Sep 17, 2008 6:39 pm US/Eastern
A Look Back At The Roaring Hurricanes Of The 1950s
Destructive Mass. Hurricanes: Mish Michaels' Reporter's Notebook
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Bob was the last hurricane to make landfall on our coast. The year was 1991-- it has been awhile.
Hurricane Bob was a Category 2 storm, similar to this season's
Gustav, resulting in similar damage. The last
Category 3 (sustained winds over 110 mph) to strike our shores was back in the 1950s during an extraordinarily active period of tropical hits.
The year was 1954. It was the very end of August when
Hurricane Carol crashed into the Connecticut coast. The storm had developed in the Bahamas and accelerated north, ripping eastern Massachusetts with sustained winds of 80 to 100 mph.
Crops, buildings, trees, power lines all bowed to the winds. Along the south coast, New Bedford harbor sunk under a 14 foot storm surge. The city of Providence saw a water rise on the order of 12 feet. Thousands of homes, cars and boats were destroyed. Phones went dead as the power went out. Charlie Orloff, a local weather historian and executive director of the Blue Hill Weather Observatory wrote a book about the storm,
"Carol at 50: Remembering Her Fury." But there was more history to be made that season. Just 10 days later,
Hurricane Edna made landfall on Martha's Vineyard with wind gusts close to 120 mph. A storm surge of 6 feet and several inches of rain only added to the mess. This second hit claimed an additional 21 lives, bringing the combined death toll close to 100.
The following year proved even more tragic, but this time it was not at the hands of the wind, but instead tropical rains.
Hurricane Connie made landfall on the North Carolina coast August 12, 1955.
Remnant rains from the storm soaked the region, setting the stage for a destructive chain of events. Just five days later,
Tropical Storm Diane marched up the coast, dumping incredible amounts of water on the order of 15 to 20 inches. The combined totals from the two storms resulted in unprecedented flooding. Some area rivers were more than 20 feet over their banks while 40 percent of downtown Worcester was underwater. Railroads, bridges, and roadways were severely impacted along with hundreds of homes. For the second year in a row, the death toll approached 100 lives lost.
And so ended the "roaring" '50s.
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