Evening star., 1936-09-19
OCEANC|TY FINDS
DAMAGE 100000
One Reported Drowned and
Half Dozen Others Missing
After Hurricane.
Hy the Associated Press.


OCEAN CITY, Md. September 10.
-Maryland's sole seaport and largest
ocean-side Summer resort surveyed
storm damage today expected to ap-
proximate 100000. left in the wake
of roaring tropical hurricane.
After night spent without lights,
other than candles and improvised
lanterns, the 1000 residents awoke to
streets Uttered with debris and sand,
smashed windows, roofless houses,
sunken boats and a boardwalk one
fourth destroyed
The beach was badly -eroded and
most Of the stone jetty at the inlet
formed in the 1888 storm had sunk
below the surrounding sand.
Boats shared the streets with auto
mobiles and piles of driftwood. Autos
which had been caught in the food
stood imbedded in sand up to their
wheels. Row boats. used to traverse
the streets during the worst of the
high water, were moored to hydrants
and telephone poles.
Houses Are Damaged.
Huge sections were torn from the
boardwalk and had lodged at the en-
frances to intersecting streets. Where
the boardwalk was left in place the
breaking waves had twisted it into
hills and hollows.
The houses on Wicomico street were
most badly damaged The gabled roof
of one, 35 feet square, was torn away
and flung so feet away sPorches hung
loose and twisted and other houses
were leaning shapelessly on their
foundations. Most OF the hotels es-
capped unharmed, except that their
cellars were filled with sand.
State Roads Commission engineers
tested the bridge connecting with the
mainland to make sure it had suf-
fered no damage.
Throughout the night, after the
water had receded from the avenues,
Coast GuardSmen and volunteer fire.
men worked to restore a semblance
of order Mayor W. T. Elliott. who
yesterday estimated the damage would
range between $4,000 and 100000,
postponed a more definite estimate
today until he had received reports
from various relief agencies.
One Reported Drowned.
One man was reported drowned
here and a half-dozen others were
missing in nearby sections as result
of the 5mile-an-hour wind and
roaring seas yesterday.
Two Pocomoke City men, reported
missing after they went surf fishing.
called their families to report that
| they were safe at a Coast Guard sta
tion.
Marvin Purnell of Crisfield, who put
out on fishing trip, returned home
safely.
For the most Of the day the resort
was cut off from the mainland. At
one time 5 feet of water covered
the causeway leading to nearbv Ber-
lin, sole means of communication
with the shore
Last night single telephone circuit
kept workers on the mainland in
touch with residents here The line
was jammed with calls. most of them
| outgoing to friends and relatives of
Summer residents. Each call was
| forced to await its turn.
Between pm, at low tide. and
nigh tide at o'clock last night, the
Coast Guardsmen and firemen man.
aged to clear wrecked shanties and
boats from the causeway and restore
/ travel lanes for automobiles.
Choked With Sand.
Baltimore street, Ocean City's prin-
/ cipal business thoroughfare, was
/ choked with a litter of variegated
| debris swept inland from the ocean
| front and boardwalk a block away
Sand lay feet deep in some streets
and in the Easements Of water front
hotels.
Mayor Elliott said the principal cost
would be for cleaning out streets and
repairing the boardwalk Most of the
north end of the boardwalk was dam
aged to such an extent that it will
have to be replaced, observers said.
At least three deep-sea fishing
boats. valued at between SIS 900 and
$4,000, were destroyed or missing
from their moorings in Sinepuxent
Bay, on the resorts leeward side A
score Of flshermen's shanties were
washed away, as were the Offices of
Mayor Elliott and the Davis & Lynch
Fish Co.
In nearby Berlin, trees were up
rooted, power line poles knocked down
and all gas and electricity cut of dur
ing the night.