Hurricane Beulah, the third largest hurricane of the twentieth century, swept across South Texas on September 20-21, 1967. The storm, which had previously ravaged the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, moved inland from the Gulf just south of Port Isabel early on the morning of the twentieth. It struck Brownsville with winds estimated at 140 miles an hour, moved northwest across South Texas to the vicinity of Alice, then turned southwest, crossed the Rio Grande between Zapata and Laredo, and finally blew itself out in Mexico. Advance warnings permitted the evacuation of Port Isabel, Port Mansfield, and Port Aransas, but winds and rain caused considerable property damage there as well as in the resort areas of Padre Island. In the port of Brownsville tides and high winds damaged a large portion of the shrimp fleet, and in the lower Rio Grande valley the citrus crop was ruined.
Beulah spawned 115 separate tornadoes, several of which occurred in populated areas. Tornadoes struck New Braunfels, Fulton, and Sweet Home and were sighted as far north as Austin. Rains of up to thirty inches accompanied the storm, and these in turn caused floods that inundated a large part of South Texas for more than two weeks. Three Rivers, Sinton, Victoria, and Pleasanton were hit especially hard. In Harlingen rampaging water from the Arroyo Colorado threatened the entire city. Floodwaters on the Rio Grande put large portions of Camargo and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, under water, and some 9,000 refugees crossed the border to Rio Grande City. On September 28, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared twentyfour counties in South Texas disaster areas. Official estimates in these counties set the number of dead at eighteen, the injured or sick at 9,000, and the number of homes destroyed or heavily damaged at 3,000. Property damage was estimated at $100 million, crop damage at $50 million. Some 300,000 people were evacuated during the storm and subsequent flooding. |
