The Ash Wednesday Storm - March 5 through 9, 1962 - and the Eastern Shore

   My grandfather had a bathroom built onto his house on Peterson Street on Chinchoteague in the fall of 1961, with monetary assistance from his children, so that we grandkids wouldn't have to go out to the out house during the day, or use the "slop jar" at night.  Immediately after the Ash Wednesday Storm, my 5-year-old mind wondered if having a bathroom at Pop-Pop's house had caused the flood.  -  I realized a couple of years later that was ridiculous, but I remember asking Mom and Dad, if the indoor toilet had caused the flood. (The odd thinking of children!)

   The Weather Bureau did not anticipate the murderous capacity of the different pressure systems that converged over the Eastern Seaboard beginning on Monday, March 5th, and breaking up on Friday, March 9th.  The Weather Bureau also overlooked the fact that the storm was happening during the Perigean Spring Tide, when the sun and moon were aligned, and the moon was at it's closest point to Earth.  The peak of the storm occurred on Wednesday, the Catholic Church's Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent that year.  The storm has several names attached to it - the Ash Wednesday Storm; the Great Atlantic Coastal Storm; and the Five High Storm, because it lingered off the coast for 5 high tides.  It was classified as a level 5, or Extreme, Nor'easter, and it is considered one of the 10 worst storms in the United States during the 20th century.  Forty people were killed by the storm, 1,252 people were injured by it, and the storm caused $200 million in damages  - that's $179,931,000,000 in today's currency.  The storm destroyed 1,793 homes and damaged 16,782 more.

Weather iso-bar map of the Ash Wednesday Storm

    In Norfolk, the storm caused a high tide that was 8.2 feet above normal.  Hampton Roads recorded wind gusts of 65 mph; while out in Chesapeake Bay, there were several wind gusts of 80 mph, along with 50-foot waves.  The waves knocked over the world's largest pile-driver, on 100-foot-tall legs, that was building the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and buried it in sand.  One million dollars in damage was reported at the old NAS Chincoteague Base, recently become the Wallops Flight Facility.             

   On Tuesday, March 6,  huge waves started breaking on Assateague Island; then they flattened the high dunes of sand and crashed across Assateague, flooding Assateague Channel and Sinepuxent Bay, and the Chincoteague Bay.  The bridges and causeway from the mainland to Chincoteague acted as a dam, and the water piled up, higher and higher, with restricted outflow to the south.  Tuesday night the causeway and bridges were completely under water; and electricity, water and sewer, and telephone lines were cut.  On Chincoteague, parts of Main Street were under 6 feet of water by the morning of the 7th.  Ninety-five percent of the island was covered by water.  Waves were splashing on the top of the High School on Main Street.  A town-wide evacuation was ordered, and 11 military helicopters and an Army amphibious vehicle were used to remove 1,400 citizens from the island - no pets allowed.  Only one Teaguer died, and not from the flood; he was evacuated safely, but then complained of chest pain, and perished in the ambulance on the way to a hospital.

   In Ocean City, Maryland waves that reached 25 feet, plus high tides 6 feet above normal, and wind gusts of 64 mph, bombarding the Boardwalk, washing away dunes and beaches, and flooding almost the entire island.  Inland, more than 1.2 million chickens were drowned and setting eggs were spoiled by lack of power.

   In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware waves of 40 feet destroyed their Boardwalk and many water-front homes.  Waterfront areas in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey were also flooded.  Farmlands from North Carolina into New York were damaged from saltwater intrusion due to the storm and the incredible high tides.  The high tides caused damage through coastal New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and all the way up to Portland, Maine.

Misty's Meadow, Ralph Beebe's house, where a pregnant Misty stayed

 in the house during the storm

  On Chincoteague, almost 1,000 homes had more than 2 feet of water in them; 5 were completely destroyed and 26 suffered major damage.  Every business on the island had some type of water, and/or other, damage - except the store at the corner of Cropper and Willow Streets.  Statistics show that 95% of all the vehicles - cars and trucks - on the island were ruined or greatly damaged, and so were 67% of all the boats.  The causeway and bridges were damaged; a lot of Main Street north of the High School had washed away.  And 31 burials had washed out of their grave yard sites and were found lying helter-skelter, wherever the water had left them.

   By 1962, Chincoteague had a booming chicken-raising business (Hence Chicken City Road); between 250,000 and 350,000 chickens drowned.  Pets who could not reach high ground or upper stories of houses also drowned.  Goats, pigs, riding horses and a few sheep were also lost.  Almost 100 ponies on Assateague drowned.

   On Friday afternoon, March 9th, power and telephone service were restored to Chincoteague.  Residents wanted to return immediately - but the local Civil Defense authorities declared that the island was an "absolute health hazard" due to all of the dead animals, fish, raw sewage, and any and all diseases that the afore-named could cause.  Removal of the dead poultry took 2 full days; dead ponies and horses were removed by helicopter and buried near Atlantic.  Residents were finally allowed to return on Wednesday, 14 March, 7 days after they had been evacuated.

   Then it was time to clean up their own homes and yards, and to restore everything to the way it was before - as much as possible.

The aftermath of the storm at Thornton Cemetery

   Next up: the 1962 Pony Penning.