If you collect historic postcards, you sometimes find the messages on the back more interesting than the illustration on the front. This card, mailed from Boston on September 12, 1954, had me looking up the date and the hurricane.
The message reads, "Dear Will, Just a line from Boston. We had to spend an extra day here because of the hurricane. We'll leave for Maine tomorrow."
The Hurricane was Edna which hit New England on the 11th. Wikipedia summarized the damage to our area.
"There were widespread evacuations in southern New England, after Hurricane Carol struck the same area only 11 days prior. Strong winds caused extensive power outages for 260,000 people, including nearly all of Cape Cod. Edna became the costliest hurricane in the history of Maine, where the hurricane caused flooding that washed out roads and rail lines. There were 21 deaths in New England, eight of whom in Maine due to drownings."
The Big Story from Hurricane Carol
Locally the news that the Old North Church steeple had collapsed during Hurricane Carol received coverage as far away as San Francisco, where they called it the "Paul Revere Steeple."
The Old North Foundation explained that this was the second time the steeple had fallen. It also came down in the “The Great Gale of Boston in 1804." They also noted how little damage there was to it saying, "In another remarkable piece of luck, our original weathervane, designed by Shem Drowne, has survived not one, but two, steeple falls."
Hurricane "Myths"
Does our hot summer and warm Atlantic waters portend a busy hurricane season? In June, Weather Underground clarified a number of so-called "hurricane myths" to explain which aspects of them are true and which are false. On this topic they say, "Sea-surface temperatures are only one factor affecting storm intensity."
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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino
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