August 2, 1943

HOUSTON (Routers) In this hurricane-ravaged city, a large number of Houstonians are now questioning the misplaced priorities of the Roosevelt administration, an administration that many increasingly see as valuing war mongering over the actual safety of the American people.

Last Tuesday's storm, which killed almost two dozen people and injured dozens more, with property damage in the millions of dollars, was the worst to strike the area since 1915, when hundreds were killed in Galveston.

"This hurricane completely blindsided us," said one resident. "The first we heard about it before it hit was when one measly airplane flew out over Galveston Bay to see how big the storm was."

Many find it shocking to consider how much more warning these stalwart southeast Texans could have had, had the hundreds of B-17 bombers sent to England in order to attack Germany, that had never been a direct threat to us, been instead pressed into service closer to home to look for storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

In addition, supposedly as a result of "threats" from German U-boats, ships were under orders of radio silence from the administration, further preventing warning of the storm from reaching the unaware Houston-area residents.

Another consequence of the administration's focus on the war could be seen at Ellington Field. Many Army Air Corps personnel were diverted to the task of physically holding down warplanes to keep them from blowing away, instead of being freed up to help maintain order in the wake of the disaster.

Many think that this is a sign of prejudice on the part of a haughty, patrician president from the northeast.

"It's very clear that Franklin "Delanodamngood" Roosevelt doesn't give a damn about ordinary folk down here in Texas," said one local man. "It's been almost a week now since the storm, many of us don't have water, and he hasn't even come down here to see how we're doing. All he can think about is his pointless war."

(Copyright 2005 by Rand Simberg)

IIRC this was the storm, in real life, that had a pilot from Ellington Field fly through the eye of the hurricane for the first time. He did it on a bet of course.

Actually, it was out of Bryan, not Ellington.

I stand respectfully corrected. :)