New Bedford, MA

Just came across your site, and I also have memories from Hurricane Carol.  I was only 4 years old and we lived on River Road in New Bedford, MA. just several yards from the Acushnet River.   Mom worked at Cameo Curtains, a factory near what is now an assisted living facility down on Riverside Ave.  by the Acushnet River.  Dad worked for a dairy in Rochester, MA.  

Mom walked home through the beginnings of Carol from Riverside Avenue and tried to move furniture and stuff from the 1st floor to the 2nd.  Dad got home and immediately went to the basement to try to disconnect the wiring from the new heating system.  

Dad said the back door broke open and the water started to pour in and he made Mom leave to begin the walk up to my great grandparents house up Sylvia Street. She said that by the time she had walked to the corner (not very far) the water was already up to her knees.  Dad swam out of the basement and got my Mom in his big milk truck and I remember them entering my great grandparents house wet and upset.  

They bundled me up and off we went to spend what I thought was a really fun time at my grandparents up on Tarklin Hill Road.  We cooked on a stove in the basement and used the fireplace, and candles, etc.  It was scary but I wasn't too scared because Mom and Dad were there.  I remember going back to the house and seeing people floating around the houses on our street and in the surrounding area in boats.  We had water up to the windowsills on the first floor and the lumber from the lumberyard behind our house had floated through the driveway and up through the neighborhood.  

Some of our neighbors houses had been pushed off the foundations and their was debris everywhere.   Our house was a disaster that took weeks to dry out.  It took a couple of months for Dad to be able to pump all of the water out of our basement and I was assigned the task to sit in the driveway with a bucket of soapy water, washing toys, and other things to "help" my parents.  I can remember the Red Cross stopping by and offering their last peanut butter sandwich to us.   I can remember being without power for a very long time.  

I still have a picture book that the Standard Times printed filled with photos of the New Bedford, Fairhaven, Westport area from that hurricane.  It certainly wasn't a Category 5 storm, but it did much damage that took folks a long time to recover from.  Thoughts and prayers are with those folks that have suffered through Katrina and now Rita.

Thanks for posting your web site

Elaine Chamberlain Guanci