Now, this was a hurricane

We have been doing our homework, in preparation for our heading for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

One of the fascinating things I read was a report on the 1899 hurricane that came through the Outer Banks. Back then, there was a weather monitor living with his family on the Outer Banks. No road connected the banks to the mainland. Only sailing vessels could make passage. But this fellow, named  S.L. Dosher, could write a report. I decided to pick it up and drop it into this blog in its entirety so you can read what a hurricane was really like before radio and television.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Weather Bureau

Office of the Observer

Subject: Hurricane

Station: Hatteras, North Carolina

Date: August 21st, 1899

Chief of the Weather Bureau,

Washington, D.C.

Sir:

I have the honor to make the following report of the severe hurricane which swept over this

section on the 16th, 17th and 18th instantly.

The wind began blowing a gale from the east on the morning of the 16th, varying in velocity from

35 to 50 miles an hour….During the early morning of the 17th the wind increased to a hurricane

and at about 4 a.m. it was blowing at the rate of 70 miles, at 10 a.m. it had increased to 84 miles

and at 1 p.m. it was blowing a velocity of 93 miles with occasional extreme velocities of 120

miles to 140 per hour. The record of wind from about 1 p.m. was lost, but it is estimated that the

wind blew even with greater force from about 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and it is believed that between

these hours the wind reached a regular velocity of at least 100 miles per hour…

.

At about 7:30 p.m. on the 17th there was a very decided lull in the force of the wind and at 8 p.m.

it had fallen out until only a gentle breeze was blowing. This lull did not last more than half hour,

however, before the wind veered to east and then to south-east and began blowing at a velocity

estimated from 60 to 70 miles per hour which continued until well into the morning of the 18th.

During the morning of the 18th the wind veered to the south and continued to blow a gale, with

heavy rain squalls, all day, decreasing somewhat in the late evening and going into southwest.

This day may be said to be the end of the hurricane, although the weather continued squally on

the 19th , but without any winds of very high velocity.

This hurricane was, without any question, the most severe of any storm that has ever passed over

this section within the memory of any person now living, and there are people here who can

remember back for a period of over 75 years. I have made careful inquiry among the old

inhabitants here, and they all agree, with one accord, that no storm like this has ever visited the

island….

The scene here on the 17th was wild and terrifying in the extreme. By 8 a.m. on that date the

entire island was covered with water blown in from the sound, and by 11 a.m. all the land was

covered to a depth of from 3 to ten feet. The tide swept over the island at a fearful rate carrying

everything movable before it. There were not more than four houses on the island in which the

tide did not rise to a depth of from one to four feet, and at least half of the people had to abandon

their homes and property to the mercy of the wind and tide and seek the safety of their own lives

with those who were fortunate enough to live on higher land.

Language is inadequate to express the conditions which prevailed all day on the 17th. The

howling wind, the rushing and roaring tide and the awful sea which swept over the beach and

thundered like a thousand pieces of artillery made a picture which was at once appalling and

terrible and the like of which Dante’s Inferno could scarcely equal.

The frightened people were grouped sometimes 40 or 50 in one house, and at times one house

would have to be abandoned and they would all have to wade almost beyond their depth in order

to reach another. All day this gale, tide and sea continued with a fury and persistent energy that

knew no abatement, and the strain on the minds of every one was something so frightful and

dejecting that it cannot be expressed.

In many houses families were huddled together in the upper portion of the building with the

water several feet deep in the lower portion, not knowing what minute the house would either be

blown down or swept away by the tide….

Cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens were drowned by hundreds before the very eyes of the owners,

who were powerless to render any assistance on account of the rushing tide. The fright of these

poor animals was terrible to see, and their cries of terror when being surrounded by the water

were pitiful in the extreme.

The damage done to this place by the hurricane is, at this time difficult to estimate,…but is

believed that the total loss to Hatteras alone will amount to from $15,000 to $20,000. The fishing

business here is the principal industry from which is derived the revenue upon which the great

majority live, and it may be said that this industry has for the present time been swept entirely

out of existence….

A great majority of the houses on the island were badly damaged, and 5 or 6 are so badly

wrecked as to be unfit for habitation and that many families are without homes, living wherever

they can best find a home. The Southern Methodist church building was completely

wrecked…All of the bridges and footways over the creeks and small streams were swept

away…. The roadways are piled from three to ten feet high with wreckage….

The telegraph and telephone lines are both down…. It is reported that several vessels are

stranded north of [Big Kinnakeet Life Saving Station]….

A large steamship foundered about one mile off Hatteras beach…and it is thought all on board

were drowned….

The Diamond Shoals Light Ship which was stationed off Hatteras, broke loose from her mooring

on the morning of the 17th and was carried southward by the gale….This vessel will probably

prove a total loss….

The damage to the instruments and property of the Bureau here was considerable….The office

building was flooded with water to the depth of about 18 inches, and the rain beat in at the roof

and windows until the entire building was a mass of water….

I live about a mile from the office building and when I went home at 8 a.m. I had to wade in

water which was about waist deep. I waited until about 10:30 a.m., thinking the storm would lull,

but it did not do so, and at that time I started for the office…. I got about one-third of the

distance and found the water about breast height, when I had to stop in a neighbor’s house and

rest, the strain of pushing through the water and storm having nearly exhausted my strength. I

rested there until about noon when I started again and after going a short distance further I found

the water up to my shoulders…. I had to give it up again and take refuge in another neighbor’s

house where I had to remain until about 8 p.m. when the tide fell so that I could reach the

office….

I started to the office against the advice of those who were better acquainted with the condition

of the roads than I, and continued on my way until I saw that the attempt was rash and fool-hardy

and that I was certain to reach low places where I would be swept off my feet and drowned….

[T]here has never been any such tide as the one here mentioned.

….The rainfall…was as heavy as I have ever seen. It fell in [a] perfect torrent and at times was

so thick and in such blinding sheets that it was impossible to see across a roadway 20 feet wide.

…[E]verything went before the fury of the gale. No lives were lost at Hatteras, although many

narrow escapes occurred, several families being washed out of their homes in the tide and storm.

At Ocracoke and Portsmouth, 16 and 20 miles south of this station the storm is reported about

the same as at Hatteras, with a corresponding damage to property. Reliable details from these

places however, being lacking. A pleasure boat at Ocracoke with a party of men from

Washington, N.C., was lost and a portion of the party were drowned.

There has been no communication with this place by wire or mail since the storm, and it is not

known when there will be. It is therefore requested that so much of this report as may be of

interest to the public be given to the Associated Press for publication in the newspaper.

Very respectfully,

S.L. Dosher

Observer, Weather Bureau