The Key West citizen., 1954-10-08
Yankee Tells
Key Westers
OfHurr.iicane
ROtarians Hear
First-Hand Story
Of Carols Capers

"Now I've heard everything
a Yankee telling Key
Westers about a hurricane
that happened in Massachu-
setts."
DR.. Herbert Crum, a member OF
the Key West Rotary has just fin
iShed telling the club about his ex-
periences in Newburyport, MasSa-
chusetts, during the hurricane "Ca-
ror' at the clubs luncheon meet
ing at the La Concha Hotel yes
terday.
DR.. and Mrs. Crum were visiting
their daughter and son-in law Mr.
and Mrs. Edgar Dunning, and
had read something in the paper
about lady named Carol whC
was fuSsing about in the Atlantic. ~
Radio Report
On the morning of August 81.
their grandson, Peter Dunning
heard radio report warning that
the storm was due to hit the New
England Coast at p. m.
"That was about 9 o'clock and an
hour later the power went off, and
we were without water, electricity
or refrigeration for five days and
three hours"
After the storm, which packed
winds up to 125 miles an hour and
caused nearly S million dollars da-
mage, all their cooking was done
on an out door grill.
"At first we heated water and
washed the dishes, but that didn't
work out too well - we had to
haul our water a third of a nile
- so we used plastic dishes that
we could throw away"
Destruction Noted
DR.. Crum said, Il never saw any,
thing like it. I've never seen a
hurricane in Key West yet, but
I've seen a lot of weather in my
sf-ee.
The damage in our area was
not so much to the houses - but
to the trees. Trees three feet IN
diameter were uprooted and they
fell across poWerlines and blocked
roads,"
1t took several days to get the
roads open and the Crums later
drove to nearby Cape Cod and Pro-
vincetown where they saw steam
ers 40 to so feet long across the
road 20 feet above the Charles Ri
yer.
He said it was interesting to see
how the people went about correct
ing the damage, and told how
trucks were sent from as far away
as Ithaca and Binghampton, New
York.
Big Repair Job
Llnemen from the power and
telephone companies worked II
and Is hours a day removing trees
from the lines and repairing them.
"They got double time after the
first s hours and some of them
didn't work very fast, but they
got the lob done"
DR.. Crum said the only people
who got warning far enough ahead
of the storm to prepare for it were
the clients of a private meteoro-
logist in Lexington, Massachusetts,
who makes a business of forecast
ing the weather.
He said There was no reason
for the lack of information except
the Weather Bureau is underman-
ned, due to cut in Congressional
appropriations for the service"
Seant Warming
Congress this year appropriated
S24, $50, 900 dollars for the Weather
Bureau, but as DR.. Crum pointed
out, damage from Carol" reached
5 million dollars and 66 lives were
lost.
IF people had had time to pre-
pare for the storm, property loss
would have been much less and
certainly some of those lives could
have been saved" DR.. Crum said.
After his talk, DR.. Crum showed
fellow Rotarians clippings from
New England newspapers with pic
lures of the storm and its after
math.
Business Session
During the brief business meet
ing, Paul Sher, president of the
club, introduced Norman R. Mar
shall, manager of the Key West
Coca Cola Company, as the newest
Baby Rotarian."
w. H. ReuSs of Nebraska and AL
len Gibson of johannesburg. South
Africa were guests of Merville Ro-
sam. There were no visiting Rotar-
ians.
Walter Price, Jr., reported on
the work being done at the Boy
Scout camp on Summerland Key
and Ignatius Lester, chairman oi
the clubs scholarship committee
said that the committee had con
tacted authorities at the University
on the loan fund being set up by
the Key West club.