Kaplan, LA F3 Tornado – September 10, 1961

In today's summary we look at one of the tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Carla.   Per a NWS Corpus Christi Summary on Carla:  "Carla began as a tropical depression in the southwest Caribbean Sea on September 3^rd, 1961. It became a tropical storm off the coast of Honduras on the 5^th and quickly gained hurricane strength as it moved north to east of the Yucatan peninsula on the 6^th. After skimming the Yucatan peninsula, Carla moved northwest and strengthened to a large major hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico on the evening of the 7^th. The winds increased to around 175 mph early on the morning of the 11^th making Carla a Category 5 hurricane. Carla weakened slightly as it made a loop off the coast from Port O'Connor. Carla made landfall on the afternoon of the 11^th on the northeast part of Matagorda Island as a strong Category 4 hurricane with a minimum central pressure of 931 millibars, or 27.49 inches of mercury, and sustained winds of 145 mph. The eye of Carla moved across Port O'Connor and Port Lavaca and then inland just east of Victoria. Carla weakened to a tropical storm on the morning of the 12^th just east of Austin."

Per the NWS overview, there were 18 total tornadoes associated with Carla, 10 were in Louisiana.  On Sept 10, five of the Louisiana tornadoes were produced.  3 were in Vermilion Parish.  The strongest was rated F3.  At the time of this writing, the Storm Data Publication was not accessible via the NCDC web site.  I used data from the SPC, Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and newspaper articles to write this summary.

Per Thomas Grazulis:  This tornado moved northwest from 2 miles southeast of Kaplan and it passed through 27 blocks of town.  Approximately 21 homes were destroyed, 55 heavily damaged and 175 more received minor damage.  There were 55 injuries and an infant was killed.  4-week old Nancy Ann Simon was killed at her home at the intersection of Ninth St. and Faye Ave.  Per a newspaper article int he Abbeville Meridional, the home was moved from its foundation and thrown about 25 feet onto Ninth Street.  The baby was killed by a falling object.