Hurricane Carla...

Today is the 48 year anniversary of Hurricane Carla... Another VERY under-rated hurricane that made landfall near Port Lavaca, TX midday on September 11th 1961... At one time Carla was a strong Category-5 hurricane (175mph) in the Gulf of Mexico but thankfully "weakened" to a Category-4 at landfall with sustained winds of 150 mph... Wind gusts were reported as high as 175 mph in Port Lavaca!!! At the time it was tied for 5th strongest hurricane in US history by pressure at landfall (931mb)... Today it would rank a little higher with hurricanes like Camille, Andrew, and Katrina, but either way it was still an extremely powerful hurricane that devastated southeast Texas... Here are 2 very interesting facts about Hurricane Carla that few people know about:

1) A little known reporter named Dan Rather reported live from Galveston Island as Hurricane Carla made landfall... Today many others have followed in Dan Rather's footsteps, but at the time this was basically unheard of making him a pioneer of live reporting in a hurricane!!! On a side note I always loved to watch Dan Rather as a kid because he had NO FEAR when it came to hurricanes... I remember him in Hugo, Andrew, Opal, and a few others... My favorite was during the height of Hurricane Opal when he came on live during the CBS evening news tied to phone pole in Pensacola, Fl... I just smiled and thought that I really want to do that one-day!

2) Hurricane Carla produced a large tornado outbreak which included a F4 tornado that struck downtown Galveston killing 8 people and injuring 55 others... To the best of my knowledge this is the strongest tornado ever produced by a hurricane! Hard to believe but when it comes to weather I'll be the first to say that crazy things happen all the time!!! It really is an amazing event if you think about it!

Hurricane Carla - Stormpulse...