August 7, 2014 (Thursday)
I was living in Dallas during Hurricane Carla (1961). The eye of this huge, strong storm passed over Dallas–several hundred miles inland–with 50 mph winds. It impacted the Texas coast, including Rockport, where there was much property damage. It came to Rockport three years before my family and I moved here.
Six years after Carla there was Beulah, a huge storm with many tornadoes in many places, and enough rain to create a lake stretching from San Antonio to the Gulf of Mexico. FM 1069 from Aransas Pass disappeared under the water and markers like channel buoys in the bay marked the location of the road.
Three years later Celia arrived. The date was Monday, August 3, 1970. It was small in area, and brief in duration, but winds calculated by some as 200 mph in places, wreaking havoc throughout the Coastal Bend, taking the roof off our church building and destroying the new worship center at the First Baptist Church of Portland, along with many homes.
Celia was here 44 years ago,as of last Sunday. Back then folks had still been talking about the deadly 1919 storm, which hit this area 51 years before Celia. Its eye came in over Baffin Bay but 40 people in Rockport died in the storm. Much of Rockport was way under water.
It has been so long since a storm hit this area we all have probably become complacent about hurricanes. Not a good idea. 
I got a taste of Hurricane Ike when I was in Houston, in 2008, and spent a horrible night thinking my little house was about to blow away, and I was not even in the worst of it. It had originally aimed itself at Rockport, but changed its mind and went to Galveston. (Aftermath photo at right).
The next one–and there will be a next one–may come to our town. Having stayed through some and having evacuated for some, I think it’s probably a great idea to leave early, ahead of the traffic jams, and go somewhere else to watch the news about it on T.V. If I still had a family with me, I would not hesitate to leave town.
August 3 always reminds me of Celia. So I wrote about it. Active storms headed for Hawaii are on my mind today. My new great-granddaughter is in Hawaii with her parents and grandmother today, as Hurricane Iselle heads for their islands; Julio is right behind her, expected Sunday. The forecasters believe the storms will weaken before landfall. I surely hope so.