Truro, Cape Cod, MA

I still have vivid recall of Hurricane Carol. Our family was vacationing on Cape Cod at North Truro in a cottage perched at the edge of a large sand dune looking down about 40 - 50 feet to the water's edge.

I was 10-years old at the time and the mood was more of excitement than of fear. The eye of the storm passed directly over our house and I remember the eerie calm and the yellow cast in the sky until the winds shifted after the eye passed over. The cottage where we stayed was built for summer use and the wind blew the water between the boards in the interior of the cottage. We all thought this was great fun!

When the winds began to subside, we took blankets and made makeshift parachutes to propel us along the tops of the sand dunes. I certainly have a much healthier respect today for the sheer force of a hurricane than I did in 1954. Having weathered some short but extremely severe storms in the Midwest I know what Mother Nature can do. I look back on the aftermath of Carol and wonder how we came through the storm unscathed.

The freighter which overturned and beached in front of our cottage was not so lucky. I still remember climbing on the overturned hull of the beached ship the day after the hurricane and thinking what fun we were having on vacation. To this day Hurricane Carol is one of my most vivid memories of my childhood.

Philip Whitaker, Powell, Ohio