Haverhill, MA

Hurricane Carol and Hurricane Edna

I grouped these two hurricanes together as they came to northern Mass and other areas about a week apart approximately. I lived through both of them, and I can tell you we really had no serious warning about them. This was well before satellites, etcs.

We were at our summer cabin at the time, and our dock, and boats were sunk. this was a very bad time for our family, as my mother and father were on their way to Manchester, NH, as my grandfather was dying. My brother, who was 7 and I, who was 16, stayed at the cabin with my grandmother and watched everything from our windows on the lake just float away and then sink.

We were very lucky that the cabin (or cottage really) we were in was very well built, but we almost lost the front porch to the wind. I know that trees were down everywhere, electricity was out, and my parents were unable to reach us to say that they had made it to Manchester without incident.

At one time we watched a couple of unmanned sailboats just drift away, and I am not sure what happened to them. I know that our motorboat, a Cris Craft, was never the same again, after being submerged in the water. They were able to bring it back up, but it never ran right again.

What one hurricane did not destroy the other one came to give us another knockout punch.

Gail Vallee
originally from Haverhill, Mass