- Title
- Our State
-
-
- Date
- September 2005
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Our State
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TAR HEEL HISTORY
Several years alter the
destruction of tho Great
North Carolina Hurricane
of 181S. the Diamond
Shoals Lightship provided
guidance for other
storm-tossed vessels.
Tale of a Gale
The Crcai North Carolina I lurrieane of 1815 ravaged our harrier
islands and coastal towns, leaving behind swollen rivers, flooded
streets, and overwhelming wreckage.
Bt John H.mbk
In early September of ISIS,
eastern North Carolina was a
scene of utter devastation. Along
the coast, shipwrecks littered the
sandy shores from Cape Lear to
Currituck. Inland, crops were
drowned, forests flattened, gristmills
carried away, and roads washed out
from W ilmington to Washington. The
inhabitants of New Hern watched
helplessly as storm-driven waters of
the Neuse rose into their city and
pounded parts of it to rubble. All of
these calamities were the result of a
fierce hurricane, one of the most
catastrophic storms ever to strike the
North Carolina coast.
Two powerful hurricanes battered
the East Coast of the United States
that month. The Great September
Gale, the most widely known of
these hurricanes, was the second of
these storms to make landfall. It
struck New England and was
extensively chronicled in the press of
that region, creating a legacy that
overshadowed its predecessor. The
earlier hurricane, however, was the
more important and destructive
storm along the
Carolina coast.
This storm came to be
known as the Great
North Carolina
Hurricane of ISIS, as
the destruction meted
out on the Old North
State was quite severe,
even by the standards of
people who were
accustomed to dealing
with powerful storms.
Hurricane Hunter
aircraft and weather
satellites were still
nearly ISO years in the
future, so information
about the early days of
this storm's existence is
sketchy. It is uncertain
exactly where the storm
originated — perhaps
off the coast of Africa,
where so many of the
hurricanes that affect
.Vprenrfvr.WS Our Male ?S
