston in 1961. Hundreds of thousands of television viewers saw this picture of a storm through the facilities of KHOU-TV as Carla was tracked toward the Texas coast. Galveston is at the center of the concentric circles on the screen and the eye of the hurricane is at the tip of the pencil.

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The front page of the Houston Chronicle after Hurricane Carla, September 11, 1961.

The front page of the Houston Chronicle after Hurricane Carla, September 12, 1961.

Galveston, Hurricane Carla, 1961

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

This dog kept a faithful vigi in front of the ripped-open home of his unknown master in Galveston, 1961.

Across the street from a Houston police station following Hurricane Carla, Sept. 1961.

A woman sits among the rubble of her home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Carla in September of 1961.

City Auditorium was turned into a shelter for those looking to flee Hurricane Carla, Houston, September 1961.

Galveston Seawall, Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Family walk through flood water after Hurricane Carla, Sept. 15, 1961.

Port Lavaca, September 1961, following Hurricane Carla.

This confused, hungry horse found sanctuary, during a night of terror, on the porch of a flooded house at Oyster Creek, near Freeport.

Monmouth Drive, near Channelview following Hurricane Carla, 1961.

A taxi sits crushed beneath a structure that toppled in Galveston after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Balinese Room following Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Clear Lake after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

City Auditorium was turned into a shelter for those looking to flee Hurricane Carla, September 1961.

Flooding from Hurricane Carla.

A Port O’Connor housewife sits sad and bewildered on what remains of her home in the coastal town, September 1961, following Hurricane Carla.

Shooting rattlesnakes after hundreds moved inland to escape Hurricane Carla.

Hurricane Carla moved inland Sep. 11, packing winds of 110-miles-per-hour. As her winds hit this town it sent highway markers to the gorund and stop lights went almost parallel to the street as CArla moved in on the Texas Gulf Coast.

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After winds from Hurricane Carla battered these telephone line poles all night, they began to give way to its force. Driving rain and 150-mph winds continue as Carla steadily moves toward the Texas Gulf Coast.

Water sprays into the air as it hits a boat dock that has been covered with water as Hurricane Carla sent waves 7 feet above normal into the area. Carla packs 150-mph winds as she moves toward the Texas Gulf Coast.

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Large waves break over the 16-foot seawall, as a workman goes about cleaning up debris deposited on Seawall Boulevard, near Pleasure Pier. Winds and high tides from Hurricane Carla have forced the closing of the causeway connecting Galveston with the mainland, completely isolating this island city and its residents who have chosen to ride out the storm in their homes.

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Oil barrels adrift after hurricane Carla ripped through Texas City.

Hurricane Carla.

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

A view of the wreckage after Hurricane Carla.

Hurricane Carla moving through Texas.

Refugees from Hurricane Carla.

Houses destroyed by hurricane Carla.

Only shells remain of several barracks at Matagorda Air Force Base in Hurricane Carla’s wake, Sept. 1961.

Bolivar Peninsula east of Gilchrist looked like this after the water receded following Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Residents seeking higher ground head to the Rice Hotel to ride out Hurricane Carla, September 1961.

The aftermath of Hurricane Carla, 1961.

A toddler cries as she sits amid the remains of her home after it was destroyed by Hurricane Carla in September of 1961.

A Port O’Connor woman at the remains of her home in the coastal town, September 1961, following Hurricane Carla.

A taxi sits crushed beneath a structure that toppled in Galveston after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Kemah after Hurricane Carla, Sept 1961.

Hurricane Carla damage to a half-century-old pleasure pier and pavilion in Palacios, 1961.

FILE – Hurricane Carla destroyed sections of the pier in Galveston, 1961.

Clear Lake after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Among the flotsam washed up on the Galveston beach in the wake of Hurricane Carla was this section of a tunnel built by United States Steel’s American Bridge Division at Orange. The section, nearly 100 yards long and 34 feet in diameter, was one of two pieces delivered to the contractor’s tug boat at Orange, Sept. 3, 1961. The two sections, bound for the Atlantic Coast to become part of tunnels on U.S. Highway 17, were cut loose during the hurricane, Sept. 9, 270 miles off Galveston. The other on the way to bring them to Orange for repairs.

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Highway 73 at Greens Bayou near San Jacinto River after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

FILE – The windows of the Dobbs House restaurant at Houston International Airport are covered by a plastic sheet to keep out the rain after high winds from Hurricane Carla blew out the glass in 1961.

Downtown Houston following Hurricane Carla, Sept. 1961

A cat was stranded near the Highway bridge on the Navidad River, five miles east of hard-hit Edna after Hurricane Carla, 1961.

FILE – Groves in south Jefferson County was one of the areas flooded by Hurricane Carla in 1961.

FILE – A woman waves to a helicopter from the floodwaters Hurricane Carla, 1961.

Shopkeepers tape windows downtown ahead of Hurricane Carla’s arrival, 1961.