Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-15
BY the A..oeossd Press

ricanes, II days apart, which
took 80 lives In the Northeast,
may have delivered a $500 million
economic blow to New England.
No exact figure ever will be
known.
Best specific estimate for a
single State was that brought
out at a conference of Rhode
Islands Gov. Dennis ]. Roberts
: with State, city and town off,
cials-$200 million-in the wake
of Hurricane Carol. The second
hurricane, Edna, caused small
damage in Rhode Island by COM
parison.
While Massachusetts, losses
may have exceeded this figure,
especially counting millions adj
ditional damage in hurricane
Edna, no equivalent specific loss
estimate is forthcoming from the
Office of Gov. Christian A. Her
ter. The Massachusetts, legisla-
ture voted $12 million stop-gap
appropriation to assist munich
palities and speed State property
restoration.
Homes Wrecked.
But such a figure has no
relation to the 1872 single homes
reported destroyed in Massa-
chusetts, the 858 listed as
severely damaged, the 2.613
with lesser injury and the 201
other buildings more or less
severely battered-by Hurricane
Carol on August 81. Casualty
insurance companies expect
some $55 million in claims in
Eastern Massachusetts,. But
many home owners have no
storm insurance.
No one can accurately assess
the extent of salt water damage
on some agricultural lands in
undated by tides. or of the,
erosion of farmlands swept away
later by stupendous 6 and z
inch rainfalls within a few
hours. Or the economic loss of
scores of thousands of trees in
parks and streets, in home
grounds and orchards, or the
damage to forests which may
later suffer from fires spreading
through felled timber.
Loss of SO million board feet
of timber was estimated in
Massachusetts, State forests.
No one can place a dollar
value on 400 choice specimen
trees felled in the worlds great
est tree museum, Harvard Uni
versity's Arnold Arboretum. The
City of Boston estimates at half
a million dollars replacement
and surgery cost on thousands
of trees destroyed or damaged
on its famous Common, and in
parks and public ways.
The first hurricane blew about
half the States apple crop from
the trees and fiattened q large
proportion Of the fields Of corn.
The peach crop was damaged
seriously.
Losses to pleasure and fishing
craft will run into unestimated
millions. One insurance company
alone reported losses on it's poll
cies might exceed 81 million on
yachts. Others said they still had
too few reports from adjusters.
Settlement of claims will go on
for months, maybe a couple Of
years.
Many Lacked Insurance.
But many boats had no in
surance coverage, just as many
beach jewellers and home owners
hadno floating insurance on per-
sonal property. No report ever
will be made on such losses, or
even on real estate losses where
the damage fails to exceed the
policies "deductible" clauses.
Half of New Bedford's big
fishing fleet were casualties.
While insurance companies are
underwriting the cost of salvage
operations now in progress, no
one knows what the long-range
effect will be on a fishing indus
try already beset by fierce for
eign competition.
Utilities companies, telephone,
power and railroads, suffered
heavy losses. The New England
Telephone & Telegraph Co.,
alone, operating in the five
States outside Of Connecticut,
estimates IS million loss in each
hurricane.
Power companies are still
working on damage estimates.
Boston Edison used SIS million
feet of new copper line, 100000
wire connectorS. Its tons of pole
hardware.
Industry, generally, was not
heavily damaged. although some
with waterfront installations
were such heavy sufferers that
at first some said they would
not resume business. The second
hurricane brought severe water
damage to commercial estab-
lishments in Massachusetts, as
plants and stores were flooded.
One manufacturing company in
birmingham, Mass, suffered an
estimated 100000 loss.
New Hampshire Hit Hard.
New Hampshire estimated
that Hurricane Edna heaped Sc
million damage largely to
roads, on top of the SIS million
inflicted by Hurricane Carol.
Maine counted the losses in
the .tw0 hI1rricop as of Gin mil