I barely remember Donna in 1960. I was four years old. My only memory is me riding on my brother's shoulders as we went next door to my best bud's house (well, my best bud at the time though Timmy moved shortly after). I have one of those repeating images of the wind and the rain and what fun it all was. After all, I was only four. But that one I heard talked about into my teens, mostly as a cautionary tale not to underestimate hurricanes. Like I said in another post, Norfolk didn't get hit too often. But when it did get hit, like in September, 1938, it gets hit. I can't find them now of course (thank you internet), but I remember photos in the paper as well as browsing some local history books showing an image of a person standing next to one of the 'downtown' buildings (something that might have been approaching maybe 7 stories) and the gentleman was pointing upward and 39 feet above him was a slash of paint on the brick wall highlighting the high water mark stain line. It was an incredible image, one that, again, made me cautious around these wild and woolly (formerly all) ladies. When you get hit with a 39' surge, there's simply not a whole lot you can do. Compared to the Cat 3 1938 unnamed hurricane, Donna being a Cat 2 was a piece of cake, the cake being relative. Of course, it matters where the eye hits, as shown by New Jersey with Sandy. NYC was a couple of hundred miles away from the eye and look at the storm surge here. Donna was more of a brush, but that 1938 one was a 'close enough for government work' hit. Even though it was twentysome years later, I still heard apocalyptic tales about that storm, both as an 'I survived' personal history and a warning. Like I also said earlier, once you get past the Chesapeake Bay, most hurricanes go out to sea, with the exceptions hitting land this far north. People are like dogs when it comes to hurricanes: They live in the moment and completely forget the past -- and have to be painfully reminded about the real dangers hurricanes create once again, not only with their direct impact, but the loss of normal services like electricity and water for quite some time. As you've all ably pointed out, most people do not prepare -- FOR ANYTHING -- lasting longer than a trip to the store for milk. But this far north, I'm sure it's been generations since anyone here remembers a hurricane hitting, if there's anybody here at all what with immigration into and emigration out of NJ. So there is probably no one old enough to remember such storms hitting the area, and even if there were, who'd listen to them today? The idiotic reporters standing in the blowing rain know better, after all, they haven't left. Total idiocy, but people live near the San Andreas Fault, too. As I also said earlier, what're you gonna do?
TRACK OF
HURRICANE DONNA, 1960
(on the chart, you can see one of the dots right over the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay)
