United We Stand

As I sit at my desk writing this weeks column, Hurricane Dean is “screaming into the Gulf”, as one reporter put it. I checked the National Weather Service web site and the storm hasn’t even made it to Jamaica. I’m almost afraid to turn the radio dial to KTRH 740 AM, because they are probably giving minute-by-minute updates.

My first experience with a hurricane took place in July of 1970. It wasn’t much of a storm as far as hurricanes go and I sat it out with friends at an apartment complex in Pasadena. I don’t even remember its name.

Move forward to 1983 and I saw what a bad storm could do. Hurricane Alicia slammed into my side of Baytown, swallowing Brownwood and pushing my house into a bind. I lost my garage, eleven trees and my electricity for about a month. My wife and I and our two babies sat it out in the dark, wind howling and screaming and making the noise a locomotive makes when it’s under a full load.

About 3am, a limb flew through my living room window. We were helpless. I made the decision, which was a bad one, to attempt to get to my mother-in-law’s brick home on Bolster Street, in Pelly. My bride, our babies and I loaded up in my trusty GMC “truck of many colors”, which was capable of accomplishing feats unimaginable (all men think their truck is a Sherman tank).

With winds gusting about 90 miles per hour, I slowly backed out onto Ashby Street which was on the back side of Exxon, close to Park Street and Bayway Drive, only to find to my amazement that the gigantic cottonwood tree next to my house had fallen across the street. I never even heard it. What I did hear was the air conditioning and fans stop when the tree fell and pulled my electrical service box off my house. What if it had fallen on my house, I thought!

Motoring the opposite direction at about 5 mph, I soon was stopped by another downed tree and electrical lines popping and snapping on the road. With mounting anxiety, I realized I had made some very bad choices and the worst part was I had put my precious family in jeopardy.

Needless to say, we sat the storm out at our homestead, or what was left of it. My house set on piers and the high winds had literally pushed the house catawampus, so it was teetering on some piers, off others and inches away from falling over. I had to kick the back door open to get out and then I couldn’t close it. It was August and it was hot and steamy.

My brother-in-law, John Lusk and I drove around town to survey the damage and ended up on the stretch of Highway 146 leading up to the Baytown/La Porte Tunnel. Debris and flotsam were everywhere and the roads looked like the disaster area that it had become. Folks were wandering around on foot, braving the winds that were still so strong, that everyone was walking like drunken sailors.

I remember seeing about 5 boats, a large commercial ice freezer, a trailer and hundreds of crates, boxes and items strewn all across the roadside and asphalt.

I’ll never forget a very strange sight that will most likely never be repeated in front of me. The wind was blowing very hard and as John and I stood observing the destruction, I beheld a dove in stop flight about 50 feet above me. It was flapping its little wings as hard as it could, but wasn’t moving forward. It evidentially lifted its wing, because the wind suddenly sent it flying backwards. It carried about 50 feet and the poor bird hit its head on a power line, effectively killing it. The stout wind carried its tumbling body halfway across Black Duck bay before it touched down.

I looked over at John and said, “Did you see that?” and he indicated he didn’t. The dove was so far away; when I looked back, I couldn’t remember where it landed. Hurricane Alicia had taken one more victim and most likely, only I had witnessed it.

The reason the weather service and KTRH are sensationalizing this next storm is because hurricanes kill people and destroy whole neighborhoods and cities. Take precautions folks and if it heads this way…leave. Grab your valuables and go!

We showed the whole world we Baytonians have a giving and generous spirit when Katrina and Rita rolled through. We know how to do it.

When it’s over, we’ll help each other put it all back together. I know we will.