More Hurricane Tales
Thank you all so much for the plethora of comments yesterday! Between all of your comments, the posts on my Facebook wall, the cards I got in the mail, and the people who yelled “Happy Birthday” when I went for a walk in the afternoon, I was most definitely feeling the birthday love. And I’m glad you all enjoyed Dale’s post, too. I think he does a pretty good job with the annual birthday blog post. Did you notice how he ended the post with a comment about hurricanes? I was so pleased with that as it makes a perfect segue to today’s post.
I have written about my connection with hurricanes before. It was a while ago, though, and many of you didn’t read my blog back then so I’m going to reprint a portion of that post. The date was August 15, 2005.
The hands-down worst hurricane to hit New England was on September 21, 1938 – this was before hurricanes were named, by the way, but September 21st, for those of you paying attention, wound up being my birthday some 27 years after this hurricane.
Another storm that has gone down in history was Hurricane Carol, which arrived on August 31, 1954. My oldest brother was just 3 months old when this storm hit and my mother was in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She remembers looking out the front door and seeing the ocean coming up the road – and they were about 2 miles from the beach.
As an aside, there was another Hurricane Carol in 1965, which just happens to be the year I was born. They didn’t keep official hurricane name lists at that time, and that’s why the name was used again. However, once the formal lists were introduced the name “Carol” was retired due to the destruction in 1954, and it will never be used for a hurricane again.
So. Anyone making the connection? The two most severe hurricanes in New England? One sharing my birthday? And one sharing my name? Twice, including the year I was born? It explains a bit about my personality, I think. Just ask my family. Most of the time, they live in the eye of the storm where all is calm and peaceful. But then the spiral bands surrounding the eye take hold and suck them into the cyclone where things are not quite so, ummm, pleasant.
Hurricanes have followed me my whole life is all I’m saying.
See that aside up there about the other Hurricane Carol? The one in 1965? Well, guess what caught my eye when I took a picture of the front page of the paper from the day I was born.
I told you I had a connection with hurricanes.
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Another Interesting connections between you and hurricanes, you like to “Spin”. HAHA I know its bad but I had to say it.
Very cool, Carole! I love the “gathering strength” headline. . . on your very birthday! How perfect is that?
What caught my eye was not only the hurricane,but the temor felt at the Weston observatory. Reminds me of not only Irene, but the earthquake that shook the east coast last month!
I am reading your blog today as I am enjoying the last few
days of my annual retreat to the Cape from North Carolina
and I just had to tell you that I was 11 years old and here
in South Yarmouth staying with my parents and grandparents
at their cottage when Hurricane Carol arrived in 54. I still
remember that hurricane! It was an amazing storm.
I guess your name has quite the connection to hurricanes!!
Funny that you are talking about the connection between you and hurricanes. As I composed my list on Tuesday I thought about what Marissa’s list might look like – East Coast Earthquake, Hurricane Irene, the Epic Ice Storm earlier this year, the flooding that caused a “Rain Day” on the third day of the school year. Wild weather for sure!
That’s why we get along so well…we recognize the volatility of personality. xoxo
That is fasinating! You have quite the connection to hurricanes. I do a bit too. I was born in Galveston, Texas where the ‘1900 Storm’ is still considered the worst natural disaster to ever hit the US with an unknown amount dead. There are estimations that range from 8,000 to over 20,000 dead due to the poor records of the time and the need to bury the bodies washing up on the island as quickly as possible for health hazard concerns. My great grandfather was just 20 years old and survived on the island as did his parents- they in their home and he road out the storm in a downtown building where he worked.
When I was just a few months old in 1961 Hurricane Carla hit the area and my mother drove my older brother and myself from Galveston inland to her mother’s home in Edna, Texas while my father stayed in Galveston. Edna was about 4 hours inland and south and then Carla followed her and hit Edna with the eye of the storm. I was amazed to hear my mother describe the eye. She said the sun came out the bird were singing like crazy- they traveled along with the eye to stay alive. After a half hour or maybe an hour,the other half of Carla hit. I’m in the Seattle area now, so no hurricanes in our future but watch out for the earthquakes!
You weren’t kidding, were you?
That is WILD!
My younger sister was born during Hurricane Carol in ’54 in a hospital in Newburyport, MA running on emergency power! Newburyport was – and still is – a rather small city, and as a child, I was thrilled when my Mother and Dad were mentioned in a small news item on the first page of the next day’s newspaper about whether or not they might name their new daughter Carol to commemorate her being born during the storm. (They did not.) Two weeks later during Hurricane Hazel, my sister and I had to make trips across the street to a neighbor’s house where they had a wood stove to heat the baby’s bottles!
that is awesome!! and a belated happy birthday to you too!! 🙂
i keep hoping that there will be a hurricane maryse some day. heh.
SO cool! My youngest is fascinated by weather and will be very envious of your connection. I looked it up – there has NEVER been a Hurricane Jill. Hmmmm……