Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCarla in Perspective 1961 CARLA IN PERSPECTIVE MISS MATTIE TREADWELL STATE, CONFERENCE OF DEFENSE AND DISASTER RELIEF DIRECTOFS NOVEMBER 13, 1961 When Jim asked me to talk on this subject I was a little "shook up" at the idea. Here I've spent a strenuous 6 weeks talking to people up and down the coast, and have come up with some discoveries about Carla that I think are earth- shaking. I have gotten, from many of you here today, important recommendations about the success of the evacuation which should be of great value to the President if strategic evacuation is called for. What you've told me on group shelter behavior ought to be very important if the defense department is going in for group shelters. You gave me advice on the re-entry problem, which has been neglected in our plans up to now and which turned out to be a bigger thing than evacuation. One of you said to me, about communications, "We need to find out if defense department is going to reorganize CD communications and put the agency on a war- time basis." With all these important things going through my head- -and trying to get them down on paper - -I made the nastake of telling Jim Garner about how one CD director was all tired and worn out in the middle of the storm, trying to save people, and he said the phone was driving him nuts. So, he gets a call for help from a lady, and asks what's the matter, and she says, "My air conditioner is making a funny noise." Then a man comes in frantically and asks him to send a car for his family, and the CD Director asked how he got there, and he said "in my car." Then another lady called and said, "There's a door banging in the wind on the other half of my duplex, won't civil defense please come shut it ?" So he said , "Can't you do it?" and she said, "Oh, no --I'd get all wet." So Jim Garner jumped up and says, "That's what I want for your speech." For awhile I was insulted, but then I relized that possibly one of the most important things I'd heard on the trip came from a sheriff who said, "If we hadn't of laughed, we coulft of taken it." Possibly the biggest thing in the Carla story, from the defense department's standpoint, was the fighting, laughing reaction of Americans who had lost every- thing in the storm. I won't say that humor in the face of disaster is found only cm Amr -- maybe there are many other n.•ati.onc that have it - -but Carla proved it is a typical American trait. People often worry about how material- minded the Amcrtcan peoplc have be- come- -how soft- -how they would fold up if deprived of air- r:cniiticrning and auto- matic dilhwashers. On the basis of the Carla story, maybe tha biggest thing the storm prayed is that Americans cc.n find something to joke about even when they're starting over in life with nothing material left. A housewife said, "We wades in waist -deep water to cur home -- -then worked 5 days and nights almost without sleep, laughing and kidding each other when we wanted to throw up our hands and walk away from it." Nothing but a sense of humor sustained CD directors - -it should be in their job description. When the storm was coming in, people had lots of trouble getting a few lingerers to leave. A county judge told me, "They waited till the levee broke, then they said, "Send the guard to get my chickens. The last I saw one man he was chasing chickens and putting them in a pickup truck." People with invalids in the family waited until nothing but a high - wheeled truck could get through, they refused to leave unless the CD director sent an ambulance. A lady came out, dressed for a party, and said, "Do you expect me to ride in that truc'z?" Three coffins floated out of the ground, and the CD director was called to come get them. People would call and say, "Come get the two of us": when a truck got there, there'd be 150. Sometimes people vculd cell and then leave; there'd be nobody. People called for rescue and, on seeing that rescuers could get through, said they'd stay and call a little later. During the storm people joked to keep from alarming others. A man who saw a house blown over a fence and into a pasture, leaving the fense intact, said, "I've done a little drinking in my day but that's the first time I ever saw a. house coming at me." The mayor of Palacios was so exhausted after 3 days without sleep that he was interviewed by the Houston Post and didn't know it till a paper was handed him; the he said, "I was surprised I could still read." The condition of many towns after the storm was frightening; a CD director said, "I looked at the town after the storm. I thought, the town will never amount to anything again." Still returning citizens were able to see the funny side of the plight. In one of the few remaining filling stations, they found a dead cow in the ladies' room and one in the wens' room. Both were cows but evidently one was misdirected. As returning citizens approached a home, they were surprised to see a fnmjly still on the roof after the water had gone down. A Brahma cow was seen looking out the picture window in the living room. She had chased the occupants to the roof and wouldn't let them down; she also c-•urn out and chased the res- cuers. -2 - Snakes were everywhere, crawling through the debris. A worker said, "Those were Louisiana snakes, brought in by the tide. There can't be that many :makes in Texas." The storm was not over before evacuees were demonding to come home. At 2:30 a.m., Monday, a Mother of several children came up to the shelter manager and said, "I'm going to sue Red Cross, Civil Defense, and everyone else. I' m being held here like in a concentration camp. Are we living under Hitler ?" The most unreasonable returnee the Department of Public Safety heard of was a lady who came up to a roadblock in a little compact car and demanded to be let through. They told her the water was too high for her car, but she made a scene, said she knew her rights. A truck driver behind her said he'd push her car if it stalled, so they let her go, and he did. When they got to the other side there were two patrolmen on duty; she jumped on them and said, "You've got two of the biggest damn fools over there- -they let me go through and ruined my car - -they ought to have striped me." One CD director told me he found the perfect substitute for roadblocks- -where houses had washed across the road he just left them there, and that was a lot easier to explain to people. Many towns were without water. Dairies and breweries used their regular containers, to put up pure water, and one CD director got a complaint that babies in Port O'Connor were drinking beer out of bottles. A bachelor Red Cross man in charge of a shelter was surprised to find a tremendous demand for diapers. He recommended that the defense department stock- pile them, along with other critical defense items. Looters came in with the returnees, and some in Texas City actually stole a kitchen sink. Also a bathtub. In one place, the patrol took a shot at looters, and they rushed off leaving their own truck. A regional commander of the Department of Public Safety told one on himself. The NAWAS Line (National Warning System) was used only for extreme emergency calls. At a critical moment in the Galveston roadblock, officials decided to hold a scheduled football game. They asked Department of Public Safety to let in fans but keep out sightseers. DPS couldn't see the difference, and prepared to take down roadblocks. At the last minute officials decided. to call the game off. With only a few minutes left to save the roadblocks, the regional commander picked up the NAWAS phone and said, "The Galveston Austin football game will not be played." He heard a gasp and chuckle somewhere in the depths of the network, and realized that to someone in Michigan this had not sounded like a national emer- gency. Wherever damage was worst, jokes were more common. One man who had nothing left of his house but the front steps went over and solicitously offered aid to a friend whose house had suffered no damage except the loss of its steps. I could go on with a lot more of this, but if I did, no one would read our Carla history when the Defense Department publishes it. Aside from the humor, I ought to say that people's reaction was wonderful, really gnila.nt. Pcople whose owes homes were cl.estroyed sent their extra clothing j- to relief agencies. Those already overcrowded in a home with small children took in neighbor families. Many said, "I never knew what real neighborliness meant until this happened." People went back to rebuild on the some spot, saying, "A good football team doesn't quit when the going is rough." Those who had noth- ing left but their lives said, "The Lord has been good to us. We have raised our children and never had any real trouble in our lives. We started with orange -crate furniture 20 years ago and we can do it again." I would like to express my gratitude to the many county judges, mayors, CD directors, Red Cross workers, state and local police, and others who helped me. I also want to agree with one of them who said, "We were proud of our people. We didn't know they had it in them. By spring, you won't be able to tell that a disaster happened in our town." -4-