Newport, RI

"Hurricane Staggers Newport Area; Property Loss Estimated in Millions."

That was our newspaper headline for September 1, 1954 in Newport, Rhode Island, the morning after Hurricane Carol went through. I was a young wife who had come to Newport to be with my husband, a sailor in the U.S. Navy. We had a seven-month old daughter, and because we wanted our little family to be together as much as possible, I had come to Newport to live. My husband was assigned to The USS DD-715 William M. Wood, a destroyer, and his home port was Newport. On the morning of August 31, 1954, his ship, along with several other ships, left Newport and headed out to sea.

My husband's mother and sister, plus my mother, had come to Newport to visit and were staying a few blocks from our apartment house. We had not heard anything on the radio about a hurricane so my first clue that something unusual was going on was when my mother and in-laws knocked on my door that morning. They had walked from the house where they were staying to our apartment house, and they were full of excitement. "The wind turned our umbrellas inside out! The wind gusts were so strong we were nearly blown off the sidewalk!"

By then, the sky was dark and the windows were rattling. Breakfast was eaten while standing at our two front windows. I remember seeing large metal garbage cans being tossed around like leaves on a windy day. Shingles were being blown off the rooftops and flying all over the place. Broken power lines were dancing on the sidewalks and sending a spray of sparks everytime they touched something. There were only a handful of parked automobiles and one was our little Nash Rambler.

Lynn, our seven-month-old daughter, slept through the early part of the storm, but when the floor lamps began to jiggle across the floor, I gathered her up from her crib and held her in my arms. We lived in a third floor apartment and when the house began to tremble and shake, our landlady called from downstairs and told us we had better come down there. We knew the storm was a bad one but until she told us, we didn't realize we were in the midst of a powerful hurricane. Needless to say, we were alarmed!

We learned later that Hurricane Carol had sustained winds of 90 mph, with gusts reaching 125 mph. Four people lost their lives and two others were presumed dead. Unfortunately, the media coverage we know today didn't exist fifty years ago. There had not been much warning.

After the hurricane passed, my mother, my in-laws, and I, decided to drive around and check out the damage. Now, I realize how naive we were because the wind had not completely died down.

By some miracle our Nash Rambler had escaped without a scratch so I got behind the wheel and we set out for Cliff Drive, the drive that follows the coastline. On the way, we passed Newport Harbor and were shocked at what we saw. It looked as though it had been bombed. The docks and warves were either badly battered or they were totally gone! Dozens of boats, both yachts and sailboats, had been swept upon the land or they were badly damaged, with holes in the sides or with broken masts.

There were hundreds of trees down and in places parts of the street had washed away. I managed to skirt the problem areas and continue on. There weren't many cars on the streets, and there were only a few residents about. As you might imagine, the streets were littered with all kinds of debris. In several places we saw houses that had been lifted from their foundations and moved back several hundred yards, still intact but sitting at a tilt. The beaches were littered and most of the beach houses were in shambles. The large plate glass windows at my favorite supermarket were smashed, and most of the stores on Thames Street, the street nearest the harbor, were flooded.

While at sea, my husband heard that Newport was being blown off the map. He was greatly relieved when he found out later that it wasn't true. His destroyer returned to Newport the next day and as soon as he got home we set out for Providence. His mother and my mother already had their plane tickets for their return flight home.

Newport was without electric power for several days so I had to heat baby bottles with a candle flame. Since there weren't any disposable diapers back then, we had to buy an extra supply of the cloth type. Eating out would have been too expensive on a sailor's pay so we were forced to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I live in Maryland now, but I live inland. Maryland has had its share of hurricanes, and Ocean City has had its boardwalk and places of business destroyed several times by hurricanes. Even as I write, the media is full of news about Hurricane Frances. It sounds like Maryland will escape the worst of this hurricane, but there will be others. As for me, I intend to take a long step back if I hear of a hurricane coming my way. One hurricane was quite enough!

Marilyn Lentz