Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane of 1933

   With Henri threatening New England, it might be time to look at the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane that created Assateague Island as we know it today.  On August 21, early in the morning, the Weather Bureau issued storm warnings from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts; and a few hours later extended them south to Southport, North Carolina.  The storm became a category 4 hurricane, according to today's scale, landing in northeastern North Carolina.  The eye of the hurricane crossed over Norfolk, for the first time since 1821, and weakened to a tropical storm just south of Washington, DC.  The storm then curved to the north, going across Pennsylvania and New York.  As it left New York and entered the Atlantic again, it became an extratropical storm, and moved across the Atlantic provinces of Canada before dying out on August 28.

   Widespread damage to the tune of over $40 million ($850 million today) was caused, and at least 47 people lost their lives - even with a 2 day warning prior to landfall.  Along the Chesapeake Bay, the storm surge caused 100-year flooding, setting records that stood for 70 years.  Flooding in and around Norfolk and Alexandria was rampant, with the state of Virginia reporting $17.5 million in damages.  The damage in Maryland was reported as slightly higher, but with $7 million in crops lost.  The erosion along the Atlantic coast removed over one square mile of beaches and land in Virginia and in Delaware, and 2 square miles in Maryland.  And it created the Ocean City Inlet - separating the Assateague peninsula from Ocean City, and creating Assateague Island.

Ocean City residents stand at the edge of the new inlet which created

Assateague Island

   Along the east coast, after the storm warning was issued, the US Coast Guard rescued more than 200 people, most of them due to capsized boats in the rough seas. A four-masted schooner, the G. A. Kohler, with a home port of Baltimore, and heading to Haiti, was driven ashore by the high winds.  The hurricane hit North Carolina with winds of about 90 mph on 23 August; with the warnings going out 2 days before landfall, the damage to North Carolina was estimated at only $250,000, due to downed powerlines, washed out roads, smashed boats and housing damages.

   At Cape Henry, winds were reported at 82 mph, while Norfolk was struck with 70 mph winds around the eye wall.  Norfolk had a high tide of 9 feet 10 inches above the normal one, and downtown had 5 feet of water in the streets.  Seven inches of rain fell in Norfolk, and 10 inches in Chesapeake.  More than 600 100-year-old trees were uprooted by the winds, tides and rain in Virginia Beach.  Most telephone service was lost as well, throughout the area.  The storm surge also swamped Langley Air Force Base.  Inland flooding along rivers reached Richmond, and rain and winds damaged crops in Fairfax and Loudoun counties.  In Alexandria, US 1 was under 8 feet of water; Colonial Beach had a 4-foot surge; and the Jamestown Ferry pier was washed away at Surry.  At least 15 people died from the storm in Virginia.  The steamship Madison, with 90 people aboard, had to be rescued off Cape Charles by the Coast Guard after its engines were damaged by the wind and waves.

Granby Street in Norfolk after the hurricane

   Power, water and sewer, telephone and telegraph services were cut off from Cape Charles, Virginia up to New Jersey along the east coast.  Hotels, motels and homes were swept away by the storm in Ocean City, Maryland.  Two new inlets were cut by the storm through the peninsula Ocean City was built upon, creating Assateague Island.  In Baltimore, 7.62 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, creating flooding; and flooding at Cheverly caused a train to derail, killing 4 passengers.  A steamboat pier and promenade at Chesapeake Beach were destroyed and 70 houses were damaged or wrecked at North Beach. The Naval Academy at Annapolis had $90,000 worth of damage, mainly to their docks.  Maryland reported abt $22.3 million in damages to crops, the fishing industry, transportation, utilities, and to federally-owned buildings.

   In Delaware, rainfall reached 13.24 inches in Bridgeville, and three bridges were declared impassable and had to be replaced along the DuPont Highway.  In the nation's capital, Washington, DC, 6.39 inches fell in 24 hours.  Trees were upended by wind and rain; the Anacostia flooded streets around it, and the Washington-Hoover Airport flooded, too. The highest amount of rainfall from the hurricane fell in York, Pennsylvania, which had 13.28 inches fall.  Rivers and creeks flooded in that state, causing evacuations.

Rock Creek Park, Washington DC

   In New Jersey, there was a wind gust of 67 mph in Atlantic City; rainfall there was 8.12 inches, which included 2.25 inches that fell in one hour on 20 August (the monthly average in hour).  Nine boats were capsized along the Jersey shore, and two people drowned who were beach walking.  Cape May's 300-foot-long fishing pier was decimated, and the boardwalk and streets of Atlantic City were flooded.  A tornado caused by the storm tore through Wildwood, and residents and members of the military sandbagged a dam at Picatinny Arsenal to prevent it from collapsing.  In the state of New York, the winds were generally around 35 mph, but a gust of 90 mph was recorded at the top of the Empire State Building.  Heavy rainfall caused flooding in rivers and streams, and one person drowned.  Streets and basements in New York City were flooded, and a power outage caused the Statue of Liberty torch to go dark for the first time since 1929.  Between flooding and fallen trees on roadways throughout the state, travel was hectic and filled with traffic jams - especially in the larger cities.

   When the dying storm hit Atlantic Canada, there were power outages caused by the winds, but there were also multiple wildfires burning at that time, and the heavy rainfall helped the firefighters extinguish the blazes.

The East-West Highway in Washington Dc was a river...

   In the Monthly Weather Review, an article published in 1993 stated that the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane was "one of the most severe storms that has ever visited the Middle Atlantic coast."  The flooding caused by the hurricane affected a larger part of the northeastern US than any other hurricane that occurred during the 20th century, other than Hurricane Agnes in 1972.  FEMA used the highwater levels from the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane as a 100-year event for the entire Chesapeake Bay region.  In 2003, Hurricane Isabel approached the storm surge levels of 1933, and only surpassed them in Washington, DC and Baltimore, due to the rising sea-level.