Common Fence Point, Aquidneck Island, RI

I was very small during Hurricane Carol but I remember my family thought it was going to be a small storm.

We lived in Common Fence Point on the end of Aquidneck Island where we could see water on both sides and our house looked toward the end of the point where the land became very thin and ended in rocks. As usual for a storm, we filled the bathtub with water and many pots and pans as well.

My mother, Arline Anthony Warner, kept cans and cans of food because she was very experienced. Her Aunt Sarah Peckham Wordell rode out several hurricanes in the upstairs of her son Everett Wordell’s cottage at Horseneck Beach in Westport so my mother took no chances. The family always told stories of Aunt Sarah in the upstairs window wearing her raccoon coat as the house was lifted and deposited in the dunes of the State Beach.

As my mother put towels in the window sills, I followed her around the house but I was arrested by the view of the ocean. My father, John, and mother were arguing about my father’s decision not to take the “escape route” out through Island Park and now it seemed it was too late. The ocean, usually a calm part of Narragansett Bay, started across the ball field where we played, covered the houses on the shore and made its way up our street. I thought we too would be in our house like Aunt Sarah and ride on the ocean but luckily, the water stopped at the edge of our yard.

The rain came in the windows as it was driven by the wind and my mother changed towels on that side of the house several times. I remember being very frightened because as we looked out the windows, our house was part of a new smaller island and since we didn’t own a boat, I wondered how we would ever go anywhere.

That’s all I remember but I will ask my brother Bob who is the family “elephant” and remembers everything!