In July of 1943, the United States was involved in World War II. With the presence of German U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico, interrupting shipping, it was imperative that ships maintain radio silence in order to prevent being easily targeted by the U-boats. This was a good practice in that it minimized the number of ships sunk by the U-boats.

Prior to World War II, tracking a storm or hurricane was based on the reports radioed in by these vessels. The practice of radio silence greatly hampered the Weather Bureau’s ability to predict landfalls of hurricanes. In addition, what little was known about the storm was not broadcast for fear that the enemy may be able to use the weather to their advantage.

Monday, July 26, 1943 was an ordinary day in Galveston. There were stories on the radio of Benito Mussolini stepping down as the leader of Italy and that the Royal Air Force was bombing Hamburg, Germany.

Tuesday morning, July 27, 1943, Houston’s three radio stations were warning that a tropical storm of minor size and intensity could be expected. Chief Meteorologist, C.E. Norquist was quoted as saying, “Don’t get the people disturbed by use of the word ‘hurricane.’ As matters now stand it is a small tropical disturbance. If it gets worse, we’ll let people know in plenty of time.”

It was anything but a tropical storm of minor size, it was a full blown hurricane! The citizens had no way of knowing this in advance. Radio reports were inaccurate and the people didn’t know to expect a hurricane!

The hurricane blew in across Bolivar Peninsula, east of Galveston and began to wreck havoc to all of Galveston County. The eye of the hurricane moved northward, across Bolivar Peninsula and into Galveston Bay, making landfall at Kemah, Texas, inflicting damage to the Houston Ship Channel and oil refineries nearby. At 11:30 a.m., its winds were clocked at 61 mph, but it had not yet peaked out. At about 1:30 p.m. the weather service’s wind gauge was blown away and the wind speeds had to be estimated. At this time, the estimates ranged from 85 mph to 100 mph. The northern part of Galveston County and neighboring Harris and Chambers Counties caught the brunt of the high winds and rain.
Hundreds of people took refuge in the county courthouse of Galveston. The streets in this area were flooded by two to three feet of water.

Electrical, telephone and telegraph lines were down all through the area, leaving little way for the word to get out.

Mary Rogers who lived at 1320 Ave. E in Galveston suffered two broken legs when her house collapsed. She was quoted as saying, “I was lying on the divan in the living room when the first big gust of wind blew the roof off the Spiritualist Temple next door and it fell on our roof. Our house began to tremble and squeak, but I couldn’t get up fast enough. Something must have fallen on me because when I came to, I looked up and saw the sky above me. All kinds of timber was all over the room and my legs were numb. At first I thought they were gone.” She lay under the rubble for over two hours, screaming for help, trying to be heard above the wind, when a passing medical student found her.

Bacliff resident, J.C. Franklin was quoted as saying, “There is not a single house in San Leon and in Clifton that is not damaged. My house and three others were smashed to bits by the heavy wind. The Casino at Clifton, which stood near the beach, was blown out into the water and wrecked!”
The Galveston Daily News reported that the Strand from 25th Street east looked as though it were a street in London, Rotterdam or Warsaw after a heavy air raid.

There were twenty deaths attributed to the hurricane. Over 4,000 people were left homeless by it. However, censorship was in place and there was little information to be found on the condition of various refineries in the area. This was done to prevent the enemy from learning of any weaknesses.
It was reported that approximately 90% of the structures in Texas City were either damaged or destroyed.

If anything good came of this hurricane, it was that US Army Air Corp lead instructor, Colonel Joe Duckworth and navigator, Lt. Ralph O'Hair climbed into an AT6 training plane at Bryan Field in Bryan, Texas and flew directly into and out of the hurricane, proving that it could be done. Later, Colonel Duckworth flew back into the hurricane with a different navigator, the base's weather officer, Lt. William Jones-Burdick, proving again that it could be done! When asked during an interview why he would deliberately fly into a hurricane, Colonel Duckworth laughed and said, "Just for fun!" These were the first intentional flights into a hurricane and with this knowledge, the Hurricane Hunters were formed a couple of years later.