Hurricane Exhibit opens in a whirlwind

Hurricane Exhibit opens in a whirlwind!

EverythingWestport.com

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Click here to see higher quality photos.

The Winds of Change

“We’ve had over 70 visitors in the first three days,” said Jenny O’Neill, Director of the Westport Historical Society. “It’s amazing how many people are interested in the hurricanes of ’38 and ’54. The most impressive part of the exhibit,” Ms. O’Neill added, “is the unpublished and, in some cases author(s) unknown, personal accounts it contains.”

Escaping from West Beach

The author of this vivid account of the 1938 hurricane is unknown. He was staying with his family in a cottage on West Beach and became trapped by the rising waters.

“The first warning I had of the storm was about 2 P.M. while driving down the Horseneck Road. Half way between Waldo’s place and the Island View Farm, I heard, so I thought, a truck roaring down the hill behind me and I swerved quickly to the right and slowed to allow it to pass. The truck, cut out wide open and engine racing, thundered nearer. I glanced uneasily in the mirror. Seeing no car, I glanced quickly over my shoulder as I was riding with the top down. There was no car in sight. What I heard was the wind coming up from the Bay and across the field.”

The author and several others found their way across the dunes in search of safety.

Visitors will need to see for themselves the Westport Historical Society’s summer exhibition or their website to read the entire harrowing account of the survivors. The concluding paragraph below highlights the different experiences of those of West Beach and those on East Beach:

The paragraph below highlights the different experiences of those of West Beach and those on East Beach in ‘38:

“I was back at the Beach early that morning. The East Beach was utter desolation. Not a building the whole mile length of it. The West Beach was a drunken man’s nightmare - houses toppled about in all stages of wreckage. We from the West Beach thought we had a harrowing night. But we had the safety of the dunes. For those on the East Beach there had been no retreat. The Let engulfed them - men, women and children.”

Heidi Klimgebiel (above left and below left) from San Francisco was visiting her friend Anna Osti (above right) of 3 Drift Road when they decided to drop by the Bell School House. “I’m originally from Newburyport,” Ms. Klimgebiel said. “Anna’s sister and I are old college roommates. When I came to Westport to visit, Anna brought me here. What a fabulous exhibit!”

“The Historical Society has a number of small, original photographs which I enlarged and framed for the exhibit,” Ms. O’Neill said. “It surprised me that Gooseberry neck once had so many houses. During the hurricane, three families were marooned on Gooseberry Neck,” she added.

Although the main focus is on the 1938 hurricane, the exhibit includes further information about other hurricanes. Prior to 1953 hurricanes were referred to as gales; some were more notable than others. After 1953, hurricanes were given names, and in 1954, Hurricane Carole arrived with waves six feet high, making a 200 yard wide channel in Westport Harbor. “In 1954, a lot of people again were unprepared and were surprised by the storm,” Ms. O’Neill said.

As a side note, the ’38 hurricane knocked over the 200+ yard wood and stone “sand catch” at the tip of Horseneck Point, making Westport Harbor more susceptible to shifting sands that would eventually partially block the harbor channel, requiring dredging projects in 1952, and again in 2007/08. Remnants of the “sand catch” can be seen today at low tide.

Leona Lambert (below with her nephew) of 100 Village Way, Westport was visiting the exhibit on Saturday with her nephew. “I was living at 1099 South Main Street in Fall River when Carole struck,” said Ms. Lambert. “At the time I had just come back from California. My family had property on East Beach near the Dartmouth line (where the food concession stand stood up until 10 years ago. She tells these amazingly funny but true stories:

“Hurricane Carole washed out to sea a grand piano from my family’s home,” she said. “And three weeks later, Hurricane Edna washed it back in and deposited it onto the beach!”

“My doctor, Doctor Beaudreau, his wife and their daughter were floating down the Mt. Hope Bay on their roof, which was barely afloat. The daughter swore if she survived the ordeal, she would become a nun. Well, she survived (they were picked up by a Coast Guard ship as the roof was sinking!) and she became a nun! She’s still alive and still a nun today,” Ms. Lambert chuckled.

Further north, the Hurricane of ’38 washed away the Hicks Bridge, which had been built by Mary Hicks’ son, William, in 1735. The picture, above right, shows the utter devastation. Not seen was the total frustration of travelers who had to now motor to the Head of Westport to cross into Dartmouth, until a new bridge was built by the Town of Westport. Editor’s note: That bridge, completed in 1939, was replaced two years ago at a cost of over $11 million dollars to the Town of Westport.

The Great Hurricane of 1635

In August 1635 a fierce hurricane tracked across Southeastern Mass. The storm entered the area at Narragansett Bay with its center crossing just east of Providence. The storm’s eye drove inland over the Westport River, passing between Plymouth and Boston, heading again out to sea near Cape Ann. The strength of the tempest is readily apparent from the writings of that time. Winthrop wrote of the havoc” that blew down many hundreds of trees...overthrow some houses and drove ships from their anchor." Bradford spoke of: "such a mighty storm of wind and rain as none living in these parts, either English or Indian ever saw.... It blew down sundry houses and uncovered others.... It blew down many hundred thousands of trees turning up the stronger by the roots and breaking the higher pine trees off in the middle." Further: “A mighty storme . . . tide over 20 feet.” Bradford, speaking more of the damage to the forests, remarked: "The tall young oaks and walnut trees of good bigness were wound like a withe, very strange and fearful to behold The signs and marks of it will remain this hundred years in these parts w[h]ere it was sorest."

Reverend Increase Mather, writing nearly fifty years later indicated that the fury of the storm "threw down (either breaking them off by the bole or plucking them up by the roots) thousands of great trees in the woods." Such damage to wide areas of New England's forests would not occur again until the Great September Gale of 1815. Increase Mather was to also write in his Remarkable Providences that he knew of "no storm more dismal than the great hurricane which was in August of 1635."

The greatest drama, however, occurred just off the coast as a number of ships bringing settlers and supplies to the young colonies were caught in the full force of the gale. The Gabriel was lost at Pemaquid. The Dartmouth fleet was forced to cut all its masts at St. George. The Great Hope of Ipswich, England, in an account of Winthrop was "driven aground at Mr. Hoffe's Point, and brought back again presently by a NW wind and ran on shore at Charlestown." The James out of Bristol met the hurricane off the Isles of Shoals, there losing three anchors and being forced to put to sea, for no canvas or rope would hold. Source: The Great Hurricane of 1635 – Published on the internet by Spectrum Educational Enterprises, 1998

Winds of Change is funded by the Westport Cultural Council through a grant from the Helen E. Ellis Charitable Trust administered by Bank of America. The summer exhibit will run from now until August 31 at the Bell School at 25 Drift Road, Westport. It is open Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information or directions call the Bell School at (508) 636-6011.

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