I took Carla far too lightly and dodged Ike completely

By Bob Sonderegger
What a difference almost five decades make. I'm sitting here watching a baseball game because I'm tired of watching news of Ike and even football and deciding to put a little content on this blog. I became a journalist, actually a hard-core newspaperman who interviewed numerous famous people in sports, politics and entertainment.
This blog is aimed at preventing the erosion in newspapers caused by the corporate takeover. Right now, let's talk about Ike who beat the heck out of a lot of Texans and Texas towns. It missed me but those who got knocked down but got up with an eight count. Look at it this way. The Texans are still standing and Ike is fading away.
Call it blind luck or dumb fun but I lived through it. Here is an old newspaper column:

In 1961, this man had been out of a Houston-area high school for three months and was looking forward to going to college. I was just out of high school and I had never met a woman by the name of Carla.
At least not one with the last name of Carla. Her first name was Hurricane. I was old enough to know about a very mean woman named Hurricane. Her first name was Audrey. Audrey covered the newspapers and even the Magic Lantern they were calling television.
The only other woman named Hurricane that I was directly familiar was Hurricane Debra. Debra arrived a couple of years before Carla, She was quick but hardly packed the punch of ladies, and now gentlemen, with the first name of Hurricane. Debra formed near the coast and left little time for warning or evacuation. Luckily, she was more wind than clout.
Living in the Spring Branch area, I found Debra whistling and twisting the trees but leaving little damage. Regular programming persisted for the most part on television that July night Debra arrived but a radio station, likely KPRC, had what could be called a blow-by-blow account.
Ms. Carla was different. On Friday, we were hearing that Carla was going to be a whopper, a term Burger King had not yet invented. Her arrival was expected later in the weekend or early next week. I figured I should get in a safe place for the couple of hours she was in command. My mother asked me not to go out on a date that Friday night and they let us off work early at Jubilee City, a discount store opening in Houston on
As I arrived at home, Mr. Lobb called. Bill and Novis Lobb had been two of the nicest people I ever knew. First they paid me well to mow and edge their lawn and sweep the driveway and sidewalk. Then I graduated to working at his hardware store on Saturdays before moving on to a job with more hours. One week, it was 102 hours at $1 an hour with no time and a half pay.
So, when Mr. Lobb called and needed me to help board up his store on Washington Avenue, I had the green light to take the car and drive the 10 or so miles. It was mostly windy. There was no rain.
I was thinking Mr. Lobb might be taking precautions a might early since Saturday was always a big day. As we pulled out the plywood and tried to hold it up to the windows, I realized Ms. Carla was going to be a toughie.
The task was accomplished and we went inside where he could pay me (in cash). The phone rang. It was from a young lady in Oak Forest. "Robert," she said, "our parents are at a Hurricane Party and we're over at Karen's house."
Like, to teens, that is an invitation. The smart in me wanted to say "are you crazy."
The adventure in me said "be right over."
Still, there was only intermintent rain and Carla's winds were not up to Hurricane Force.
Rocking and rolling with the wind in a 1956 Forest Green Chevy, I can think of only one thing I would have done differently during the two hours there. I should have checked to see if any power lines were overhead.
I'm here to tell you that if there were any overhead wires, they did not come down.
It rained most of the night, which was more than the EasTex Freeway around the Little York exit could take. My boss did call and said I could come there if I stayed on the service road. I really was not much for working and could hide behind my parents who did not want any of us to go anyway until Carla left.
As it happened, my grandmother from New Orleans was visiting. She found that she could get a train ride from Houston to Superior, Wisconsin, where childhood friends lived. So, she announced that she wanted to take the train to Superior. By Saturday afternoon, the wind was probably up to Hurricane force and the rain went from showers to very intense. My father asked me to come along -- just in case.
The Smart in me said Mam-ma should wait but the Practical in me said when she decided to do something, she does it. At 18, the Boredom in me said “I gotta get out of here.â€
We drove downtown and got in the vicinity of the station. Cars were parked all over the place. We walked about three blocks as the wind was twisting sheet metal that had once been awnings. We walked into the station to see families of storm refugees gathered on blankets. The place was packed. Mam-ma got a ticket and went to board the train. As she got on the train, thunder roared and the rain seemed to blow in sideways. We returned to the car and headed for home. It was to be a long weekend. By Sunday morning, Dan Rather, holed up with numerous members of the media in a Galveston hotel with sn ocean view, told us through the magic of television that a massive tornado roared up in Galveston and killed eight people.
Deaths were reported, about 43 in all. I think two children in Houston tried to swim in the water and were rushed into a culvert and to their deaths. Monday the force of the storm hit. I could just imagine being housed for four more days.
By Tuesday, the storm was over. Daddy went back to work. A friend and I went riding around. Rocking and rolling from Friday night was replaced by slipping and sliding.
The saddest news came Tuesday night when a boy about 15 waded into Angleton and told a television audience that his entire extended family tried to stay in a house along Bastrop Bayou and ride out the storm.
The storm took their two-story house and all were dumped off the  roof. This one boy grabbed a tree limb and somehow survived into manhood. Sadly, he died a few years later in a place called Vietnam.