Maps of early Greenport
Gray house mine
House across the street (Ray's) the white one
Storms on Long Island Sound and the Ocean
Along the Susquehanna
View from our front window
Sunday, March 22, 2009
1938 Hurricane Pictures
Maps of early Greenport
Gray house mine
House across the street (Ray's) the white one
Storms on Long Island Sound and the Ocean
1938 Hurricane
I still have occasional dreams of the 1938 hurricane in 2009. It was such a traumatic thing and it stuck in my mind forever. Until I was about 20 or so it was a reoccurring nightmare but I can still remember it like it happened yesterday.
Our house was just across the street on the corner across from the ELI Hospital. It was on that spot from 1870 until 1970 until it along with 4 other houses was torn down for a parking lot,
The only thing I can recollect from that time was the day before meeting Ray Bishop, who became a life long friend for over 65 years. I remember this day before the storm because Ray’s mom and Grandmother were out in his backyard and Ray had to show me his new swing in the big White Birch behind the white picket fence in the middle of his yard. The traumatic thing I saw happen to that tree the next day made that tree permanently etched in my mind.
That day of the storm didn’t seem like any thing unusual was happening as a matter of fact it had been raining pretty hard off an on. This was the first day that I could finally stay out. There were pretty big puddles everywhere. About noon several housewives were out in front of their houses, which was strange to me. My mom wasn’t much into conversations with neighbors, but she went out to see if she could catch something going on.
Meanwhile across the street in Ray Bishops backyard and Pell’s fish market there was always at least one boat at the bulkhead (docks). There was some fishing boats coming and going every day. Usually the smaller 20-25 ft fishing boats would be permantly moored at Ray’s Grandfather (Bishops Boat Yard). In summer there would be 10 or 12 private pleasure boats docked there Most of them would be dry-docked by the end of September. In this case the people who had there boats taken out of the water before the storm had a lot less to worry about Of course I knew little of what was going on out on the docks at that time.
In the summer as many as 20 fishing boats and private boats were docked there but by this date there were only 5 or 6 boats still docked the owners of the boats still there just had to take their chances. In the rest of Sterling creek there were probably 25 or thirty boats still out there but a little to late to do any thing about them at this point in time. However, Sterling Creek was known as a place for a safe harbor for many storms it was pretty closed in on 3 sides and it was shaped to hold any real storm surges back from this end of the creek at least.
There was more static and noise coming from Pell’s dock from the ship to shore radios than usual. It seemed the squawking had a more anxious sound about it than usual. It always seemed to have a desperate sound to it even under normal conditions I could not understand them. There was more traffic than usual down our street Mom told me to stay in the yard. There was an unusual amount of cars and trucks at the hospital we sure didn’t know what to make of it. It was getting scarier now. The Syrett family lived next to us. They had 4 boys but only one of them was of school age Dick was five Fred was about three and John about 1 the forth and last one was about 6 months old and his name somehow escapes me.
A fire truck went over to the hospital and was there only about five minuets then it drove out the hospital exit. I was surprised when it stopped in front of Syrett's house (I didn’t know at the time but Mr. Syrett was a volunteer of the Greenport fire dept).
They had reports of some kind of a storm coming up the coast but it had disappeared a few hours ago they thought it might hit the Jersey coast in a few hours. Meantime, Rays grandfather was working on the docks. His radio had a warning from several boats about 100 miles off Montauk of getting warnings from other boats further out that there was a bad storm to the west of their location (probably 250 miles from shore). About the same time the schools and fire departments were told there was an impending storm possibly a hurricane turning towards Long Island, apparently moving too fast to keep track of.
About 1:00 the school got notice that they might close the schools. The Greenport School apparently did not have a procedure for this.
The sky had in the past hour took on a not too friendly look. The mothers out there with kids still in school and had cars, grabbed their keys and headed to the school. Even by that time the wind began to kick up and it was about 50 mile pet hour already. The school decided to let the younger kids go home. By the time they closed the school altogether the winds were already 75mph. The Syrett's next door were the only people with a plan. Both of their kids waited at the school inside the front door. There were branches everywhere some were getting bigger they had to dodge several down trees, but Mrs. Syrett knew her away around and got home safe about 2:00. By this time we had no electricity that was nothing strange to us. Mom and I were indoors by the time the winds reached 75 mph we were not about to go out side again.
Mrs. Syrett said to my Mom that she saw no sign of our kids around the school but her son Dick said he saw Alton and 3 or 4 boys left early. It may have been a good thing some of the kids left ahead of time, as the wind was only 25 or 30 at that time.
It was scary to me as the wind picked up from about 20 mph, when Mom made me come in. Within about 15 or 20 minuets the winds got to 75 mph. Several downstairs windows blew in at the same time, 2 kitchen windows and a living room window.
“Where is daddy? “I said’
Mom hadn’t the foggiest where he could be, but he left work in the shipyard about 1:00 and made it to the first 100 ft Elm tree completely blocking two streets. He would have to walk the rest of the way. In less than a hour with winds nearly 110 mph by now, every other Elm was down along with every wire in Greenport, some were alive some were not. Mom didn’t know where Dad was or were Alton and Doris were. She hoped they would stay where they were safe. Mom ushered me upstairs that was her first mistake. My younger sister Nancy she was about 18 months old at that time Mom took her upstairs and put her in the middle of my bed. She was also in a cradle with handles I guess it was easer to carry that way. Mom had covered the whole thing with a couple of blankets. Nancy was oblivious to the whole thing.
The sound of the rain was a lot louder up stairs and even at that point we could hear the house creaking and groaning. The winds at that time was about 50 or 60 mph. There seemed to be a mist in the air more so upstairs. When the wind blew extra hard it felt like the rain was being forced through the walls and that’s what it was doing. There was only one window in my bedroom. It was raining so hard the windows looked like a sheet of ice. I desperately wanted to see Ray’s house across the street, Mom said to keep away from the windows. I just had to have a look when mom went back to the other bedroom I went over to the window. I really could not see anything through the blurry window, but some how I got my wish and had about 10 seconds to see Ray’s house. I now wish I had never looked. I could plainly see Ray’s big White Birch tree, it seemed to turn itself around all the way as if some invisible hand reached out like you would pull weeds from a garden and ripped that tree right out of the ground. It was a shock to me to have witnessed that and I felt bad for that tree for a long time. Needless to say I got away from that window.
The house shook and shuddered. It seemed every minute or so the wind would get under the front of the house and you could feel the house lifting up and the walls groaned and cracked and protest until the wind let it down this kept getting worse. It was almost like being in a boat in the waves, as it seemed to roll from, side to side. The ceiling in my room was forming a pond on one end it began to sag in about a 5 ft by 8 ft area. It was obviously getting heavy and was about to go any second. I called Mom in a panic. Mom had been trying to stem the tide in the other two rooms up stairs with no luck the pressure of the wind blown rain was just too much and all 5 windows were leaking as was all the ceilings. I was trying to pull the crib off the bed to get Nancy from out of way of the avalanche about the same time we could hear breaking glass downstairs.
Mom rushed in the room and pulled the crib and me off the bed in the nick of time. I might have got her out of the way of the ceiling but it would have been close. Mom grabbed the crib just as I had slid one end off the bed. With in 10 seconds the larger piece of ceiling about 8 ft wide came down with about 5 gallons of water. It seemed the house was not trying to protect us and was giving up. Just as we left the room the window I had looked out a few seconds ago gave up and pieces of glass almost made it to where we stood in the hall. It strikes me funny some how that when the house lifted up one way you could hear all of Mom’s cosmetics rolling across the floor and when the wind let it back down you could hear those things roll back the other way. Mom was always so neat with her personal stuff; she liked every thing in its right place. It sure wasn’t in its proper place now.
“OH God where is Daddy?” she said.
Ominous sounds were coming from downstairs, as we stood there on the top of the stairs not really knowing what to do. The house decided it for us in an exceptional long gust of wind twisted the house one way and the stairs the other way. It was hard to know what to hang on too. However, an exceptionally loud thundering crash coming from one of the bedrooms made the choice to head down the stairs. The crash we herd was the top of the brick chimney came through the roof and the ceiling. As we started down the stairs the only incentive was the hall window blowing out just about 4 ft behind me. The stairs were a running stream of water and the outside wall was a sheet of water. The worse part we faced was a real dilemma as the ceiling above the stairs had been building up water and as we went down only 3 steps we realized that it was not just wallpaper hanging down over the stairs it was the ceiling plaster boards and all had collapsed onto the stair railing. We could not budge it with the stairs outside wall and ceiling on the top we were actually in a prison the only way open to slide under the railing and that held about 20 spindles about 7 inches apart.
“Oh God where the heck is Daddy” Mom said.
Just as we sat on the stair “stream bed” we herd the voice of God (which was daddy). He had a crowbar and hammer
Dad said “Hear I am what the hell do you want and who put you to in jail.”
He thought it was kind of funny we sure didn’t. With the crowbar he got us out easily (but he was careful not to damage the spindles). Dad sort of loved wood, and being as he was a finish carpenter, he wouldn’t want to damage anything that had some future woodwork involved.
Dad said we couldn’t get out through the front door, as there was a big spruce tree against it. He told us not to be frightened when we opened the living room door. When we opened the door to cross the living room, we were met with a rainstorm right in the middle of the room! The furniture was in a pile in one corner there, was only one window not broken. We found out why there was a cloud of mist, whenever a strong gust of wind hit the east side of the house. The reason was most of the shingles had blown off that side and in turn the rain and wind blew off the inside plaster walls. The only thing left in that area was the bare lath.
When I first saw that it became another part of my nightmares, the bare lath reminded me of a skeleton that had lost all his skin and his bones were showing through. To see your own home in such a mess was frightening; nothing in the living room was in the same spot I remembered it, even the couch was on its back on the other side of the room. I had never been inside a house that was windy.
The three of us stood I the middle of the living room, Mom and I had our winter coats on that was all we had and my coat was getting heaver by the minute.
“What are we suppose to do?” Mom quipped
Dad had on only a blue shirt and pants and it looked like he had just climbed out of the crick. I remember standing there all three of us holding hands. Dad was only humorous in bad situations, and now apparently was one of them. He was almost in hysterics.
He laughed and said “They say the safest place in any house was a large door way so I guess we just stand in this real safe spot”
There was a large archway between the living room and dining room. We didn’t stand there for long. We were facing the south end of the living room and there was a 50 ft spruce tree against the outside wall. Apparently it pushed against the wall so hard and all the plaster moved at once towards us. I have this scene firmly etched in my mind, because we had a new (plastic) clock on that wall and the entire wall (with the clock staying attached) came towards us. The room was about 12 ft wide; none of us moved and I felt the very top brushing my coat as it landed with a wet whomp. The upside down couch broke its fall somewhat.
“Like I said,” said Dad “there aint no safe spot in this place lets get out of here”
Mom was somewhat furious, that never had any affect on Dad.
“Where the hell were you all this time. The kids and I thought it was the end for us. It sure is a good thing Bill was real good he is usually afraid of every thing I thought any minute he would panic. So where were you?”
Dad was not one to give strait answers, “Well you see its like this me and a couple buddies (other guys) finally worked our way through all the trees and live wires, besides helping some people trapped in their houses and two stupid woman trying to get under a big elm tree by trying to pushing the tree got themselves and two kids trapped because the doors got jammed.”
Dad could see that didn’t impress Mom too much and probably she didn’t believe him anyway, When dad told the truth and somebody didn’t believe him he just made something else up. Sometimes I saw why he did that.
This time he just said, “My buddies and I just sat down on a tree over at the hospital. I could see the house from there. We figured we would wait right there. Sooner or later when the crick got high enough you would float by and we could hitch a ride.”
The reason Dad took so long to get home was mostly a true story; under most circumstances he would help anybody at any time.
The four of us went next door to the Syrett’s. They welcomed us and were afraid for us knowing somewhat the condition of our house. The wires were pulled right off the side of the house and were wires on the ground, in the trees, some on cars and in the hospital grounds, some were still sparking. It was sure dangerous outside anywhere for several days, as high as the water surges were at some places 15 ft or more. The storm was moving so fast that in the crick the water level was only 6 to 8 ft above what was considered a flood tide. The hospital and the block around our house had a 4 to 5 ft wall around them. This storm the water only rose to about 3 to 4 ft above the bulkheads our house was about 3 or 4 ft above that, if we had a 15 ft storm surge the water would have been up to the second story in our house.
The next day we went home and didn’t get into the house for a couple of days. It was still unsafe for sometime after that. Actually it would have been safer outdoors for us. It was a good thing that my Uncles lived within 3 or 4 miles from us, as for about a month they helped Dad fixing the inside of the house so you could at least get in the house through a door not a hole in the wall. They were a great help to us. One of my uncles was a bricklayer and he rebuilt the main chimney but also said it had been twisted around so much either in that storm or an earlier one. The chimney started in the ground in the cellar then went off to the right, about a foot, off when it got to the first floor. It got pretty strait then went off about 15 inches to the left to where the top had been twisted off at roof level. My uncle built a chimney on top of that it was still crooked and might stay there (for 8 years). The chimney in the kitchen was beyond repair.
The house gave anybody that worked on it some laughs. Like the roof was held up by pieced 2x4s half of which had to be pieced some more, the 1910 wiring and primitive plumbing. Dad some time later probably 12 years later he took me down cellar and showed me were the house sat before the hurricane. The back of the main house where it met the kitchen had slid over about a foot. Luckily the front of the house was cemented to a stucco patio the full width of the house.
It took about 20 years to fix all the damage to the house. After 30 years of working on that house, new floors, roof, siding, walls, heating system, new kitchen, handmade cabinets, new bathroom and driveway, in 1970 The Hospital just had to have that property. So Mon and Dad and 4 other house were requisitioned for a parking lot. So they were all forced to move. So the hurricane could not destroy it, but in 10 minuets of fighting the bulldozer and lost.
PS: During the storm we also lost one big apple tree and several other trees besides the big spruce.
The Hospital across the street lost several trees and the roof over an operating room darning an operation taking place. (It is hard to keep going with 100 mph winds in an operating room.)
PPS: Just to let you know I had no news of my brother Alton. He apparently left school early with a couple friends, we had no idea where he was until late in the day as no phones were operational
My sister Doris did not fare as well Alton. I guess with all the lines were down and huge trees branches and cars crushed beneath the trees and the sidewalks and yards were full with debris, we had no contact with her until way after the storm. Doris was about 12 at the time and the fear of every thing looking different kept her in a panic until she made it to our grandmothers house about one half of the way home. I try to keep the stories as what I saw with my own eyes.
Our house was just across the street on the corner across from the ELI Hospital. It was on that spot from 1870 until 1970 until it along with 4 other houses was torn down for a parking lot,
The only thing I can recollect from that time was the day before meeting Ray Bishop, who became a life long friend for over 65 years. I remember this day before the storm because Ray’s mom and Grandmother were out in his backyard and Ray had to show me his new swing in the big White Birch behind the white picket fence in the middle of his yard. The traumatic thing I saw happen to that tree the next day made that tree permanently etched in my mind.
That day of the storm didn’t seem like any thing unusual was happening as a matter of fact it had been raining pretty hard off an on. This was the first day that I could finally stay out. There were pretty big puddles everywhere. About noon several housewives were out in front of their houses, which was strange to me. My mom wasn’t much into conversations with neighbors, but she went out to see if she could catch something going on.
Meanwhile across the street in Ray Bishops backyard and Pell’s fish market there was always at least one boat at the bulkhead (docks). There was some fishing boats coming and going every day. Usually the smaller 20-25 ft fishing boats would be permantly moored at Ray’s Grandfather (Bishops Boat Yard). In summer there would be 10 or 12 private pleasure boats docked there Most of them would be dry-docked by the end of September. In this case the people who had there boats taken out of the water before the storm had a lot less to worry about Of course I knew little of what was going on out on the docks at that time.
In the summer as many as 20 fishing boats and private boats were docked there but by this date there were only 5 or 6 boats still docked the owners of the boats still there just had to take their chances. In the rest of Sterling creek there were probably 25 or thirty boats still out there but a little to late to do any thing about them at this point in time. However, Sterling Creek was known as a place for a safe harbor for many storms it was pretty closed in on 3 sides and it was shaped to hold any real storm surges back from this end of the creek at least.
There was more static and noise coming from Pell’s dock from the ship to shore radios than usual. It seemed the squawking had a more anxious sound about it than usual. It always seemed to have a desperate sound to it even under normal conditions I could not understand them. There was more traffic than usual down our street Mom told me to stay in the yard. There was an unusual amount of cars and trucks at the hospital we sure didn’t know what to make of it. It was getting scarier now. The Syrett family lived next to us. They had 4 boys but only one of them was of school age Dick was five Fred was about three and John about 1 the forth and last one was about 6 months old and his name somehow escapes me.
A fire truck went over to the hospital and was there only about five minuets then it drove out the hospital exit. I was surprised when it stopped in front of Syrett's house (I didn’t know at the time but Mr. Syrett was a volunteer of the Greenport fire dept).
They had reports of some kind of a storm coming up the coast but it had disappeared a few hours ago they thought it might hit the Jersey coast in a few hours. Meantime, Rays grandfather was working on the docks. His radio had a warning from several boats about 100 miles off Montauk of getting warnings from other boats further out that there was a bad storm to the west of their location (probably 250 miles from shore). About the same time the schools and fire departments were told there was an impending storm possibly a hurricane turning towards Long Island, apparently moving too fast to keep track of.
About 1:00 the school got notice that they might close the schools. The Greenport School apparently did not have a procedure for this.
The sky had in the past hour took on a not too friendly look. The mothers out there with kids still in school and had cars, grabbed their keys and headed to the school. Even by that time the wind began to kick up and it was about 50 mile pet hour already. The school decided to let the younger kids go home. By the time they closed the school altogether the winds were already 75mph. The Syrett's next door were the only people with a plan. Both of their kids waited at the school inside the front door. There were branches everywhere some were getting bigger they had to dodge several down trees, but Mrs. Syrett knew her away around and got home safe about 2:00. By this time we had no electricity that was nothing strange to us. Mom and I were indoors by the time the winds reached 75 mph we were not about to go out side again.
Mrs. Syrett said to my Mom that she saw no sign of our kids around the school but her son Dick said he saw Alton and 3 or 4 boys left early. It may have been a good thing some of the kids left ahead of time, as the wind was only 25 or 30 at that time.
It was scary to me as the wind picked up from about 20 mph, when Mom made me come in. Within about 15 or 20 minuets the winds got to 75 mph. Several downstairs windows blew in at the same time, 2 kitchen windows and a living room window.
“Where is daddy? “I said’
Mom hadn’t the foggiest where he could be, but he left work in the shipyard about 1:00 and made it to the first 100 ft Elm tree completely blocking two streets. He would have to walk the rest of the way. In less than a hour with winds nearly 110 mph by now, every other Elm was down along with every wire in Greenport, some were alive some were not. Mom didn’t know where Dad was or were Alton and Doris were. She hoped they would stay where they were safe. Mom ushered me upstairs that was her first mistake. My younger sister Nancy she was about 18 months old at that time Mom took her upstairs and put her in the middle of my bed. She was also in a cradle with handles I guess it was easer to carry that way. Mom had covered the whole thing with a couple of blankets. Nancy was oblivious to the whole thing.
The sound of the rain was a lot louder up stairs and even at that point we could hear the house creaking and groaning. The winds at that time was about 50 or 60 mph. There seemed to be a mist in the air more so upstairs. When the wind blew extra hard it felt like the rain was being forced through the walls and that’s what it was doing. There was only one window in my bedroom. It was raining so hard the windows looked like a sheet of ice. I desperately wanted to see Ray’s house across the street, Mom said to keep away from the windows. I just had to have a look when mom went back to the other bedroom I went over to the window. I really could not see anything through the blurry window, but some how I got my wish and had about 10 seconds to see Ray’s house. I now wish I had never looked. I could plainly see Ray’s big White Birch tree, it seemed to turn itself around all the way as if some invisible hand reached out like you would pull weeds from a garden and ripped that tree right out of the ground. It was a shock to me to have witnessed that and I felt bad for that tree for a long time. Needless to say I got away from that window.
The house shook and shuddered. It seemed every minute or so the wind would get under the front of the house and you could feel the house lifting up and the walls groaned and cracked and protest until the wind let it down this kept getting worse. It was almost like being in a boat in the waves, as it seemed to roll from, side to side. The ceiling in my room was forming a pond on one end it began to sag in about a 5 ft by 8 ft area. It was obviously getting heavy and was about to go any second. I called Mom in a panic. Mom had been trying to stem the tide in the other two rooms up stairs with no luck the pressure of the wind blown rain was just too much and all 5 windows were leaking as was all the ceilings. I was trying to pull the crib off the bed to get Nancy from out of way of the avalanche about the same time we could hear breaking glass downstairs.
Mom rushed in the room and pulled the crib and me off the bed in the nick of time. I might have got her out of the way of the ceiling but it would have been close. Mom grabbed the crib just as I had slid one end off the bed. With in 10 seconds the larger piece of ceiling about 8 ft wide came down with about 5 gallons of water. It seemed the house was not trying to protect us and was giving up. Just as we left the room the window I had looked out a few seconds ago gave up and pieces of glass almost made it to where we stood in the hall. It strikes me funny some how that when the house lifted up one way you could hear all of Mom’s cosmetics rolling across the floor and when the wind let it back down you could hear those things roll back the other way. Mom was always so neat with her personal stuff; she liked every thing in its right place. It sure wasn’t in its proper place now.
“OH God where is Daddy?” she said.
Ominous sounds were coming from downstairs, as we stood there on the top of the stairs not really knowing what to do. The house decided it for us in an exceptional long gust of wind twisted the house one way and the stairs the other way. It was hard to know what to hang on too. However, an exceptionally loud thundering crash coming from one of the bedrooms made the choice to head down the stairs. The crash we herd was the top of the brick chimney came through the roof and the ceiling. As we started down the stairs the only incentive was the hall window blowing out just about 4 ft behind me. The stairs were a running stream of water and the outside wall was a sheet of water. The worse part we faced was a real dilemma as the ceiling above the stairs had been building up water and as we went down only 3 steps we realized that it was not just wallpaper hanging down over the stairs it was the ceiling plaster boards and all had collapsed onto the stair railing. We could not budge it with the stairs outside wall and ceiling on the top we were actually in a prison the only way open to slide under the railing and that held about 20 spindles about 7 inches apart.
“Oh God where the heck is Daddy” Mom said.
Just as we sat on the stair “stream bed” we herd the voice of God (which was daddy). He had a crowbar and hammer
Dad said “Hear I am what the hell do you want and who put you to in jail.”
He thought it was kind of funny we sure didn’t. With the crowbar he got us out easily (but he was careful not to damage the spindles). Dad sort of loved wood, and being as he was a finish carpenter, he wouldn’t want to damage anything that had some future woodwork involved.
Dad said we couldn’t get out through the front door, as there was a big spruce tree against it. He told us not to be frightened when we opened the living room door. When we opened the door to cross the living room, we were met with a rainstorm right in the middle of the room! The furniture was in a pile in one corner there, was only one window not broken. We found out why there was a cloud of mist, whenever a strong gust of wind hit the east side of the house. The reason was most of the shingles had blown off that side and in turn the rain and wind blew off the inside plaster walls. The only thing left in that area was the bare lath.
When I first saw that it became another part of my nightmares, the bare lath reminded me of a skeleton that had lost all his skin and his bones were showing through. To see your own home in such a mess was frightening; nothing in the living room was in the same spot I remembered it, even the couch was on its back on the other side of the room. I had never been inside a house that was windy.
The three of us stood I the middle of the living room, Mom and I had our winter coats on that was all we had and my coat was getting heaver by the minute.
“What are we suppose to do?” Mom quipped
Dad had on only a blue shirt and pants and it looked like he had just climbed out of the crick. I remember standing there all three of us holding hands. Dad was only humorous in bad situations, and now apparently was one of them. He was almost in hysterics.
He laughed and said “They say the safest place in any house was a large door way so I guess we just stand in this real safe spot”
There was a large archway between the living room and dining room. We didn’t stand there for long. We were facing the south end of the living room and there was a 50 ft spruce tree against the outside wall. Apparently it pushed against the wall so hard and all the plaster moved at once towards us. I have this scene firmly etched in my mind, because we had a new (plastic) clock on that wall and the entire wall (with the clock staying attached) came towards us. The room was about 12 ft wide; none of us moved and I felt the very top brushing my coat as it landed with a wet whomp. The upside down couch broke its fall somewhat.
“Like I said,” said Dad “there aint no safe spot in this place lets get out of here”
Mom was somewhat furious, that never had any affect on Dad.
“Where the hell were you all this time. The kids and I thought it was the end for us. It sure is a good thing Bill was real good he is usually afraid of every thing I thought any minute he would panic. So where were you?”
Dad was not one to give strait answers, “Well you see its like this me and a couple buddies (other guys) finally worked our way through all the trees and live wires, besides helping some people trapped in their houses and two stupid woman trying to get under a big elm tree by trying to pushing the tree got themselves and two kids trapped because the doors got jammed.”
Dad could see that didn’t impress Mom too much and probably she didn’t believe him anyway, When dad told the truth and somebody didn’t believe him he just made something else up. Sometimes I saw why he did that.
This time he just said, “My buddies and I just sat down on a tree over at the hospital. I could see the house from there. We figured we would wait right there. Sooner or later when the crick got high enough you would float by and we could hitch a ride.”
The reason Dad took so long to get home was mostly a true story; under most circumstances he would help anybody at any time.
The four of us went next door to the Syrett’s. They welcomed us and were afraid for us knowing somewhat the condition of our house. The wires were pulled right off the side of the house and were wires on the ground, in the trees, some on cars and in the hospital grounds, some were still sparking. It was sure dangerous outside anywhere for several days, as high as the water surges were at some places 15 ft or more. The storm was moving so fast that in the crick the water level was only 6 to 8 ft above what was considered a flood tide. The hospital and the block around our house had a 4 to 5 ft wall around them. This storm the water only rose to about 3 to 4 ft above the bulkheads our house was about 3 or 4 ft above that, if we had a 15 ft storm surge the water would have been up to the second story in our house.
The next day we went home and didn’t get into the house for a couple of days. It was still unsafe for sometime after that. Actually it would have been safer outdoors for us. It was a good thing that my Uncles lived within 3 or 4 miles from us, as for about a month they helped Dad fixing the inside of the house so you could at least get in the house through a door not a hole in the wall. They were a great help to us. One of my uncles was a bricklayer and he rebuilt the main chimney but also said it had been twisted around so much either in that storm or an earlier one. The chimney started in the ground in the cellar then went off to the right, about a foot, off when it got to the first floor. It got pretty strait then went off about 15 inches to the left to where the top had been twisted off at roof level. My uncle built a chimney on top of that it was still crooked and might stay there (for 8 years). The chimney in the kitchen was beyond repair.
The house gave anybody that worked on it some laughs. Like the roof was held up by pieced 2x4s half of which had to be pieced some more, the 1910 wiring and primitive plumbing. Dad some time later probably 12 years later he took me down cellar and showed me were the house sat before the hurricane. The back of the main house where it met the kitchen had slid over about a foot. Luckily the front of the house was cemented to a stucco patio the full width of the house.
It took about 20 years to fix all the damage to the house. After 30 years of working on that house, new floors, roof, siding, walls, heating system, new kitchen, handmade cabinets, new bathroom and driveway, in 1970 The Hospital just had to have that property. So Mon and Dad and 4 other house were requisitioned for a parking lot. So they were all forced to move. So the hurricane could not destroy it, but in 10 minuets of fighting the bulldozer and lost.
PS: During the storm we also lost one big apple tree and several other trees besides the big spruce.
The Hospital across the street lost several trees and the roof over an operating room darning an operation taking place. (It is hard to keep going with 100 mph winds in an operating room.)
PPS: Just to let you know I had no news of my brother Alton. He apparently left school early with a couple friends, we had no idea where he was until late in the day as no phones were operational
My sister Doris did not fare as well Alton. I guess with all the lines were down and huge trees branches and cars crushed beneath the trees and the sidewalks and yards were full with debris, we had no contact with her until way after the storm. Doris was about 12 at the time and the fear of every thing looking different kept her in a panic until she made it to our grandmothers house about one half of the way home. I try to keep the stories as what I saw with my own eyes.
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