When you hear the word Hurricane, most think of names like Andrew and Katrina and states like Florida and New Orleans. Connecticut residents usually are drawn to their televisions, watching the dramatics unfold in the tropics with the peace of mind that they will not be directly effected.
This time, however it doesn’t look like we will be as fortunate. The chances are looking ever-so-increasingly high that Connecticut will experience their first Hurricane since Gloria in 1985. The latest models are projecting that Hurricane Irene will be hugging the coast before its eye come’s ashore somewhere in the Fairfield County area on Sunday.
The state has not been hit by a hurricane in over twenty-five years, but has experienced tropical storm-like conditions and remnants of Hurricanes Floyd (1999) and Bob (1991). Connecticut has experienced a few memorable hurricanes over the years, including Gloria (1985) and Donna (1960). But to this date, no natural disaster has compared to the 1938 New England Hurricane which made a direct hit on Long Island before striking Connecticut. The water and wind almost wiped towns completely off the map east of New Haven.
We are asking our readers, have you rode out one of CT’s past hurricanes? We want to hear your story!
In 1985, Hurricane Gloria was the last major hurricane to hit Connecticut: Waves from Long Island Sound break over a car stopped by power lines brought down by the tree on New Haven Avenue in Milford, Conn. as Hurricane Gloria struck the Connecticut shoreline. Photo: ST, UPI / Stamford Advocate File Photo
Needed to write you that very little note to be able to thank you so much as before regarding the magnificent
My father, Edgar Geibel was the chief adminstrator of the Stamford Hospital in 1955 when Hurricane Connie, and then Diane, hit Stamford in August within the span of a week. My family lived in a Victorian house (since torn down) right next to the hospital. He sent a long letter to all his out-of-state friends afterwards about what he saw that week – the flooding of the Mill River, cars stuck in roads, trees down. I still have a copy of the letter. He worked round the clock at the hospital, as did all the hospital staff, as people came through the doors -this was just in the beginning days of t.v., and radio (and the Advocate) still reigned supreme as the source of news.
I live in Miami now & was here for Katrina & Wilma in 2005. & 20 years earlier I experienced hurricane Gloria in CT. I can say that though Gloria was a big storm, and downed a lot of trees and killed our power for 2 weeks, it was not nearly as menacing as the category 3 Wilma or Katrina that we went through in Miami. I can’t even imagine a 4 or 5. I think the impact of Irene will probably be a similar outcome as that of Gloria. Good luck!
During the summer and early fall of 1955 there were a series of hurricanes. I am not sure about their names, but one may have been Diane. During one of the storms several houses in the Pemberwick / Glenville area were washed into the Byram River. Subsequently, the Army Corps of Engineers assisted in re-configuring that section of the river to avoid similar future situations. The Greenwich Library may have some Greenwich Time archive photos of the incident.
Dick Risinit
Deep River, CT
I was living in the Cove area of Stamford and remember cops riding around (with buses tailing them) flashing lights and shouting on their bullhorns that we HAD to evacuate. No way I was leaving my place. We lost power but otherwise no biggie.
My mother is a veteran of the Hurricane of ’38, she was 8 years old at the time. During the two hurricanes (one was Hazel, I think?) which caused the Flood of 1955, she was pregnant with me and living in East Norwalk at her mother’s house with a foot of water in the kitchen. I can remember sitting on my grandmother’s screened porch when I was somewhere between 19-22 during another hurricane whose name I forget, and we stayed up all night listening to the rain and wind. Gloria in 1985 knocked my power out for a week and we had to use 3 coolers to store the perishables, but I honestly don’t remember anything worse than that from Gloria – but I can sure remember worse Nor’easters than hurricanes! The Nor’easter they now call “The Perfect Storm” (that the movie was made about) put 5 feet of water and a dinghy in my cousin’s living room in Harbor View off South Norwalk. And the Nor’easter we had just this past March took down more trees in that one storm than any hurricane I’ve seen during my lifetime.
I remember Hurricane Gloria in 1985. I had just gotten married 2 months prior. It was really not a big deal in Stamford. The storm did not last long at all. It started after 7:00 AM and the sun was out by 4:00 PM. We lost power overnight, I guess because they were fixing some down wires and they shut off all the power in the area. When we woke up the next day the power was restored.
The Ice Storm of 1973 and the March 2010 storm were the worst storms I have been through having lived in Stamford all my life.
My father was in High School during the 1938 Hurricane and if he told me once he told me 1,000 times how he had to swim home from school because all the streets had flooded.
A great hurricane site is hurricaneknowledge.com
We had just purchased a boat at Cedar Island Marina in Clinton and were going to run it down to Cerino’s Port of Milford Marina, but decided to wait a few days, and take it to Captain’s Cove instead. Gloria wiped out every dock at Cedar Island except J Dock…our dock. Fortunately, our boat was spared. Gloria took all of the boats and docks from Cerino’s and washed them up to the far end of the harbor. Our home was without electricity for almost a week, but we all survived and I now pray that Irene makes an unexpected turn away from land to spare everyone her wrath.
Born and raised in CT. I remember my parents talking about the ’38 hurricane that washed houses into LI Sound from the Milford shoreline.
Bought my first home in Naugatuck before Gloria hit. Power out for three days but not much damage in the valley. I worked in Stratford and remember Main St. looked like a war zone
Moved to SW Florida 8 years ago and bought home just before Hurricane CCharley hit with 145 mph winds. Every street sign and stop sign in town laying flat on the ground. Water being pushed past the seams of the windows in the house we were in. SCARY
We lived in Bethel when Gloria hit. I remember that when the eye passed right over the town we stepped outside – it was unnaturally quiet and the sky right above us was blue, while all around us (in the distance) we could see the wind and rain whipping about. We quickly went back inside when the “back end” of the hurrican passed by. We lost power from the hurricane. Afterwards, I remember the sound of all the chain saws as our neighbors started working on the downed trees – and also the “green” smell of the bruised and stripped trees.
Closed on our first home during Gloria – remember driving down Rt. 8 with the windshield wipers flying off the car as we navigated our way to the lawyer’s office. We moved into our home the day after Gloria, with a fallen transformer on the front porch! No power for the first week or so in the house, but the previous homeowner had installed a huge hot water tank that was so insulated we were able to have a warm shower every morning. Lessons learned: ATMs go down with the power and gas pumps also stop working — so get some cash and ensure your car has a full tank of gas.
I too was 5 when Gloria hit. At the time I lived in Brooklyn, NY and all I remember is playing with Barbies with my sister and then my mom calling to us after the storm was over. There were so many branches and tree limbs everywhere.
I remember Gloria. I was 5, so pretty young, but I do remember having to go downstairs in our house to the part where my grandparents were living incase it got too bad. We were all huddled down there with a transistor radio and flashlights, and specifically I remember watching the trees swaying a lot out the front door from the bottom of the stairs. When it died down, I remember my dad out in the driveway picking up limbs, and then afterwards he had a mug that his work made that said “I survived Hurricane Gloria”.