Falmouth, MA

I was 12 years old during the summer of 1954 when Hurricane Carol struck New England. At the time I was with my mother at our summer home in Falmouth, Mass. Our waterfront home was on the tidal Chiles River across from Washburn Island about a mile from the ocean. The river ran south to the ocean and our home faced East.

I remember the big rollers coming down the river accompanied by boats that had broke from their moorings, dragged their moorings or just lifted them off the bottom with the high tide which I estimated to be about 10 feet above normal high tide.

When our picture windows began to flex in and out my mother and I moved to the single car garage of our concrete block house. We played many hands of canasta as Carol howled about us.

When the worst of the storm had passed I was allowed to go outside after much pleading. I thought it was great fun to lean into the wind.

Our home had virtually no damage but many of the neighbors' homes did. Boats were lodged on dry land everywhere.

By late in the day my father drove down from our home in Quincy, Mass. To a boy of 12 Hurricane Carol was a great adventure.

Roger Ballou Arlington, Texas