1844 — Aug 6, Hurricane, today’s Brownsville, TX area, esp. Brazos Santiago TX– 70

Blanchard Note: We have been unable to locate sources which provide more detail on how the losses took place. Thus we cannot independently verify the death-toll of 70 as noted in the sources below, nor do we know where the original number of seventy lives lost came from – only that it has been picked up by others and repeated.

— 70 Burt and Stroud. Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book. 2007, p. 209.
— 70 Dunn and Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised). 1964, p. 322.
— ~70 Garrison, et al. Historic Shipwrecks…of the Northern Gulf of Mexico. 1989, p. F-6.
— 70 Office of the Texas State Climatologist. Severe Weather in Texas: Pre-1880s.
— 70 Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, p. 8.

Narrative Information

Office of the Texas State Climatologist: “Aug. 6, 1844: Hurricane. Mouth of Rio Grande. All houses destroyed at the mouth of the river and at Brazos Santiago, eight miles north; 70 lives lost.”

Roth: “August 6th, 1844: This hurricane produced the first records of large loss of life along the lower Texas coast on the 6th. Residents on Padre Island fled to Matamoros for shelter. The 1844 storm completely destroyed the settlement of Brazos Santiago with a loss of 70 lives after the waters eroded a pass clear through the old settlement. The only survivor was reported to be the captain of the pilot boat who remained offshore. In Corpus Christi, high winds and tides capsized a pirate raft, loaded with their treasures. The Mexican Customs Office was moved to the mainland due to this storm.” (Roth. Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, p. 16.)

Sources

Burt, Christopher C. and Mark Stroud. Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book. W. W. Norton & Co., 2004, 304 pages. Google preview accessed 1-1-2014 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=NuP7ATq9nWgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Garrison, E.G., C .P. Giammona, F.J. Kelly, A.R . Tripp, and G .A. Wolff. Historic Shipwrecks and Magnetic Anomalies of the Northern Gulf of Mexico: reevaluation of archaeological resource management zone 1. Volume III : Appendices. OCS Study/MMS 89025 . U .S. Dept of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Regional Office, New Orleans, La. Sep 1989. 248 pp. At: http://www.gomr.boemre.gov/PI/PDFImages/ESPIS/3/3680.pdf

Office of the Texas State Climatologist, College of Geosciences. Severe Weather in Texas: Pre-1880s. Texas A&M University. Accessed 9-13-2022 at: https://climatexas.tamu.edu/products/severe-weather-summaries/pre-1880s-texas-severe-weather.html

Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS. 1-17-2010 update. Accessed 11-22-2017 at: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf

Roth, David. Texas Hurricane History: Early 19th Century. National Weather Service, Weather Service Forecast Office, Lake Charles, LA, NOAA. 4-23-2000 modification. Accessed at: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lch/research/txearly19hur.php