September 22,
2019
 |
| Dan Rather reports on Carla while inside Carla |
“Dad and the
Season of Hurricanes”
It was 58 years
ago this month that the Hayter family, as a group, spent its first night ever at
a motel. I had never even seen the inside of a motel room. As you know, first
experiences can go either way. This one took a nosedive. Went way down there.
The room was a poorly furnished, with
one bed, one roll-away, a radio in a large wooden cabinet, a shower and two
towels. I assumed it was not one of Waco’s finest. I was certain it was one of
Waco’s cheapest. It was Saturday evening, September 9, 1961. Something had
happened back home in Pasadena, that got Dad’s shorts in a bind, so he loaded
the family into our 1960 Chevy Bel Air, and hauled our buns to Waco.
I can’t blame Dad, because I happen to
know that Dan Rather was the one responsible. Rather was the first TV newsman
in the country to come up with the idea of reporting live inside a hurricane. In
1960, Dan Rather became the news director for KHOU TV, a small station in
Houston. The only reason Rather was made news director was because he was the
only fulltime employee at the station.
Hurricane Carla was first noticed at
or around September 4th. At that time, the U.S. Weather Bureau had no idea as
to where a hurricane would eventually hit. They were doing good to just find
the thing. Hurricanes fascinated Rather, so as soon as he caught wind of one passing
over the Yucatan, he saw an opportunity in the making. At that time, there was
no such thing as satellite photos, but there was radar imaging. And get this,
the U.S. Weather Service had just established a radar station in Galveston.
Being the news director at the
station, Rather grabbed his part-time cameraman, and the two of them headed to
Galveston with the idea of setting up shop at the radar station. When he saw the
image of Carla on the radar screen, he almost freaked his freak. The thing looked
like it might cover the entire Gulf.
As soon as the program director back
in Houston began broadcasting Rather’s reports, including the first broadcasted
radar images of the monster storm, people in the Houston/Galveston area got
big-time scared. As soon as the reports were broadcast on CBS national news, residents
along the coast of Texas and Louisiana began evacuating. It was the fear of
Carla that created the largest evacuation in U.S. history up to that time. If
you take Dan Rather out of the equation, that wouldn’t have happened.
Carla ended up making landfall halfway
between Galveston and Corpus Christi. The hurricane force winds were 400 miles
wide. The city of Galveston had closed the bridge to the island, so no one from
any of the other news stations was able to be on site when the hurricane hit. Only
little ol’ KHOU TV.
Turns out, my dad was among those who decided
it best to leave. There were eight of us who piled into the Chevy Bel Air. We
were packed in like green olives in a narrow jar. Had Dad not been driving the
meat wagon, the backseat would’ve been all fists, knees and elbows.
Fortunately, we made it to Waco with
no losses. It was at “Earl and Pearl’s Motel” (fake name) that Dad rented two
rooms. I was flabbergasted that he had enough to pay for two rooms. Payday came
every two weeks on a Friday, and Carla wisely chose a day or two before payday
to make herself known. The family left on a Saturday, and Carla reached
landfall on Monday, September 11.
While at the motel in Waco, the radio
guy, interrupted a song by Ernest Tubb to read a news bulletin. It was
announced that Carla would likely hit Waco with winds up to 50 mph. Dad feared
that “The Earl and Pearl” would end up being “The Gone with the Wind”, so we
piled back into the Chevy and headed for Bristow, Oklahoma. There was no money
for another night in the motel, so the plan was to stay with Mom’s folks,
Grandma and Grandpa Teagarden.
We made it to Bristow that evening and
Grandma and Grandpa seemed glad to see us. Those two were the greatest
grandparents on the planet. Of course, there is no way on earth they could
out-shine the grandparents of today. Today, people go unnaturally nuts over
grandkids.
When we returned to Pasadena, we
discovered that the only damage to our rent house was a few missing shingles. Our
landlord paid Dad to make the repairs, and that helped defray the cost of the
trip.
“What of Dan Rather?” you ask. Well, when
he returned to Houston, he had a few messages waiting for him. TV stations from
around the country wanted him as their news anchor. In 1962, he took the lead
anchor position for CBS in Dallas. A year later, when JFK was assassinated,
Rather got some notoriety for his coverage. Soon after, he was summoned to the
New York office where he eventually became the news anchor at CBS Evening News.
And, my Dad? He continued working at the
refinery until his retirement in 1979. Our family’s biggest disaster occurred a
year later, when Dad suddenly died from a heart attack. The man had no claim on
fame, and that was to our family’s benefit. It was from my father that I
learned some of the best and worst ways to handle situations in life. He died almost
50 years ago, and I dream of him still. In fact, he’s the one who sparked my
interest in writing this week’s article. Dad and the season of hurricanes.
end
Your dad was smart. It’s never good to ride out hurricanes.
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