Hurricane Claudette II

After picking up speed and spinning into a hurricane overnight, Claudette made landfall over Matagorda today, flooding houses and peeling off roofs before lapsing back into a tropical storm.

Historic buildings crumbled in Port Lavaca, and homes collapsed in Surfside. Large swaths of Galveston's westside beaches were swept to sea, stranded beach residents who tried to stick it out in Bolivar asked the Coast Guard to help them evacuate, and shrimpers had to be rescued off Sabine Pass. Trees were blown over as far south as El Campo and as far north as Houston.

Claudette's eye swept across the Matagorda Peninsula with at least 80 mph winds before noon, and the National Weather Service passed on unconfirmed reports of sustained winds of 94 mph and a gust of 104 mph at Point Comfort as Claudette made landfall.


See also Weather Underground Tropics and the naval research laboratory tropical cyclone pages.