TERRIFIC STORM IN WORCESTER

DOES MILLION DOLLARS DAMAGE

Story Of The Storm

By 1933, Ocean City had grown as far as Fifteenth Street. But 15th Street was still considered by the locals to be "way up the beach" or "way out of town". By this time most of the large hotels had been built, with vacation cottages dispersed amongst them. Baltimore Avenue had filled out with very nice year-round homes. Philadelphia Avenue was sparsely populated and entire blocks on the bayside were marsh. One thousand five hundred people made Ocean City their year round residence. Never the less, Ocean City was becoming a popular vacation resort. But the town needed something more. A way to the ocean was needed, other than launching fishing boats from the beach into the surf. Several companies were formed to dredge inlets across what is now Assateague Island in desperate attempts to provide a pathway to the sea. All attempts failed.

It seems that in Worcester the greatest damage, considering the size of the place, was done at Public Landing. Many stories have been told about Ocean City, scarcely any being alike, but there is no difference in the stories that the people were badly frightened at the mountainous waves that battered down the boardwalk, smashed in windows and in South Ocean City destroyed a number of places of business. Many of the guest of hotels left, as soon as they could, for their homes. All the streets were heavily flooded and electricity and water supplies cut off. Calhoun's barber shop was badly damaged. The cellar floor of the George Washington Hotel was wrecked; the Atlantic Hotel sustained some damage. Waves beat in the windows of the Idlewyld and other hotels were damaged. The pier withstood the storm, but it is said the bridge is damaged. We are informed that two inlets were cut by the storm at Ocean City--one near the south boardwalk and the other at or near the old inlet (near North Beach). One of the greatest misfortunes is the destroying of the Ocean City fish pounds by the storm. The fishing industry is the greatest of all Ocean City money producers. The storm ends fishing for this season and has caused great financial loss for the owners.

In the 31st. edition of the paper there was very little mentioned about the storm except that then Mayor McCabe had issued a statement estimating the storm damage to be $350,000 to $500,000. The Hotel Owners' Association was asserting that all member establishments were open and operating as usual. McCabe was asking for Federal and State aid to assist in cleaning up the storm debris.

The newspaper continues to comment,

According to Hugh D. Cobb III, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center,

THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES LEAVE GALE-TORN RESORT

OCEAN CITY VIRTUALLY ABANDONED AS PEOPLE SEEK MAINLAND REFUGE

Many Leave All Personal Possessions Behind In Hurried Evacuation of Maryland Resort; Men, Women and Children Crowd the Highway

PROPERTY DAMAGE ENORMOUS; PART OF ISLAND MAY BE OBLITERATED; SALISBURIANS RETURN

Headlines from the September 19, 1936 edition of the SALISBURY TIMES spell doom and disaster. Eyewitness accounts said that the southern end of the boardwalk was the first to give way to the raging ocean. The boardwalk concessions and frame residences of fishermen were either completely wrecked or seriously damaged. By late afternoon of the 18th. nearly the entire boardwalk was reported to have washed way. Much of the pier had disappeared.

S. Franklyn Woodcock, who left with his family in the afternoon, said he could not begin to describe what was taking place when he left.

"I saw one giant wave pick up a parked automobile and hurl it against a stalled machine fifty feet away," he said. "It was terrible, horrible. I can never forget what I have seen today," declared a guest of the Wicomico Hotel."

Debris of every sort littered the streets. The streets which were at one time under several feet of water, were left under tons of sand as the ocean receded. The bridge was under water and impassable.

Damage to the town was estimated at between $75,000 and $250,000. Clean up operations were begun immediately and the construction of a new boardwalk to replace the one demolished by the storm was to begin that November. "The new boardwalk will be second to none on the eastern seaboard." announced the Mayor of Ocean City W. Thomas Elliott.

The Storm of 33' was only the first in a series of hurricanes to afflict the Mid-Atlantic region and the East Coast in general in a 30 year cycle (1930-1960) of increased tropical storm activity. Another hurricane hit the region in September of 1933, followed by hurricanes in 1936, mentioned above, 1938 (the Long Island Express), 1944 (the Great Atlantic Hurricane), 1953 (Barbara), 1954 (Carol, Edna, and Hazel), 1955 (Connie, Diane and Ione), 1958 (Helene), 1959 (Gracie) and 1960 (Donna).

FLOODS RAVAGE DELMARVA COAST

DAMAGE IS HEAVY; OCEAN CITY EVACUATION BEGINS

TIDES RISE TO 5 FEET OVER NORMAL

WORST STORM IN HISTORY POUNDS OCEAN CITY

$7.5 MILLION STORM DAMAGE IN WORCESTER

The Wednesday, March 7th edition of the SALISBURY TIMES published the following account.

"A vicious winter storm left damage which may run into millions today along the Delmarva coast. From Lewes, on the tip of Delaware, down through Maryland and into Virginia, low-lying lands and resorts reported heavy floods of sea water.

Ocean City appeared hard hit, with damage reaching from the south end inlet up through the new "Gold Coast" area of luxury motels and beach houses. The storm cut off communications with Ocean City. Chincoteague was isolated, too.

Wallops Station, where the government maintains a highly complicated and expensive space station, was flooded. The damage there could run into many millions.

Along the Maryland coast, there were smashed beach houses. flooded poultry houses filled with thousands of dead birds, and debris from fallen limbs and service lines.

High winds whipped rain and snow throughout the afternoon and night. Tides were estimated at five feet above normal. Many people were saying the storm was worse than the 1933 hurricane which cut the inlet through Ocean City.

There are reports that another inlet has been cut in North Ocean City...and that fires have gone unchecked on the northern portion of the island.

"If the wind doesn't change direction before the high tide this morning, (the 7th) said Ocean City Mayor Hugh Cropper, "the damage will double that created by the storm."

Cropper had declared a state of emergency in the resort Tuesday night, when tides churned by 60 m.p.h. winds roared into the streets.

THE BALTIMORE SUN correspondent Ralph Reppert reported that "during the night of March 4 the wind at Ocean City came up briskly from the northeast and made Monday cold and gray, with gust showers. Rough seas 6 to 8 feet rolled in and sloshed at the edge of the boardwalk. Small craft warnings were run up.

There was a new moon on Tuesday. New-moon tides run heavier. High water that morning was 2 feet above normal. It flooded both the ocean and the bay sides of the long, narrow barrier reef of which Ocean City lies. Two red pennants--gale warnings were run up. Through the day wind, tide and surf mounted. In this way the big blow developed so much like any spring northeaster that few residents knew they were in for a super-storm until many of them were literally in it up to their knees."

Ocean City Volunteer Firemen began to gear up to answer a few distress calls. Little did they realized the awesome task which would lay ahead of them.

"As if it had waited to be recognized, the storm broke. The wind became a howler, a buffeting 45-mile gale with gust of near hurricane force. It carried snow and sheets of rain. It broke wires, tore down signs, and picked up sand, shingles and broken shrubbery that scratched and cut whatever they hit.

Power lines snapped. Several houses burned. Driving north on Beach highway was a slow, blind effort, for the volunteers had to steer by landmarks. The bay had joined the ocean. The storm waves sweeping across the highway were higher than a man.

Along the ocean front the waters picked up the huge, raftlike sections of boardwalk and hurled them with smashing, splintering crashes into beach hotels. Some of these ponderous hulks, scudding along on the storm waves, leveled everything in their path all the way to the inland streets.

There was disaster and destruction everywhere. The resort, in the aftermath, looked as if it had been caught by a hurricane in the gay swing of mid-season. Ocean-front buildings with sides or fronts knocked off had tilted on their foundations and spilled out beds, chairs, linens and draperies for the surf to scatter. Sand was piled 5 and 6 feet deep on the streets. Cars were completely buried. Crushed buildings and piles of wind and water-borne wreckage blocked every area.

In 1933 the tides ran to 7 feet 1 inch above the mean low tide level. The highest tide of the March 1962 storm was 9 feet 4 to 5 inches above mean low tide.

Fifty business establishments-mostly apartment houses, a few roadside souvenir and carry-out shops--and 15 homes were destroyed. There was crippling damage to 250 homes and 105 business. The beach is hurt, but most of it can be restored.

The cost of the storm is difficult to estimate. Ocean City officials believe damage to beach, boardwalk, city buildings and equipment will run to $682,000. In a rough survey from a helicopter, one engineer made an estimate of $7,500,000 damage to homes and businesses. Some Ocean City people believe $20,000,000 would be closer.

Most of the big places will open on schedule this year, Mayor Hugh T. Cropper predicts. By the middle of June, townspeople think, the resort will have achieved close to 100 per cent recovery."

An astute observer of Ocean City history, George M. Hurley claims that had it not been for several of the major storms, Ocean City would not be what it is today. Occasionally nature speeds change along, using coastal storms as catalytic agents. Each major storm has benefited the town enormously. The 1933 storm gave Ocean City its much needed economic boost: a new, wide and deep inlet, a pathway to the sea. Consequently the city became the White Marlin Capital Of The World. Various storms have caused the city to widen and extend the boardwalk leaving Ocean City with one of the most popular promenades on the East coast. Temporarily deflated post-storm property values, especially after the 1962 storm, attracted new investors to Ocean City. By 1965 the area north from 45th. Street to the Delaware Line was annexed to become part of the municipality. Water and sewer lines were extended north to Delaware, allowing future development to continue, and the complexion of the island began to change in dramatic ways which no one had anticipated. The building boom of the 70s can be said to be a direct result of the 62' storm.

Major storms brought new building codes and other storm awareness departments to the city. Save the Beach! Save the Beach! is the new cry of the 1990s. Through beach restoration, funded by the Federal, State, County and City governments and a sea-wall abutted to the boardwalk, the Town of Ocean City survived a devastating January 1992 storm with little or no property damage.

The old adage that you can't fight mother nature is true. You just have to let her do her thing, then clean up after her and go on with life. Something good will come of it. That is the philosophy of Ocean City, Maryland.

Weather Notes

Tuesday evening July 14, 1818 came a very great rain and wind storm.

It snowed on Easter Sunday, April 2, 1820. It was also very cold.

3 September, 1821 Greatest gust of wind ever known in many years. Trees all blown. The marks of the storm will be in the woods a great while.

During the fore part of February 1831, there was a great destruction by wind and water out of the sea coast.

From Isaac Sullivan from his memorandum books.

An aged resident, sucking on his rank pipe through his toothless mouth told the story as it had been handed down. Nor was there any detail of the damage, the way a modern writer or TV crew would sum it up.

When this piece appeared in the April 1877 edition of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE, the great storm was already 56 years into the history of a culture, most of whom could not read or write.

There was no advance warning of dire things to come on the nightly news. At best, the people had but a few hours to be ready, and even if they had known how bad it would be, there was no place else to go.

The writer's descriptive passages were ominous. The black wrath had been gathering all one day to the southeast. All night, the breathless inky black air was full of moaning sounds with pine needles quivering as the hurricane lay in wait.

Early the next morning, the terrified inhabitants looking through windows facing the ocean saw an awful sight. Where the Atlantic Ocean had rolled the night before, miles of snadbars lay bare in the gloomy light.

A dull roar became nearer and nearer and suddenly a solid mass of wind and rain and salt spray leaped upon the island.

Great pines were torn from the ground like wisps of straw. Houses were cut from foundations and thrown headlong. Then a monstrous wall of inky waters struck Assateague. In the next instant, it struck Chincoteague, carrying away men and ponies like insects.

One man named Hickman with his little grandson clinging to his neck was swept by the great wave to King's Bush marsh, six miles away. They were found caught in the trough branches of bushes.

Then there was Andrews and his wife and family, swept away in the tidal wave. He was found the next morning hanging by his waistband in a tree, 20 feet from the ground. (no information about the rest of the family)

Source: Salisbury Times, Salisbury, Maryland. Scratch Pad, Dick Moore, September 24, 1989, page. A4. Another source to this storm is found Democratic Messenger 17 Oct 1903, this said the storm was on 3 September 1821.

"Whenever anybody mentions "the storm" in Ocean City, most people think of either the big blow of 1962 or the one in 1933. Having recently celebrated my ninetieth birthday, I can remember back a bit further than many of my friends. The storm to me was the one we had in 1889, when I was fifteen. That was the year everybody in Ocean City had to flee from the storm.

"Three-quarters of a century ago there were three hotels in Ocean City, the Atlantic Hotel, Congress Hall and the Seaside and perhaps two dozen cottages on the beach.

Vacationers came and went by train. The railroad station was in South Ocean City. From this point the tracks crossed a trestle over Sinepuxent Bay to reach the mainland, and proceeded thence to Berlin, Salisbury and Claiborne, where they made connections with the Chesapeake Bay boat that ran back and forth between Claiborne and Baltimore.

"Getting to Ocean City was a long and tiring journey in those days, and it is little wonder to me that most families stayed for the whole summer when they got to the resort.

"In 1889, my father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. George M. Upshur and I occupied the Goldsborough cottage on First Street near the boardwalk. United States Senator and Mrs. Ephriam Wilson, shared our cottage.

"On a Friday morning, September 5, we noticed that the tide was quite high, and the waves were angry. That morning two fishermen had gone out, their boat had capsized and they had drown before aid could get to them. The tragedy was the first excitement of the storm. It sent a stir of apprehension through the town. The beach was patrolled all day by life-savers who expected the bodies to come ashore. The tides continued to come in higher and higher, until on Sunday afternoon the water washed into our cottage.

Several of the cottagers left Monday, but the tide had gone down somewhat and we decided to stay. We knew that if trouble developed we could stay with friends whose cottage was on higher ground down near the Life-Saving Station. But scarcely had the train left Ocean City for Claiborne when the tide began rising rapidly again and we knew we would have to leave.

We hurried through supper and got into an ox cart and went up there, leaving our cottage and everything there to the mercy of the storm. The scene from that time until eleven that night was grand beyond description, but terrible a well. The boardwalk was all washed away and bathhouses torn to pieces. The tide again seemed to recede and we fell asleep. About 2 o'clock we were awaken by the most terrific wind and every wave seemed to break against the cottage. By 4 o'clock we were dressed, not knowing how soon the cottage might be blown over.

"Soon the water was a foot deep in our high ground cottage. We were thankful to learn that a train had been sent back to rescue us, then frightened to learn that the train could not cross the shaky trestle because the wind was heavy enough to blow over both train and trestle. Men from Berlin crept across the bridge on foot. Everybody evacuated Ocean City then, even the life-savers. The men had put a handcar into service. We loaded onto it--everyone holding on to each other--and we slowly rode across the railroad trestle, the wind causing the handcar to lurch and sway with every gust. But we made it safely. We waited out the storm on the mainland. Two days later we came back to Ocean City and found sand everywhere. Things at our cottage were as we had left them--even the silver and hastily finished meal and its remains on the table were under great piles of sand, but they were otherwise undisturbed.

"Ocean City was, of course, a wreck. All the porches had been swept away from the Atlantic Hotel, and the bathhouses had been battered to pieces and washed away.

"The boardwalk was gone. Congress Hall, south of the present inlet, was partially washed away, while several cottages nearby had vanished. I have seen many more storms in the years that have followed, for even before I made my permanent home in Ocean City I came every summer. I saw the big storm of 1933, and the one in 1962, These later storms caused more property damage, of course, because there were so many more buildings. But for sheer fury of the elements, I have never seen a storm wilder and terribly beautiful than the one which came in September of 1889." Credit: Baltimore Sun Paper