Wednesday, October 04, 2006

A Promise is a Promise

A couple of weeks ago I promised we'd come back with a few more recollections about the hurricane of '44 otherwise known as 'The Great Atlantic Storm". Not first hand recollections mind you, tho' some days I do feel about a hundred and five I assure you I don't come close. These actually are Dales' recollections of what his Granny remembered having lived through it. The evening of Sept. 13th, 1944, Aycock Brown put up postings around the island of the impending storm but for reasons not to be discussed here, he was pretty much ignored. That night was beautiful, Ollie recalled, with hardly a breeze blowing. Before daylight the next morning winds were gusting over 100 MPH. Estimated winds at the height of the storm were 130 MPH. The tide came up over most of the island flooding all but a few homes. Boats were washed up all over. Dales' Grandma Ollie said that her Dad rowed his boat up to the front of their house and loaded up all of the family and carried them over to her grandmas house which was , they thought, safer. The women went upstairs with the children. The men stayed out on the front porch where they kept floating boats from slamming into the house and damaging it. They could feel the house move as the tide rose. It must have been frightening. When the tide finally fell, they opened the doors and the water went rushing out like "Niagara Falls ". By mid-day it was over with no lives lost. On top of all of the debris out in the road sat their outhouse! We thank Dale for sharing his Grannys' recollections. Ollie Mutro passed from this life October 28,2004.

You can read our latest newsletter here. It's the story of the Community Store and other general stores on the island

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