Storm changed course, took aim at Valley . . .
(Published originally in The Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, on the eve of the 2006 Hurricane Season.)
This four-part series gives a glimpse of the Valley before, during and after the hurricane through the interweaved story of a Rio Grande Valley family caught in the many storms of life.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In September 1933, the Rio Grande Valley was struck by Storm No. 11, causing 40 deaths, 500 injuries and $17 million in damages. Over the next four days, a series of articles will chronicle the events surrounding Hurricane No. 11 through the eyes of a San Benito family — the Tanamachis.
Storm changed course, took aim at Valley
By DANIEL GARCÍA ORDAZ Valley Morning Star
On the morning of Sept. 4, 1933, hundreds turned out in San Benito for a Labor Day parade down Sam Houston Boulevard.
Soon it would become a boulevard of broken screams.
Historically deemed an inept predictor of storms, the Weather Bureau issued strong warnings about the now-Category 3 hurricane.
The Valley Morning Star described on Sep. 2 and 3 the destruction by storm No. 11 in Cuba, but most in the Rio Grande Valley believed the hurricane would strike Corpus Christi. That city's mayor ordered residents in low lying areas to evacuate and declared martial law - an act that was promptly criticized.
But as festivities cooled in San Benito, telegraph and telephone lines were set aflame with word that the hurricane had set course for the Valley. Across the region people took refuge in schools, churches, hotels and other customary shelters.
San Benito's founder, Col. Sam Robertson was among the few to take precautions. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, he had resigned in 1926 as Cameron County sheriff to open Del Mar, a seaside resort in Boca Chica. The Mercedes News-Tribune reported that his men worked 48 hours straight to secure Del Mar, but the 11th-hour preparations would be no match for the 11th storm of the season.
Landfall
The eye of the hurricane crashed over South Padre Island just north of Brownsville hours after the parade and, without blinking, conducted an overnight dissection of the Valley. An anemometer on the island gauged the wind at 80 mph before it broke. Robertson estimated winds of as much as 125 mph for 15 hours non-stop. The lashing lasted into Tuesday morning.
The hurricane trekked into Nuevo León, Mexico, after quenching its morbid thirst, killing 40 people in the Valley and 179 in its trek through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Twenty-four people died in Cameron County alone. Among the seven killed in Rio Hondo was the 5-yearold son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Kennedy, who suffocated after a pipe at the ice plant in which the family had taken shelter broke, releasing ammonia fumes.
Widespread Damage
The damage was such that newspapers upstate began eulogizing the Valley, and the local newspapers were hard pressed to immediately respond. On Thursday, Sept. 7, the first post-storm edition of the Valley Morning Star, dated Sept. 5-6-7, finally balanced the early reports. On Sept. 8, the weekly edition of the Mercedes News-Tribune ran an editorial to announce that the Valley was still here:
"In spite of horrible reports in upstate papers the Valley continues to exist. Cameron County, it is true, has been hard hit and the list of dead and injured in that area is certain to be heavy; not as heavy, however as the San Antonio Light or the Houston Chronicle would have the rest of the nation believe."
Still, the errant reports were based on truth.
Robertson and five others rode out the storm at Del Mar, but this time his beach resort did not survive. The news was just as grim on the mainland. The bulk of Port Isabel was under water. In Brownsville, most of the city's bakeries lost their ovens and a warehouse that stored the flour was ruined. Bakeries in Harlingen and San Benito were also damaged.
Those who had taken shelter in the new post office in San Benito earned their keep by bailing out the four feet of water that inundated the basement. Sixty refugees at a hotel in town were soaked but unharmed after its roof blew off. The Stonewall Jackson hotel and local banks were so full that many slept on bare floors.
The Thayer-Rio Rico suspension bridge south of Mercedes survived but the Tivoli Café was destroyed. Among detailed accounts of damage in Santa Maria, the News-Tribune reported that
the entire Mexican section of town was so damaged that people moved into boxcars for shelter. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, the citrus crop in 1933 was wiped out.
Most farms, especially those near the Rio Grande, were flooded. Countless animals and livestock died. In Santa Rosa, falling buildings killed cows and B.O. Harper lost about 250 chickens.
Robertson told the Star that thousands of seafaring birds washed ashore on Boca Chica, losers of a battle against the elements. A member of his party shot a baby sperm whale, about 15 feet long, which had washed ashore.
Injured List
One of the 500 people injured in the Valley was Saburo Tanamachi, 16, whose family had a tenant farm near Los Indios. The Star listed a "Sabure" Tanamachi and his brother as having fractured arms and minor injuries. The News-Tribune reported that Tanamachi had a broken back and broken right leg. His true injuries were a combination of the two accounts.
Willie Tanamachi, 85, Saburo's brother, said that his family lived in two separate dwellings about 100 yards from the river. They shared meals in the main house but the eldest male family members, Jiro, Saburo, Goro and Willie slept in a separate house 50 yards away.
"At night the wind was blowing and every once in a while the house would tilt then go down," Willie said, recounting the night of the hurricane.
Then the wind flipped the house in which the brothers slept. Willie was standing by the door and walked away unharmed. Jiro and Goro "disappeared," Willie said.
"I saw Saburo on the ground," he said. "The house rolled over on him."
The corrugated tin roof cut a deep, curving gash on Saburo's back and partly severed his left ear. His right arm was fractured and he couldn't walk. Willie, then 12, lacked the strength to carry his brother, so he ran to the main house for help. His parents tended to Saburo's wounds and splinted his arm.
The Tanamachi home was almost demolished a month earlier by the outer bands of a near-miss hurricane. Now Storm No. 11 finished the job.
Strong winds and flooding prevented the family from getting Saburo to a hospital that night, so as the storm raged on, Asao Tanamachi kept vigil on her wounded son in the relative safety of a work truck.
Tomorrow:
Aftermath