**********************
Hurricane Rita Track, 2005
Hurricane Rita Landfall
**********************
Just
in case you don't think that we are going to get any more tropical
storms and hurricanes, take a look at the tracks of 150 years worth of
storms!
**********************
Historical
hurricane
flood and surge maps
Effect
of Hurricane Carla at Port Aransas in 1961
The following illustrations are taken from Hurricanes
as Geological Agents: Case Studies of Hurricanes Carla, 1961, and
Cindy, 1963 by Miles O. Hayes, University of Texas Bureau of Economic
Geology, Report of Investigations no. 61.
This first figure shows the wind
field of Hurricane Carla.
Note that the hurricane force winds extended nearly the entire
length of the Texas coast and inland almost to Austin. Port
Aransas sustained winds in excess of 100 mph even though Port Aransas
is located far to the west of the landfall near Port O'Connor.
Carla was a large diameter, very powerful hurricane.
This
illustration shows the distribution of the height of the
water level, the hurricane surge from Carla. It is interesting to
note that his huge storm had only about a maximum 12 ft. surge on the
open Gulf beaches. The surge in the bay at Port O'Connor was at
least 22 ft., 10 ft. higher than on the adjacent Gulf beaches.
This is because the storm filled the bay with water and then blew
all of that water to the downwind side of the bay. The hurricane
surge is generally HIGHER in bays than on the open Gulf beaches.
We need for our natural dune seawall to be high enough and wide
enough to protect us from hurricane surge overwash from the Gulf.
Even though we may still be flooded by water from the bay side of
the island, there will be much less damage than if we are overwashed
with direct Gulf surge topped by hurricane waves.
This photograph dramatically
shows the massive erosion of the dunes on Mustang Island by Carla.
The sand that those dunes gave up helped to protect the town and
bought time for the storm to pass. The dunes have since rebuilt
in the interim before the next bad storm.
Texas Hurricanes from 1912-1978 Affecting
the Corpus Christi Area
**********************
Hurricane Celia Track, 1970
Hurricane
Celia (1970) Flood Map for Port Aransas
(Dark Blue Shows Hurricane Flooding,
Light Blue is Normal Water Level)
The following photo shows the repairs to the island road in the
vicinity of Corpus Christi Pass after Hurricane Celia. The road
was cut at the bridges for quite a while after the storm. This
kind of damage occurs where there is no natural dune seawall to prevent
overwash.
**********************
Hurricane Beulah Track, 1967
The
following hurricane flood maps are from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
publications
Hurricane Beulah (1967) flood map for
Port Aransas
(Dark Blue Shows Hurricane Flooding,
Light Blue is Normal Water Level)
The following two photographs show
how Hurricane Beulah opened Corpus Christi Pass. Note the highway
bridge on the island road out in the middle. This is far less
likely to happen where there is a strong natural dune seawall.
Please excuse the condition of some of these old photos. They
have survived several hurricanes.
**********************
Hurricane Carla track, 1961
Hurricane Carla (1961) flood map for
Port Aransas
(Orange Shows Hurricane Flooding, Light
Blue is Normal Water Level)
**********************
Hurricane Allen Track, 1980
Hurricane Allen, 1980
Hurricane Allen has 8.9 feet of surge flooding on the beach at Port
Aransas. However, the Corps of Engineers did not produce any high
resolution surge flood maps in their Allen publication. While
Allen had a significant surge, it did not overtop the dunes.
Allen did however significantly damage the island road down in
the area of the bridges where there was little or no dune ridge for
protection at Corpus Christi Pass and Newport Pass. The following
photo shows the island road destroyed by Allen. This is what can
happen where there is no natural dune seawall.
