Newport, RI

My name is Arnold Christensen and I was 14 when Carol hit. I grew up and was living in Newport, RI. There was little warning of a "hurricane" coming that day as I recall. It began to blow and blow and I had never seen such winds. Dad had gone to work at his job at the telephone company. I remember something about him calling and telling Mom not to let us near the windows. Sure! My brother Fred (2 yrs) younger and I were staring out the window every time she would come to see what we were doing.

We had a porch on the back of the house which in the summer had screens and for the winter glass windows. I remember hearing a loud crash and we ran all over to see what had made the noise and we discovered a hole in one of the windows on one side of the porch and about 20' away in the door leading out to the back yard a window pane in it busted out. About that time we noted shingles and other stuff flying by sideways. After some time the wind seemed to die down and with enough begging Mom let us go out. Two doors away lived Bill Kelly, a fireman, and he told us that it was the eye passing by and soon it would begin again and we better get in the house...and stay away from the windows. Sure enough the winds started to pick up again and we went inside at my Mothers insistence.

My Father came home in the company truck but related how he had to stop for something or other in the street up on Bell Ave and just as he was able to get going again a large tree fell down right behind his vehicle just missing him. I remember my Mother did not want him to go back out but he said he had to as there would be a lot of downed lines and they would be working long and hard at getting service back up.

My brother and I, back at the window looking over the large back yard were looking when a small pram upside down on two sawhorses picked up as if by magic and turned around and seemed to float upside down on the wind and went over the hedge and set down in the empty lot next door. One minute it was there, and the next it was next door all with no damage to it. My Father came home for another visit later that afternoon and wanted to know where the pram was. He was shocked and surprised when we told him where it was and how it got there.

I remember most about the trees in the neighborhood being blown down. All over the place was leaves, but the trees(some very large) that went down stays with me. On Berkeley Ave there were maples I think planted every 50 feet or so on one side of the street and everyone of them was blown down blocking the street real good.

We didn't see too much of my Father in the days to come. Much work had to be done.

I enjoyed reading your website and seeing the pictures and the accounts of others. I know well the town of Barrington as in the mid 50's had several friends that lived there and I went with a gal from Bristol. Nice town, Barrington. We live in Texas now, thanks to Uncle Sam sending me here in 77 and we retired from the Army here. Retired from Bell Helicopter in 2000 and now travel the country in our motorhome full time. Get back up to Newport about every other year as Mom is still alive and about 84 yrs young. Last year I drove the motorhome, towing our car behind it, (65' total) right smack dab down from Providence the old fashioned way down 114 thru Barrington, Warren, Bristol and onto Aquiline Island. It is nice to go back to where you grew up at.

For now we have bought an RV lot on Mustang Island off the coast of TX outside the town of Port Aransas. It is only a few feet above sea level. It only consists of a concrete pad for the motorhome and pavers and a small storage shed and we get asked what we will do if a hurricane hits us here. I am fast to point out that it will never hit us because we will not be there if such was to happen. We will take our house and car and drive far inland and watch on the 2 way Satellite internet dish to laptops as things develop and we are snug as bugs away from maybe even high breezes from one. I have to point out to the uninitiated that I grew up in hurricane country when there was none of the reporting like you get now. I will never be caught unprepared. If you have a good map available go look at Corpus Christi in TX and then look east to Port Arkansas. It is a sand spit from Matagorda to Brownsville with a few cuts in it. No place to be for even a good Tropical Storm. This old Yanqui boy learned his lessons well. :-) You mention Isaac's Storm and we have spent many a fine day in Galveston, TX. We fly stunt kites there on the east end of Galveston Island where the beach changes from storm to storm and the hard packed sand is only inches about the normal high water mark. Again, it is a place we would be long gone from. :-)

I will attach a couple of pics of our "house". The one on the beach is at what many call East Beach on the NE end of Galveston Island.

(Click on images to see larger version.)