The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-15
20 Dead; 6 Big Cities,
 n States Suffer Loss
tconslnued from PaVe iS

ok xoa miles an hour m the TnNmeA Rlver valley of southeasteTn Con- neotlcut, But by the time the storm center had passed northeaStward across Rhode island, southeastern Massachusetts and Into the Atlantic at 1880 .. m. it was so diminished that the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine suffered no other dam. axe than fallen wires and uprooted trees.
 Heavy losers were orehardists of Connecticut Massachusetts, and Long Island where thousands ot fruit trees, many of them laden with rlpOnlng apples, were destroyed,
 unodicial estimates and . com. nilakion of the reports of scores Of United Press correspondents along the long stretch of affected coasts line indicated property damage ot 9SO,OOO,O 900. Atlantic City, N. J" alone sustained damages Of approx. imately SA,000,000 and the total dAmARA for New Jersey was expect. ed to reach SiO,00o,000. Total dam aRa for Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island was estimated at aib,000,000, Damage in New Xork city and adjacent Long Island was expected to approach $2,000,0 900, And the damage along the coast south of New Jersey to North Carolina reached on indicated total of s. O0o,000
 The weather bureau In dawn advisory placed the center of the hurricane 70 miles southeast or Portland, Me, which was being lashed by 60-mile winds, It was eX- pected to pass 70 miles southwest Of from New England coastal waters Eastport, Me, at ' Q, m. and depart finally by Q Q. m,
 Oficlais of the Federal Hurricane warning Service and the Weather Bureau were relieved. For almost two weeks they had been charting the course of the storm from its point of origin deep in the Caribbean sea where hurricanes develop, and all their reports had indicated, day by day, that 1t was of the type that killed 800 persons in the Florida Keys in loSe, and more than 600 in New England in 1888,
 This one had oil the character lstics of the others-cyelonic winds whirlinR over Q wide area approx lnlAtely 500 miles in diameter with those in It's center cutting sharp, tearing curves ct VeloeitieS or l4O miles an hour and more, Experts feared the very worst and their warnings had grown increasingly urgent as 1t approached the North Carolina coast early yeStreday.
 Urgent Warnings
 The urgency of their warnings saved many lives and preserved much property. Authorities from Flogida to Maine evacuated thou- sands of persons from low.lyina coastal areas where they would have been drowned by tremendous tidal waves, some 100 feet or more high, had they stayed. Property owner boarded up windows and strength en0d foundations.
 Atlantic City appeared to have sustained the most serious damage, A tidal wave engulfed the famous boardwalk of the resort city and Q tremendous sea split the Million Dollar Steel Pier. Hundreds of homes and stores along the water front were flooded. New York city and It's vast metro- politan area with population of upwards of e,0ooooo got of with such minor damage as broken win- doWs, uprooted trees, flooded base Fients and stalled Subways, although | the wind velocity there attained SS miles an hour at times,
 Bostons experience was no differ ent and Philadelphia, the third of the eastern seaboard's major cities, had even less damage, The wind velocity there never exceeded 60 miles an hour.
 But damage was somewhat | heavier in Providence and Paw | tucket, R. I. The storm center pass ed through those cities soon after | midnight although greatly dimin- tslaed from It's strength when 1t was | oil Beaufort, N. O., at 8 Q. m. yeS- terday.
 Plants Closed
 Hundreds of war plants on Long Island, the industrial Connecticut River Valley of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the industrial belt of eastern Connecticut, eastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, dispensed with their night and | graveyard shifts lest their thousands of workers were caught in killing wind in transit from homes to plants. As 1t turned out, the plants could have operated.
 Crops were heavily damaged as far inland as 70 miles in North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. The area of crop damage in Connecticut, Mass echusetts, and Rhode Island, was approximately 100 miles wide.
 Hundreds of small boats were smashed or driven far up on beaches all along the coastal path of the storm. A tanker was driven ashore ct Reboth Beach, Del, and its crew of 31 was rescued by the Coast Guard by breech buoy.
 Weather Bureau charts indicated tht the center of the storm never actually touched land until 1t reached the eastern tip of Long Is- land, i20 miles from New York City and at approximately g o'clock last night.
 Erratlc Nature
 The charts demonstrated its er- ratic. whimsical nature. Wednesday it was 800 miles southeast of the tip cf Florida, and Miami segan pre- pairing for another disaster such as the hurricane of 1926. But before the day was over it had shifted to ehe north, and by dusk South Flor zza was safe and South Carolina prepared for death and destruction. Then the hurricane twisted a little more toward true north and at dusk