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 t...