eel History
By Billy Arthur
The Storm That
‘Ruined’ Carteret County
Astonished guests at the Atlantic Hotel watched
as the resort turned to rubble.
The surprise storm that struck Dare
County last October may have
given waterfront property owners
a run for their money, but it didn't com¬
pare with the tropical disturbance that hit
Carteret County August 18. 1879. The
winds, rain and tide washed away the stylish
Atlantic Hotel in Beaufort and destroyed
or damaged 35 businesses, homes and all
the town wharves.
The Balrigh I huh News and
Wilmington and New Bern
newspapers of August 19 re¬
potted. "Beaufort and More-
head < :ity are classed as ruined
... completely wrecked. This is
the severest blow these two
places have ever met with."
Hie U.S. Army Corps of En¬
gineers clocked the winds at
(ape l ookout at 135 miles an
hour, and the U.S. Weather
Bureau's anemometer there
broke with a reading ol 105
miles an hour. At Beaufort the
tide was more than four feet
above the normal level, and at
one time water on Front Street
rose higher than eight feet.
It was little wonder that the Atlantic
Hotel was consumed. Built in 1859. it was
a light, plank-frame, ihree-storv structure
with veranda porches and many windows
to catch the breezes. It stood on a “flimsy
pine piling foundation in the water and
about 100 feet seaward from the high water
line." the
/
hiity Nrws tepotied. The paper
speculated that the 20-yearold piling was
“Worm eaten and rotten."
The hotel “dissolved like salt," it said.
Renuukably. only two lives were lost, both
in an effort to rescue the 175 vacationing
guests, including children, who came from
Eastern North Carolina and adjoining
states. Among the prominent Tar Heels at
the "splendidly fitted summer place" was
Governor Thomasjarvis, who returned to
Raleigh two days later wearing a sailor suit.
The guests lost virtually everything they
had brought with them, including much
valuable jewelry.
The hotel stood in front of the present-
day post office and was not protected by the
now-visible sand bank, which has been built
upover the past 1 1 3 years by a combination
of nature and dredging.
There were signs of trouble the day
before the storm. All day long on Sunday.
August 1 7, the Fort Macon I ife Saving Sta¬
tion flew storm signals. The wind blew from
the southeast, the surf boomed and the
barometer fell. Boatmen either secured
their boats or ran them into the creeks for
safety. But landlubbers and especially hotel
manager B.L Perry never dreamed the
storm would Ik* so bad. He didn’t even
mention it to his guests, so one story goes.
After all. die profitable summer season had
only a few weeks to go.
Shortly after midnight Sunday the
storm’s intensity rose sharply, but it wasn’t
until about 3 a.m. Monday that hotel
employees were alerted. By 5 a.m. the wind
had veered to the* southeast, sending a
strong flood tide into the heart of Beaufort
and Morehead City.
The heavy swells were rolling in with
frightful rapidity, surging over the hotel
floors, and it was painfully evident that
the structure was doomed.” the Daily
News wrote.
Evacuation was ordered at daybreak.
Just in time.
A number of boats were anchored off
the* hotel’s front Itoardwulk, which connect¬
ed the bathhouses on the property's east
and west sides. According to eyewitness Dr.
G.W. Blacknall of Raleigh:
“A big wave came rolling in
;uid carried off the (east) house
... then the other bathhouse
went as well as all the boats....
"The halls were filled with
people trying to make their
escape. Some had gone out
onto the walk leading to the
barroom, but when this build¬
ing was carried away, they had
to get back into the house and
seek egress by the walk from
the kitchen on the west end.
Then, on through the water
with the wind blowing so hard
it seemed you could not keep
your feet with the water surg¬
ing up and against you....
Order was well preserved
although there was confusion.
The guests were not more than half
dressed, many of the women rushing into
the halls in their night clothing."
During the height of the evacuation,
“every one of the men grasped a woman
or a child, and as soon as they could
deposit their charges in places of safety,
they went back to render more aid." Black-
nail said. This was the work of no little
magnitude as a number were unable to
help themselves.
The ladies that had children would
Beaufort in 1906, after years of rebuilding.
.o(Anh..o-dH.u<.>
The Stale/Marih 1992
14
uvViy of lh< N C Dim
