As I feel asleep in the Cape May cottage last evening the day had turned from bright,sunny and 87 degrees to a thunderous hailstorm with a wondrous show of lightning. The wind off the ocean picked up around midnight and the the awnings and windows howled into the morning. I laid in bed and thought of the ever changing weather of our Jersey Shore which makes it so exciting to live here.In September of 1944 The Great Atlantic Hurricane as it became known - no names back then - ripped the resorts along the coastline to shreds and turned towns and boardwalks into piles of kindling.
Pictured here is Ocean City the Day After.
PS This morning in Cape May it is cold, windy and sunny. A nice day for a taking photographs.
Emil
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We are way over due for another major hurricane along the New Jersey coast line..I remember the March storm of 62'..wow..such damage..this was great to read about..
ReplyDeleteNever heard of 'The Great Atlantic Hurricane" in '1944' but did live through the '1962' one. I was ten years old my Grandparents lived on California Ave one block from the beach. The water started coming in the door, I was helping them move things on the bed then it started gushing in and we were wading in the water trying to get personal things before we had to get out. A week later we went to the apartment mud was everywhere from ceiling down. My grandparents did not want to move. If they wanted to move back in they had to clean, repair and repaint [the landlady provided the paint].It was a big messy job and took a long time. They also had to refurnish, with no insurance it was an big expense.
ReplyDeleteMy Mother always talked about the Hurricane of 1944. My Dad was away at World War 11 and most men were also at the war. The women and young children were at the mercy of the storm The water from the bay came to the door and stopped there! My Mother claimed this happened because her Mother prayed and lighted Holy candles!!
ReplyDeleteI remember the storm of 1962 which was worse in that storm the water came into the house and my Grandfather and his sister spent 3 days and nights in the attic.
I was a child of 6 when this hurricane (1944) hit. We were vacationing in Wildwood. Mom, my Aunt and a bunch of cousins were in a big two story house near the beach that belonged to some people named Stecker. Dad was working in Philadelphia but supposed to come to Wildwood that weekend. We watched as the storm filled the streets with water, screens were ripped out of the framework on the enclosed porch of the house, power lines came down, boats were washed up into the streets and debris was scattered all over. Our mothers made us stay away from the windows for fear of debris blowing in, so we went upstairs and watched the water in the comode overflowing onto the floor. The next afternoon when we were finally allowed to go outside, we
ReplyDeletefound huge sea turtles in the street
and saw the boats laying in yards and on top of houses. When the storm hit, the women were thinking of taking us kids to a brick building near the bay, thinking it would provide better shelter. My Dad told us it was a good thing they didn't because the brick building was washed out to sea. Mom and Dad talked about this storm quite often.
My husband ws stationed with the Navy when th hurricane hit. He was on patrol and i was living at a rooming house - 7 months pregnant. I was facinated with the lighting and high winds, but astonished to view the damage the next morning. I flew home to Chicago 2 days later to learn that in this storm, my brother, a signalman on the USS Warrington, died when his ship sunk off the Norfolk coast when orders came for them to ride out the storm. This has remained in my mind for all these years.
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