Two Killed as Hurricane Hits Norwich
The Norwich Sun, October 16, 1954
Hurricane Hazel roared thru Chenango County [NY] last night, leaving a littered wake of death and devastation. The Caribbean-born storm wrought its toll on buildings, homes, trees, signs, power lines, communications were crippled. Parts of the area were plunged into darkness.
Two persons died in Norwich when a ton of masonry toppled some 75 feet from a department store roof and crushed their car. Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Hendrickson of North Norwich had apparently pulled to the curb along West Main street by the Chapman and Turner Company to wait out the storm. A chimney and part of a cornice torn loose by the wind dropped five floors all but burying their car. Mrs. Hendrickson, 37, was killed instantly. Her husband, 49, was dead on arrival at the Chenango Memorial Hospital.
The raging hurricane that carried winds of 94 miles an hour sent a city resident and a Sherburne couple to the hospital. Roosevelt Tillis of 4 Natoli Avenue suffered a blow and nasty head cut when an object apparently torn loose from the Smalley Theatre marquee struck him on the head. Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Toor of Williamson, N .Y. were injured when a big Elm split in two as their car moved under it. Sherburne Police Chief Leslie Monroe, who brought them to the hospital said half of the tree fell on the car, demolishing it and pinning Mr. Toor inside. Mrs. Toor got out and called for help from a nearby home, the officer said. Mrs. Toor, 57, suffered a forehead cut that took 5 stitches to close, multiple scrapes and cuts and possible internal injuries. Her husband, 56, received multiple cuts and scrapes and possible internal injuries. Both were reported in fair condition at the hospital today.
The hurricane moved into the county, shortly after 2 o'clock reaching Norwich about 25 minutes later. Lights went out and power failed in various sectors of the city as trees and telephone poles brought down power lines. Communication with the surrounding area was all but cut off. The task of patching gaps in power lines continued through the night but complete reports of damage in the rural area were still not available this morning. Roads throughout the city and county were blocked off by falling trees and electric lines. At 9:30 o'[clock this morning, parts of the city, North Norwich, Oxford and Preston were still without power. No estimate of damages was available this morning. Chief Harold O. Mattice said, however, that it will run "well up into the thousands." Eugene M. Cole, local manager for the New York State Electric & Gas Corporation, reported that his crews are still out repairing power lines. "But I don't think our damage is as bad as in November of 1950," he said, referring to a windstorm at Thanksgiving time that year. How many power lines were down? "I don't think I could count that high," Mr Cole replied to this question. He said about 85 men were still out and hope to have most of the job completed by dark tonight.
Chief Mattice said all 12 regular officers and about 20 auxiliary policemen were on duty last night. The auxiliary officers who were on duty through the night were relieved shortly after 10 o'clock this morning. Turning out to remove trees and debris from streets and highways were an unknown number of city highway department men and the entire county highway department force. More than 100 fireman, regulars and volunteers, were on duty. They answered 15 calls, mostly where live wires had come down. It was reported today. "the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Hendrickson were the first due to the hurricane in the state, it was learned from the Associated Press office in Albany last night. "You seem to have had the first fatalities," an AP staff member told a reporter from here.
According to reports already in, the County Welfare Home at Preston was probably the hardest hit building. J. Van Estelow, welfare commissioner, said this morning that the structure's main chimney caved in at the height of the storm, crashing through the roof of the women's section. The commissioner estimated damages at "between $25,000 and $50,000." He said it was a "Miracle" that there were no injuries. Noting that the chimney sliced through the room spewing bricks even on some of the beds, he said: "How they got through it without injury, I'll never know. Some beds were littered with bricks."
Another narrow escape from injury came when Sheriff Frank Machio's car fell victim to a crashing tree. The sheriff said he was going up Bartlett road off Route 23 on the way to South Plymouth at about 9:45 o'clock when the tree crashed on the car roof, barely missing him, and extensively damaging the vehicle, his personal car.
An unconfirmed report from Kirk said the roof of a home there was blown off. Deputy Milton Smith reported that a big barn blew over along Route 23 west of here, partially blocking the highway. A chicken house on the farm of Mrs. S.C. Van Slyke at the top of Tanner Hill was blown away in the storm, according to another report this morning. Ten trees were downed in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Officials today issued an appeal asking people not to drive to the cemetery over the weekend. If the area is kept clear, they noted, it will be possible to complete the clean up job without hindrance. In the city, the task of repairing power lines and clearing debris was well under way early this morning. Workers had already opened Cortland street to traffic, blocked when a big maple in front of the home at No. 5, crashed across it. A telephone pole some 100 feet to the west was also down. A towering maple in front of Norman Burd's home on North Broad Street was nearly ripped out of the ground. It came to rest against the Hamilton Smith home next door, but apparently caused only slight damage. Its roots also heaved up two sections of sidewalk. Division Street was still blocked off at 10:30 o'clock this morning. A tree at the corner of South Broad Street and one further east and three telephone poles had come down., littering the street with debris and severed power lines. The roof of a home on 62 Pleasant Street was reportedly torn loose.
An oddity of the storm was related by O.W. Benedict of North Broad Street. He said that when the power lines in front of the hospital had come down "eerie" blue sparks and then "Sheets of yellow flames as high as the hospital" shot up as the wires touched the leaves of trees along the street. The section of street was blocked for about an hour while workers repaired the power lines and city firemen stood guard in case of fire.
Another oddity turned up this morning during a tour of the city. Several big trees next to the South Broad Street Victory store seemed to have been torn out by the roots by the storm. Actually however, they had been pulled down by contractors working on the site of the National Bank and Trust company's new building.
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Hurricane Hazel in New York
New York: Hurricane Hazel, one of the century's most dangerously erratic storms, rocked New York with 100 mile an hour winds last night. But it was a dying gesture on the part of the big storm.
"The worst is over," was the weatherman's cherign word as the barometer began to rise in mid-evening.
Far to the west of the city, the hurricane spent its waning strength against the immovable barrier of Pennsylvania's mountains. Then it died and its force was absorbed in part by the new storm center in Southwestern New York.
Hazel's death toll stood at 18 in continental United States. It swept into the Carolinas from sea early yesterday, battering its way into the Northeastern states after grazing Washington with unsurpassed fury.
Ashore and at sea millions cringed before its awesome might. Ships frantically changed course. Airplanes fled like game birds before a forest fire. Men pitted their puny strength in a frantic battle to blunt its destructiveness.
The storm gathered the momentum of an express train at times. Behind it thousands were left homeless.
Even in death, the hurricane was wickedly menacing as gales and dangerous tidal swells lingered on throughout the night.
Great waves lashed the Atlantic shoreline of Long Island. In New York harbor, five persons narrowly escaped death as they scrambled away from a wave that washed over a Staten Island ferry.
It was the third hurricane to hit the northeast in six weeks. Hazel, weather experts said, held its overland power longer than most hurricanes because it built up great energy during its long, leisurely passage across the sea. When it roared past New York, its tremendous winds had fallen off sharply from the 160 mile an hour peak that ravaged the Carolinas. And its rains slackened far below the nearly five inches that poured on Winston-Salem in six hours.
The storm's greatest strength was felt here at 7:50 p.m. when registering meters clocked 100 miles an hour gusts--the highest reading the meters are capable of. Twenty-five minutes later, the winds diminished to about 55 miles an hour and the window-rattling rain subsided as the fringe of the spent hurricane moved on.
None of the nation's big seaboard cities was directly in its path. But it staggered them with majestic insolence, its whining winds and curtains of rain marching escort for 300 miles around its center. It flanked New York to the west by about 80 to 100 miles. The storm's center hit Central Pennsylvania head-on.
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