Matagorda, Texas is an historic town located in the center of the coastline on the Colorado River in Texas. Located at the end of Highway 60 South, the town is seven miles by car from the Gulf of Mexico. It is also about a two hour drive from Houston, and the area is becoming increasingly popular for both its fine fishing and its beaches.
Matagorda offers some of the best saltwater fishing on the entire Gulf Coast. Its seemingly endless coastline stretches for more than fifty miles, and more and more Houston fishermen are discovering that the area offers some of finest angling around. If they are hunting trophy fish, Matagorda is the place to go and find them.
It’s not all fun and games there, however; because it’s right on the coast, it’s a prime target for hurricanes. It’s very vulnerable to the fierce storms that move inland from the gulf, and the storms are the reason that the town is not the county seat, as it used to be.
When a 1941 hurricane formed in the Gulf of Mexico, it completed a clockwise loop and then turned toward the northwest. The hurricane made landfall near Matagorda, Texas and sat over the area until it weakened. Damage from the storm amounted to about $6.5 million, and the crops in the region were almost all destroyed.
Installing hurricane shutters is a must for homes so close to the coastline. Even if hurricanes hit far from your property, the resulting high winds can do damage. Hurricane Ike did extensive damage to the area in September of 2008, and it made landfall approximately 80 miles to the north of them. Even though the hurricane was not physically close, the rain and high winds and tornadoes that were in the outer bands did a lot of damage. FEMA declared it a disaster area, in fact.
If your windows are not covered, the pressure changes that happen during the storm can actually rip a hole in them, then tear through your home and do major structural damage. Windows have been torn off, entire roofs ripped away, and lanais or pool cages carried away for miles before landing. Storm shutters protect your windows, and while no roll-down shutter can stop a tornado, it can reduce the damage significantly. Hurricane shutters are missile impact tested, and they are able to withstand winds up to 150 miles per hour, so they’ll keep your family and your home safe during a storm.
