The Galveston County Daily News

I was 19 and working at the Electric Supply Co., located at 2312 Ave. C, or now where the Tremont Hotel exists.

Although the weather was iffy, I had come to work; it was wartime and we couldn’t get behind.

Finally, my boss, Doc Compton, who was in charge of the accounting department decided we needed to leave. Since he lived in the West End as I did, he offered to take me home.

I remember so well as we were going home the green cast to the sky and the palm trees that were already blown down on Broadway.

Home for me was 49th Street and Avenue R. I had already experienced a storm at that location. It was 1932, or thereabout.

My dad had developed a method for our blinds when we were being buffeted by a storm.

We had the outside wooden shutters, but they could fly open with such strong winds so people would usually nail 1-by-6 or 2-by-4s across the shutters, nailing the piece of wood into the window frame.

My dad discovered he could loop strong piece of wire (usually a piece composed of several strands of wire) through the shutters, binding the two blinds together, and it could be done from inside the house, because he wasn’t able to get outside on a ladder.

This he had already done by the time I arrived home. We could still look through the shutter.

Then we saw this soldier from Fort Crockett battling the wind and rain, heading north on 49th Street.

He staggered up on our porch and asked if he could rest a minute there. We asked him to come in, but he refused, saying he had to get to his wife because she was alone. And of course, the officers at Fort Crockett hadn’t been so quick to let anyone leave, was his complaint.

After the storm, the public water became contaminated. Scarletina was prevalent. I developed a fever, too, but I had a kidney infection.

I remember the power was off in our section for nine or more days, and with my fever I was so hot.

One day I took my dad’s car, a 1936 Chevy, and went to the Southern Select Brewery where there was supposed to be some ice. While I was waiting in line for the ice, some of the electricians came by to do some work at the brewery, saw me and kidded me for not being at work.

My comment “But I’m sick” only made them laugh.

That was only my second storm to experience, but you never forget the howl of the wind, the thrashing of the palm trees, seeing debris go flying down the street, etc.

My mother had experienced the 1900 and 1915 storms, so she was full of stories.

Also I have just recently discovered we had a storm in 1919. And I can remember 1949, 1958, Carla, Alicia, Frances and now Claudette, a total of eight for me.

Dorothy Snow Lucas Galveston