Providence, RI

As a 15 year old youngster hurricane Carol was exciting however I did not realize at the time what loss of life and devastation it could leave on the state of Rhode Island. During the summer months I helped my uncle Fred remove waste and corrugated boxes with a large box truck from the Outlet Company in downtown Providence.

Our family lived in the Mount Pleasant section of Providence in a house owned by my uncle Fred. We were not affected by flooding but did lose power. My uncle and I were prepared to go into work at the Outlet Company on the morning of August 31st when he decided we probably couldn't get into the downtown area because of the flooding.

The next day Uncle Fred got a phone call requesting our services to remove all the flooded items in the basement store. During our trip into the city we were stopped several times by the police. They assisted us in the best way to get to our destination. Apparently they were surrounding the downtown stores in an attempt to prevent looting.

Upon our arrival at the Outlet, it was a hub of activity. Police, fire department, utility personnel and store officials were on scene. Hoses were hanging out the Basement Store windows pumping water out onto the street.The Basement Store sold canned goods and frozen food. Small generators were running electrical lines into the store to provide lighting for workmen. At the rear dock there were two men with axes chopping holes into the tops and bottoms of canned goods then tossing them into a dumpster. They had been under the flood waters and Health inspectors had condemned all food in the basement. Other goods that had been ruined by the flood waters were headed for the dump.

On a side street of the Outlet there was a trailer truck parked with large diameter black lines leading to the fifth floor. The truck was a huge generator providing power to WJAR-TV, channel 10 on the fifth floor.

Our job had just begun.