What I don't understand is why towns like Corpus Christi were not absolutely devastated by high winds.
I believe the eye of the storm made landfall to the east of Corpus Christi. That means Corpus was not in the most "dangerous quadrant" which is to the NE of eye. That is where the strongest winds will be.
Also, I think it is a bit too early to know just how much damage there was from the winds, as reports are still coming in. See this
photo spread in The Atlantic for examples of some damage that did occur. Apparently the area around Rockport, which is east of Corpus, was especially hard hit. Years ago I spent a little time in Rockport, and my recollection is that it is (was?) a delightful little town.
EDIT: The "dangerous quadrant" is due to the relation of the storms movement, relative to the wind circulation within the storm. See the
Wikipedia article on Buys Ballot's law. Quoting from that article:
The underlying principles of Buys Ballot's law state that for anyone ashore in the Northern Hemisphere and in the path of a hurricane, the most dangerous place to be is in the right front quadrant of the storm. There, the observed wind speed of the storm is the sum of the speed of wind in the storm circulation plus the velocity of the storms forward movement. Buys Ballot's Law calls this the "Dangerous Quadrant". Likewise, in the left front quadrant of the storm the observed wind is the difference between the storm's wind velocity and its forward speed. This is called the "Safe Quadrant" due to the lower observed wind speeds.
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