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The Mailboat
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&dr/ there is anv one issue that separates a native coastal resident from a newoomer it is a hurricane. Before 1989's devastati"*on the new generation of coastal visitors and- Ln or?o"rw Uuv"t. uua failed to ippreciate maybe even ignored Ithe meirories of those folk who had lived througb th-â‚Ź-reahty . to have been well-lounded of -r"i "Iluso proved memories -- a "storm. of South Carolina's coastliae 1989 will be tl" "&oie tn" ve-iultii at',"u[ for generations. The destruction and sufferiig that resulted from Hugo's fury was on t-el+i-on:' nagazines and newspapers. We all sorrowed lor Lhelr losses, thi"ir pain and co"fuiion; their helplessness against a force so mudgreater than tley could have imagined. We all reached I-[
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"Data onHurricanes for Sea Level, Carteret CountY" by Harrell C. TaYlor Sr. Sea trve! with a PoPulation of about 450, is situated in eastern Carteret Coutrty. Sea lrvel is where elevation begins and therefore is about the lowest comnunity h North Carolina. Frorn the standPoint of water damaqe caued by hurricanes it is estirnated-that on an ivetage 75Vo of the cornmunity is covered bY sea water, including sea water in homes. During one of Ge earliest hurricanes. nro6ablv in the 1870's, Sea Level was compietely covered by sea water. This story was handed down bY the old folk. They also told the story 1fi11 s1 the highs5l point in Sea Level cattle were drowned while watermelons and other citrus fruit drifted by second story windows. In th;s great
hurrica-ne, 1007o of Sea l-evel was covered bv sea water. A geat storm came out of the southeaJt in t879, known as the 'Hur-
ricane of 1879." Considerable damage was done to all the coastal are4 includins Sea Level. A hotel was washed aiay at Beaufort with the loss of two lives.
The huricane of August 1899 was certainlv one of the most destruc-
tive in nrooertv and lives lost. ln this lreat h'urricana, Sea Level lost ten of Ihe best commercial hshermen; eight of them being men with farnilies. The hudcane of 1913 was equally a storm of erra high tides and destruction of property, especially fishins crafts. Boats were carried ashore, wf, e many were driven high uPon the land. lt took many weeks to re-float C-ontinued on Page 4
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-There but for out to help, especially those of us- along the coast' the gacc of God are we .'." was lhe conmon Dono' -5outl C-oti"a has not been tle only area to "knou/ a hur' ricane. Our shores have had their sbare' As loog as pâ‚Źople can remember there have begn storms. The following are accounts of hurricanes as they have-affectedeastern Carieret ald Hyde Counties' They ar-e eyewit- most ot ness descriptions by people wbo had lived, tbrough.all or tDe deta that the events they report. These are personal stones I his of half first in tlhe hruricares by rfr"ti;u caused u"r-" t"tJvision and weather stations muld give fair warnins. Their memories are still very real'
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"The Stormof 1899" from Ocmcol<en
bY
"The Stonnof 1933" by Dollie CarrawaY
Alton Ballaqce
According to rePors from the ob' server at tle Hatteras Weather Bureau'
the 1899 storm was one of the worst in the memory of anyone living at Hatteras at thal dm;. The observer, S. L. Doshoz, also wrote tbat Ocracoke was hit as badly
Hatteras. Effects of the hurricane began on Ausust 16 with easterly gale force winds, whiih eventuallv reached hurricane shensth dudtrg-fte early morning hours of arisust l?. Bv one o'clock that afternoou-the windi had gradually changed to the northeast and reached 93 miles per hour, with occasional gusts up to 1Z) to 1rl0 miles per hour. After a brief lull in the huricane that night, the wind shifted as
to the east-southeast and increased once asfi to 60 and 70 miles Per hour. Gale I6rce winds from the south and eventuallv the southwest blew througbout the day on August 18, and squally weather condnued even on the following daY. The observer also included in his report that tle tide had reached one to four feet in most houses (over land the tide was suoposed to have been from three to tei ieet), and that not oolY homes but also boats alld fishing equipment suffered edensive damage. Though no lives were lost at Hatteras, the obsewer wrote that a Pleasure boat at Ocracoke was destroyed and several people from the boat,who were from Waihineton, North Carolin4 were drowned. Countless chickens, hogs, were also list. sheep, - ald catde Before their deaths, I talked with "Miss" Sara Ellen Geskill, then about 100 vears . and Miss Ijllian Jackson, almost fo years ol4 about the 189 hurricale. To them the "old August storm" was otre Crntinued otr Page 4
Whenever September rolls around. people in South River ... begin talkins a'bout storms. And the one that alwadeets itrto the conversation is the storm o,-f SeDtember 15, 1 933. The storm hit the area before names were given to hurricanes, so it became the 33 stonn. The oooulation of SouO River was small in thl li960's. There were 19 houses from the Big Creek area to Garbacon Creek in Neuse River. There was a church and a school building' There were 1? families, totaling about 95
- Early on the morning of FridaY' 'DeoDle.
Septembei 15, 1933, rain was falling. As the dav wore on" the skies became an smino,ns g?y. There was no otler warnins that this was anything more than a
no-r'easter enpected rhis time o[ year. No one knew how bad it would get. Althoueh there always had been fall stonis. this one wbuld be the worst in the memories of tho folks of South River. I was almost 6 Years old' and t remember we children measured to see how fast the tide was rising by pokhg sticks in the ground as the water rose up the hill on thl road near our housc, which stood on one 6f tfie highsst spsts
in the comnunity. There was little prepalation ... because no one realized what was about to haooen. But at both ends of the com' mriiity, the tide had begun to flood into oeoole's vard. But again, this was not uniouit Uecause tle tand was low and Ge northeast winds pushed water inland many times covering low spots in the
road. This time, the huricane was bringing water from the Atlantic Ocean and Cotrtinued od Page 6