The Galveston County Daily News

I was 8 years old when this hurricane occurred. I remember it very well because my dad was in the Navy in boot training at Camp Wallace which was only a mile from our home on Highway 6 in Hitchcock.

My sister was almost 2, and my mother was pregnant with my second sister.

Since we didn’t have much warning about the hurricane we left home to go to my grandmother’s house on Fairwood Road, which is now in Hitchcock, after winds had almost reached hurricane force.

Her house was on piers about six feet above the ground and she never had any high water problems.

I can remember my mother having a dickens of a time keeping the old 1936 Chevrolet on the road. As I recall there was not a lot of rain at the time; therefore there was no flooding. We always had high water at home because Highland Bayou flooded on the upper end during heavy rains and storms. That is no longer a problem since the Diversion Canal was built.

All of the windows on my grandmother’s house had been boarded by the time we got there except for one window on the north side. We all set around that window to watch what was happening outside.

There was a big chinaberry tree about 15 feet from the house straight out from the window and we sat there and watched it blow over a bit at a time and then finally completely down.

We didn’t have to worry about losing electrical power because Fairwood Road had not yet been electrified.

Up to this point I can recall everything very clearly but, you know, I don’t remember anything about the aftermath of the hurricane. I guess, for us not having had any serious damage or anyone in the family hurt, the aftermath was a nonevent for an 8 year old.

My mother still lives in the same location but in a different home which had been flooded several times before the Diversion Canal was put in.

John O. Anderson Jr. Texas City