Hurricane Alicia: Your Story

How old were you when Hurricane Alicia hit? Did your family stay or evacuate? Do you remember what it was like when the storm moved through Galveston and Houston? Was there any damage in your neighborhood? How did that storm affect the way you respond to hurricanes today?

What's your story?

Click the "comments" button below and share your story.

Comments

[Cindy B]

I was 25 years old and 4 months pregnant with my daughter. I also had a 5 year old son. My husband worked in the oil fields, and he had just come home from three straight days of work. He was exhausted and slept through much of the storm. I was terrified! We lived in Alvin in an old Jimmy Walker style home on cinder blocks with big oak trees and one HUGE pine tree surrounding our house. My biggest worry was that pine tree next to my son's bedroom. The electricity went out fairly early in the evening. My husband hooked up a radio to a car battery, so I could listen to the news. The first thing I heard was the sad story of a woman being killed by a tree falling into her bedroom! The wind would get underneath the front of our house, and I could feel the house jump occasionally. I spent a big part of the night beating on my husband trying to wake him up. Finally, the eye came directly over our house. I looked out our bedroom window, and I thought I saw one of my husband's yellow slicker suits on the power line. But, to my horror, it was the inside of the huge pine tree. A tornado had come through and snapped off the tops of our oak trees, and it had snapped that huge pine tree in half and the top half was resting on our power lines! Our electrical power meter on the side of the house was crushed; so when power was turned on two days later in the neighborhood, we had to wait for about an additional week for ours to be repaired. (Note: My electrical meter was destroyed in Hurricane Ike also. What are the odds of that?) One of the things that really stands out in my memory was how the wind came first from the front of our house, then after the eye passed it began to blow against the back of our house. We were lucky to only have some water blown in under the front and back doors. Another odd thing that I remember was an empty Igloo Water Cooler that was sitting under one of our oak trees never blew over, even though the tops of the trees were being ripped out. We recently stayed at my Father's home (Sageglen area) during Hurricane Ike, only because he refused to leave. We faired well there. However, in Alvin, our home was spared, but we lost the tops out of our two oak trees in our front yard. Also, one of the huge trees in our backyard snapped in half. We kept looking for the top of the tree. It was huge, but we couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, my husband called me to come look. The top of the tree had replanted itself perfectly straight about a foot or so into the ground! Everyone that saw it couldn't believe what they were seeing. My family has agreed to leave the area for any future hurricanes.

[Christina]

I was born during Hurricane Alicia! :) I'm a hurricane baby

[Kimberly Duncan]

I lived in Galveston when I was 4yrs. old with my 2 brothers and 1 sister,and my parents when Alicia hit.my parents thought that my dads bar would be safer because it was made of brick,wrong...!The walls started coming down and as my mother tried running out the door with me in her arms,a brick fell and hit her in the head causing her to drop me,well, I bounced and landed under a pool table,as the walls caved in around me.It took rescue a couple of hours to dig me out,when they found me I was barely hanging on.I was rushed to surgey when I arrived at the hospital,I died twice during surgery,they had to remove the crushed bone behind my right ear and remove part of my right eardrum,it left me in a coma for about 2 weeks,partially def in my right ear and I had to learn to walk all over again,due to the head trauma the right side of my face is paralyzed.That made it hell for me when I started school or just even going out in public.To this day it is still noticable and I still get strange looks or stares when talking to people that don't know what happened to me,and the pain that effects me everyday is not just physical but also emotional.Alicia changed my life for the worst.

[Rebecca]

I was living in Humble, TX at the time and was ready to head out for work as a telephone repair tech. when I got a phone call from my Dad in Miami, Fl telling me my mother had just passed away. I was 24 and had a 2 year old daughter. I will never forget that moment.

[Shannon]

I was going into the 9th grade and my sisters and brother were visting us for the summer from California. It was crazy. After the hurricane we were out of power for about 11 days so my dad and step-mom took us camping in Austin. Back then I don't believe the looting and vandalizm was a concern as it is now.

[Sharla]

I have some friends that are trapped without gas, water or power, they have a little girl and she is getting to the point of possibly needing medical attention for insect bites, some of which she's allergic to.

When I talked with them they didn't sound good, if anyone is in the area of

11602 Rio Verde Ln
Houston, TX 77044-2544

they could certainly use a little help.

They are also trapped in a Mobile Home w/Major Damage and could use food and water at the least and if you have access to possibly a bit of gas so they can get to a shelter.

Yeah I know, they should have listened as well.

But any help is greatly appreciated nonetheless or if someone could let one of the rescue teams know that'd be awesome.

[Jim]

I live in Dallas and in 1981 had just starting my distance running. I will never forget the very pronounced "seashore" scent of the wind blowing in Dallas that evening. No storm in the last 25 years has repeated that feat and in some strange way I hope Ike's winds make it up here and give a repeat performace as a run tomorrow night (Saturday).

I lived by the ocean when I was a child and scent from such a distance was a marvle to me in land-locked Dallas, more than 500 miles from the shore.

[Phill H]

Isn't this ironic? I'm sitting here sharing my memories of Alicia, right now, as Hurricane Ike is moving ashore and is projected to take a path similar to Alicia's.

Anyway, I was 15 when Alicia came through town. I lived in Deer Park and we stayed through the storm. I remember looking out the kitchen window at the open field behind our house. All you could see was water, like a big lake. If the water would have risen another inch, it would have gotten into the house. We never lost power. There was alot of debris all over the place the next day. That's about all I remember.

[Kirsten skinner]

I was in 7th grade at Bonnette Junior high in Deer Park when alicia cane int. We stayed. It was my frist strong hurricane. We had all our supplies, my mother had survived Carla, so she was not too worried about it at the time. I remember the head from the Jack-in-the-box resturant ended up landing in the football field in the middle of Deer Park. We never lost power, much to my mother's surprise. I remember my mother sending my younger sister and myself out side in our bathing suits when the eye passed over to let our dogs potty before bringing them back in. I also remember that a neighor's awning wound up in our back yard. I was so fascinated by the storm. It was truly amazing.

[GC]

I was 20 years old and living in a old frame house off of Broadway near Gulfgate Mall when Alicia hit.

My grandfather was living in a mobile home near Dickinson High School. I tried to convince him to come to my house all day before the storm, but he didn't want to come. I was on the phone with him again when we lost phone service. He last words to me were "The trailer is bouncing around a bit." I was frantic, but there was nothing I could do at that point.

I got really scared when the house was vibrating and the wind was screaming. I pulled a mattress into the hallway and camped out with my retriever. Not long after we got settled in the hallway, I heard a loud crash and glass breaking in the front room. There were several loud crashes and the house shuddered. Water was blowing under the closed door to the front bedroom.

After the storm, I had two oak trees and seven pecan trees down in the yard. Two fell on the garage and smashed my new car and the deep freezer. The back and front bedrooms were damaged from fallen trees. The front door and front windows were blown in by the branches of a fallen oak tree in the front yard.

My neighborhood was cut off by fallen trees and flooded Pine Gully. We were without power for 18 days and without water for 21. For 5-6 days until the water receded, we were wading through waist deep water 2-3 times a day to get water and supplies.

We had to clear the debris from the roads ourselves before the light company would send in a crew. It took 5 days to clear 20+ trees. There were mountains of debris along the streets for weeks. When the city finally hauled the debris away, we had problems with mice in the houses.

My grandfather left his mobile home and walked to higher ground at the Dickinson High School. He used his belt to secure himself to a door handle in a breezeway and rode out the storm.

I will never forget the sound of the wind screaming and the trees falling on the house! And it was miserable without water and power.

I live in Central Florida now. In 2004, we had three hurricanes come through here a couple of weeks apart - Charlie, Frances, and Jean. Charlie took most of the shingles and the ridge vent from the roof. Frances took the tarp, and most of the tar paper. Jean took the second tarp and the rest of the tar paper.

I learned my lesson in Alicia. My family was prepared. We had canned food, batteries, and drinking water. We filled bath tubs.

[Sgt Mac]

I remember hurricane Alicia. I was 17 years old. I was staying with friends when it hit. I grew up in Clear Lake City. I remember I was asleep then all of a sudden we heard a big crash and we were up the rest of the night, wondering if we would live to see the next day. Kemah and parts of Clear Lake City were under water and I had never seen so many store signs on the ground or in trees. I'm glad I was that age, because we weren't as scared as we should have been. You could hear the tornandoes outside. It sounded like a train was approaching. I live in TN right now, but will always be a Texan and hope to get back home one day.

[Ailsa Crooks]

Oh boy do I remember Hurrican Alicia. My husband and I are from England and we had gone to the USA for his job. We had found an apartment in Clear Lake. On the night Alicia struck we were supposed to be going to a Simon & Garunkel concert, which needless to say was cancelled. Coming from England we had no idea about hurricanes, and just listened to the advice on the radio. When the wind got really scarey we moved into the closet with a mattress, it was either that or the bathroom. We did lose power on and off during the night, but we were very lucky that it was back on the next day, and very fortunate that there was not too much damage to our appartment block.

[Brett]

I was all of 9 years old. I remember gathering with my family downstairs as the storm was blowing into Houston. I remember the distinct sound of aluminum siding being ripped from the side of my home as a twister passed over. I remember staring at the sky through what used to be the ceiling in my sister's room. I remember a line at a Wendy's drive-thru like I'd never seen before and have never seen again...because they were the only ones in the area to have a generator running. And I remember living in a hotel for 7 weeks while they made repairs to our home. Alicia shaped how I view hurricanes to this very day...equal parts fascination and fear.

[Deanna]

I was 8 when Alicia hit. We lived in the Kemah/Seabrook area and we stayed throught it. We had the advantage of living in a house on stilts. I remember the house swaying back and forth with the wind. Then we all sat in the hallway in the center of the house and waited it out. There was so many trees down and I remember snakes and frogs all over the neighborhood. I can't remember how long the electricity was out but, I believe it was out quite a while. Hard to believe it's been 25 years since Alicia.

[teyjanet08]

I wasn't even born yet until 1985, but when I got older. . .my parents told me about Hurricane Alicia that hit in 1983, my parents were dating each other at the time and my aunt was going to school at the time, as well. They all told me that they went through Alicia, and my dad told me when she hit the Houston area, he was in his apartment with his roommate. My mom told me that she was living with my grandparents and my future aunts and uncles in the Sharpstown area, and she saw wind blowing real hard to the point where the lights went out. My dad's brother was roommating with my dad, and he told me that they saw rain and wind to the point where they couldn't go to work the next morning. They were flooded out, they saw the news that half of the city had been wiped out. I am glad my family has survived Alicia, cuz if they hadn't I wouldn't be here today at all.

[Joan]

Alicia.... wow! It was the August before my freshman year in high school, we lived in Santa Fe and we never left when hurricanes came through as we had cattle, horses, etc. Our house also sat on the highest ground in the neighborhood so we weren't worried about flooding. We also had a really well built home. Not like they're built here in Houston these days. We battened down the hatches and about 2am or so, there was a "freight train" sound that came around the side of the house near the bedrooms. I'm glad now that I didn't know it was a tornado. Within a few hours, there was water literally flying in between the windows and the window frames. My mom and I put towels on the window sills and walked from room to room with buckets -- by the time we would make the rounds of all the windows in the bedrooms wringing out and replacing towels, we would get back to the first window and every towel would be completely soaked again. Then the water started pouring in through the light sockets in the ceilings. Talk about freaked out! We were beginning to run out of pots and pans. And these weren't drips, they were sometimes torrents. We then started running around do that. It was a LONG night. If I remember correctly, the eye passed over our house about 7 am. We all walked out in the back yard and my dad crawled up the ladder to the roof over our bedrooms. Part of the roof had been ripped away and he started trying to get some tarps over the holes, while my mom and I watched for the eye wall - we thought maybe we had about 10-15 minutes. We were stressing out telling him to hurry! He finished and we got in the house about the time it started to rain again. The lights went out but it didn't seem like that long, maybe several hours (I heard that parts of Houston lost lights for a couple of days). Once all of the night winds' violence had died down, we weren't too worried about the lights being off. Plus we kept a good stock of stuff so we didn't need to worry about food or water etc.. The good thing about Alicia is that my dad was really cheap and we had had the same ugly carpet and paint for years - since the house was built in 71. Because of the roof, we got insurance money which paid for brand new plush carpet and repainted the bedrooms. We even had enough money left over that I got new Levelor metal blinds (a really nice brand back then) in a deep purple for my room, and the painters came and painted my walls a nice lavender. I was in heaven. It did take a couple of months to completely fix the mold damage on my bedroom ceiling so that had to be fixed about 2 - 3 times and repainted. But that brand new very plush champagne carpet which replaced the embossed flat style harvest gold --- I was in heaven! After that, my dad said that we weren't staying again for anything over a 2!

There was alot of wind and rain. there was mnay trees that had fallen, and many streets were blocked due to the trees. debri was everywhere. The worst for us in the north side of town off of the north loop was the power outage. We were out of power for 11 days, the following days after Alicia was hot and humid. Ohh how we missed the a/c. Not being prepared was the worst. Hard to find fresh food, and ice. Ice was as if it was gold. People lined up for ice. The streets and freeways at night were dark, as in the rest of the city.

[Mindi Griffin]

I was nine years old when Hurricane Alicia hit. My family stayed in Houston with my grandmother. Even though we only lived 4 houses down, my mother insisted on going to stay with her. I remember asking my mother, "What about the cats? If it floods, I don't want them to drown." She told me they would be find because they would climb up on my top bunk bed. I do remember some of what it was like when the Hurricane it. I remember a lot of wind and rain. We had a lot of tree branches that would hit the house. My grandfather had put duct tape on the windows to get ready for the Hurricane and do you know, evidence of that tape is still here on the windows. I remember waking up in the morning and when I looked out the window, I saw a lake. I asked my mom where did all the water come from, and she said from the hurricane. There were a lot of people walking through the water as well as taking their row boats out to everyone to see if they were okay if they needed anything. The only damage we had was at our house, 4 houses down. Our tree that was in the back yard fell and hit the power lines, which made the whole neighborhood loose power for 2 weeks while they tried to fix it. I think the sight of all that water then and the damage done with TS Allison with its flood waters (I lost my car in the flood), I am always worried about flooding out my car or my house. That is what scares me the most!

[Kelly]

I can't believe it has been 25 years since Hurricane Alicia hit our area. I was eight years old at the time but remember it well. My father was a shrimper and wanted to stay with his boat during the storm. He shrimped right up until the point that it became too rough. He could only see the top of the bouy's in Galveston Bay. He took shelter near Kemah with some of his other friends. There was no way anyone could sleep during the storm. He sat in his Captain's chair and took a beating from the wind and tides. Right in the middle of the storm he heard several loud explosions. He rushed out to see ropes on a nearby ship snapping like twigs. The ship broke loose and headed towards other shrimp boats taking refuge from the storm. The Captains on the boats had to jump on the piers and run to land for safety. My father watched as the ship crushed the smaller shrimp boats. After the storm - my father headed to Pier 6 in Kemah to unload his catch. He was standing in water to his knees. Channel 13 showed up to interview him and we watched and knew that he was OK. The rest of my family stayed in Houston on Hopper road as the storm passed. We played cards by candlelight and waited for Alicia to make her exit. Seabrook and Kemah looked completely different after that storm.

[Willie R Dean Jr]

I was an unemployed Graduate Engineer during the oil bust recession of 1982-1983. Alecia produced my first entry level job that required a Bachelor's degree. This job was temporary and was with the State Of Texas; prossesing Claims for the Victims of the storm. I remember living in a very humble dwelling with my now devorced/deceased wife and my little girl. But, the storm drove us to my Mother's ands Step father's Home were we rode out the storm. the first half we didnot loose power at all, and during the eye I stepped out in the front yard and to my amazement the sky was completely clear for several minutes. The rain then begain to fall gradually; as I hurried into my mothers home. And by the grace of God, we only lost power for about 2 hours on the backside of the Hurricane Alicia.

[Rick]

How could I ever forget Alicia? I was living in an upstairs apartment near Lee Rd. and 59, right on the freeway feeder. My apt had 2 big plate glass windows on the freeway side and I watched the wind throw street and freeway signs down the frreeway all night long. The lightning shows were incredible and eventually sometime after midnight, the power transformer across the freeway exploded, then the lights went out. I stayed up till about dawn watching small twisters travelling down the freeway! I was scared to death! I hid in the bathroom for several hours that night, eventually falling asleep on the bed. Then about 7AM I awoke. I guess it was the noise from one of those big advertisement signs not more than 50 ft. away from my apt that LUCKILY went the other direction and was now sitting on and through the roof of the music store. I don't know what made me do it, but I rushed over there and grabbed what I could out of the office (papers and such) and brought as much as I could back to the apt(I worked at the music store). Looking back it was a real stupid thing to do, I just reacted poorly in my semi-concious state. We were without electricity and water (pump driven well) for a month. I remember staying at friends and friends of friends houses. I was happy though about how so many people were helping everyone everywhere. I was about 8 when Carla hit and was living in LaMarque. We were in the process of moving to Texas City. We stayed at my Grandparents house off of Navigation and 75th. Both the new and old houses were flooded. The biggest difference I can remark about between the 2 storms is the lack of flooding that Alicia brought compared to Carla. I remember the weather men saying we certainly lucked out there. Unfortunately, we may well be in the same predicament as NO and MS if we ever get another cat 4 or 5 hurricane. There are just not enough avenues out of town if we wait till the day before to evacuate.

[elaine green]

I was a new grad RN when Alicia hit. Even though the hospital wanted me to stay and work, I knew I had to go stay with my elderly MOther in texas city for she was refusing to leave. My home was a mobile home in Hitchcok of which I had just purchased and completley remodeled. I arrived at My mothers the evening the storm was to come in. This was one storm that will teach you to never stay for a Hurricane. A tornado came right down the street and completley broke off a 20 year old ash tree which had a trunk diameter of at least 20 inches. It sounded like a train just like it is always described. The winds howled all night and we lost power when the tornado struck the front yard. We stayed up all night and only had a radio. The wind gusts were over 100 miles an hour. It was one long scary night. The areas of My mothers house that had siding looked like it had been sand blasted. The yard and neighbor's yards all had trees down and debree everywhere. Up the street where Dr. Fuch's office was and the Baptist church, had one whole wall gone from the tornado. As bad as it was for My mother in Texas City, I went home to Hitchcock and found a tornado had hit my home and totaled it. We spent the next three days in horrible heat walking around in water 2 feet deep trying to gather up belonging's. Even though the walls were blown out in my mobile home, the dining table still had the salt and pepper in the center of the table. That is a tornado for you, it will do strange things. It was a horrible storm but after getting into the mess with evacuating from Rita, I am not sure I would ever leave again. People died from the evacuation also. Here's hoping the rest of 2008 season is quiet.

[lari machart]

I remember Alicia well.I was 20 and my husband and I we're expecting our first child.We lived in Richmond in a mibile home and so we had to come to my in-laws in Missourri City, since they we're in a brick house. I had wkd that day and left wk early so that we could prepare. I remember watching the coverage on T.V. while the weather continued to deteriate outside. At some point in the middle of the night we all somehow fell asleep to only be awakened by the howling winds when she was finally here. We did lose power for a time, not sure how long. My in-laws had some minor roof damage. I remember after the storm that there we're tree branches everywhere and debris.We all got out and tried to drive around to see the damage, alot of the streets we're impassable. We saw some unbelievable stuff that day. I spoke w/ my parents finally later that day and was told that my Granny had suffered some pretty strong damage. She lived in an apt in Spring Branch (NW side) and had they think gotten a tornado which tore the roof off and the front of her apt as well. The complex across the street didnt fare so well it was almost total devastation. We had alot of Family and friends that lost alot some everything. Our mobile fared OK. We had some minor roof damage and some minor flooding. There we're trees and branches down everywhere and minor power outages.I did learn that you can never prepare enough.

[Nancy]

I had just moved to Texas 2 years before and this was my first hurricane. I lived off 59 and Chimney Rock, and the winds were about 75 mph at their peak, so of course I had to go outside and try to stand by leaning into the wind. Then the eye passed over, and the winds reversed. It was fascinating! Then it was so surreal when everyone slowly emerged from their homes to check out the damage and wander around.

[Elle]

I was 10 yrs old. I lived in Northside, by Northline mall. It was wild! I remember me and my brothers tied ourselves with rope on the front porch and held on! We got hit with everything blowing. We had fun. My mom was screaming at us to get in, but we were bad. Then, when it was over it wasn't fun anymore. No lights, no water for almost 2 weeks!