The most powerful tropical system to affect the Texas coast in over 40 years…Hurricane Carla made landfall between Port O’Connor and Port Lavaca on the day of September 11, 1961. In the open waters of the Gulf, a minimum central pressure of 931mb, or 27.50 inches along with maximum sustained wind speeds over 150 mph, made Carla a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. When the "eye" or center of Hurricane Carla made landfall early in the morning of the 11th, the intensity had dropped off but the storm was still packing winds of 120 mph in areas from Port O’Connor up the coast to Galveston. The "eye" of the storm came within 65 miles to the east of Corpus Christi.
Carla
I also was in 2nd grade in a town along US Hwy 281 North of Corpus Christi near the King Ranch...
My father said that an old Spanish Galleon was washed ashore on South Padre Island by the storm...