The Dartmouth-Westport Chronicle
Hurricane recalled by Westport Point residents
By Paul Tamburello
September 15, 2004
The anniversary of Hurricane Carol inspired many Westporters to look back at its wrath from a safe distance in time. The Westport Point Neighborhood Association hosted a "Fiftieth Anniversary of Hurricane Carol" party on Saturday, August 28 at a residence on Drift Road in Westport Point. 
At 8 AM on the morning of August 31, Mr. Carter had driven off to work from his home a few doors up from the Paquechuck Inn, unaware that a hurricane was rampaging along eastern Long Island and southeastern Connecticut and was about to pounce on Westport. During the next two hours, Carter’s wife Sue saw the wind begin to whip through the harbor, carrying away boats and their anchor lines with them. Some of the boats belonged to the Carters, one of them just purchased earlier in the summer. Mrs. Carter telephoned her husband who made a steeplechase journey from Providence back to Westport, trying to avoid downed trees, wires, and wind driven debris. By the time he arrived home at noon, the Point was under swirling flood waters made more treacherous by sustained winds of 80 to 100 mph.
Water sluiced through Lees Fish Market like one of the holes of a miniature golf course, entering a door at the front and gushing out the door at the rear, equalizing the pressure on the building and keeping it from being torn off its foundation.
Laura’s Restaurant didn’t fare as well, recalled Carter. During the morning, the popular seafood establishment joined the fleet of sailboats in the harbor when the flood water lifted it off its foundation in two pieces. Carter told the story of the bartender, a skeptic by nature, who didn’t believe that a storm would strike and literally had to ride out the tempest in his half of the restaurant, which ran aground on a sandbar after floating into the harbor. As water rose in the remnant of the building, bartender Jim Hickey, then 64, climbed to higher ground, ending up neck deep in the attic, with fleeing rats for company. He was rescued mid afternoon by two intrepid ax toting residents of the Point who freed Hickey, and crew of frightened rats right behind him, from a window in the peak of Laura’s upper story. Mr. Carter chuckled when he recalled that many regulars at Laura’s, although grateful their favorite bartender was rescued, were equally relieved that their bar tabs were not.
Hurricane prediction has become big business since 1954. No longer do we need to worry about a hurricane swooping down upon us with as little notice as Carol in 1954.
Both Harry Tripp, service manager at F.L. Tripp and Sons Boatyard and Marina and Harbormaster Richie Earle agree that our most recent brush with meteorological mayhem came with Hurricane Bob in 1991.
“I saw boats wash up on marshes, sand bars, and the north shores of the west branch. The lucky ones ended up in the mud. It was quite a sight seeing helicopters lifting boats from the marsh” so they could be repaired or refloated after the storm, said Mr. Tripp. He recalls one boat, an “old timer” which ended up on the rocks, that was too big to be “air lifted” and had to be hauled off the rocks by a barge.
“Weather forecasting is much better these days but we still have to make a decision two or three days in advance of a hurricane” says Tripp. “Once we start hauling boats out of the water, we work around the clock, and when we’re done with boat hauling, we have to worry about our own boat yard.” Securing the big boat shed doors, getting material off shed floors, and putting movable equipment on high ground are all part of the drill.
“If the water reaches the high ground where we bring the crane, then we have a pretty bad problem all over the place,” said Tripp with a classic New England understatement.
Both Harry Tripp and Harbor Master Richie Earle agree that there are lots of slowpokes when it comes to hurricane preparations. “Many owners have a tendency to put things off,” says Earle. “The three day forecasts are much better now so if they’re local, they know they can wait for the latest forecast and can come right down” if the forecast gets dire. “In the old days, people would only run down here when the trees started shaking,” he says.
“Hurricane Bob in 1991 was well forecast,” recalls the Harbor Master. “Tripp hauled day and night with cranes and trailers,” and people got down to the the boat ramps at Hix Bridge, Spindle Rock, the state boat ramp next to the Fontaine Bridge, and the yacht club with their trailers to remove their own boats.
“There were 20 failures in 1991. One was a shackle failure, one mooring weight was too light and the boat dragged it ashore, and 18 boats ended up in the woods because they chafed through their lines at the bow chocks,” says Earle. “Seamanship is out the window,” he laments. “Owners don’t use proper chafing gear and boat manufacturers try to cut costs by not making bow chocks big enough,” he says. “ Older boats have wider bow chocks that accept one inch or at least 3/4 inch lines, with chafing gear, that are necessary to hold the boat during the stresses of a storm.”
And nothing will help the mariner who doesn't pay attention to weather warnings during hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. “The national weather service puts out two types of alerts, a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning. The hurricane watch is an announcement that hurricane conditions pose a threat to that area within 36 hours. A hurricane warning says that hurricane conditions, including sustained winds of 74 mph or greater, are expected in a specific area within 24 hours.” In order to entice owners, Mr. Earle says that some insurance companies offer to pay for hauling a boat out of the water during a hurricane watch.
The key for the boat owner is to take evasive action fast enough to prepare for the intimidating force of nature that a hurricane really is. Some time ago, Richie Earle created his personal punch list for hurricane season. The first item on his list? “ If any named storm comes out of the Bahamas, watch it like a hawk!”
Enough said.
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