EARLY FEBRUARY 1920
COASTAL STORM
FACTS
The Saturday,, February 7,
1920, Wilmington Evening Journal has reported the ocean is as
calm as a mill pond and
hundreds of visitors are walking the beach to view the damage done
by huge breakers during the
past two day storm. Henlopen Light house is leaning badly.
A Evening Journal staff
correspondent wrote from Rehoboth Beach, February 7, 1920:
The ocean calm as a mill
pond has replaced the raging seas which for two days had buffeted
the coast with giant
breakers. This has given the Rehoboth people an opportunity to look
at
the damage and survey the
the inroads of the storm.
Crowds from other nearby
towns came by train loads making the town like the 4th of
July.
North of the Henlopen
Hotel the beach and cottages are as they were last July. The beach
is
filling in rather than
wearing away and cottage owners there feel they have no reason to
worry.
The Henlopen Hotel is
unharmed except for the cement walk in front which is broken up and
tossed about in chunks.
At the height of the storm sea water knee deep surrounded the hotel
on its trip to the small
lake behind. This water receded yesterday. A pavillion on the
board
walk at this end was swept
to sea. From the hotel down to Bishop Monaghans cottage the
beach is strewn with
lumber.
Rehoboth people feel this
lumber can be used to rebuild and repair. The boardwalk is now
just a row of pillings.
The oak board bulkhead
saved many cottages. Where there were gaps in the bulkhead damage
was noticed to the sand.
At Dewey Beach the YMCA is
wrecked. At the Life Saving Station only the kitchen still
stands. Four of the five
beach cottages lost foundations but can be repaired.
Henlopen Light weathered
the storm but is leaning. Colonel Dorey of the Light House\
Service said it was safe
and the beacon was shining brightly last night.
It is expected a new
boardwalk will be ready for summer. There was a suggestion that
the
100 or so ships at League
Island Navy Yard which are too rotten to repair be sunk off shore
as an underwater
breakwater.
CURIOSITY
At the Baer cottage, south
of Henlopen Hotel , there is a brick dry well, where the ocean had
washed away the sand
surrounding it leaving it standing on the beach like a chimney. The
bricks had no mortar
holding them together yet not a single brick was found out of place.
Before the Baer cottage was
moved back the dry well stood in the back yard.
\
The February 6, 1920
Wilmington Morning News reports that a change of winds
saved the Rehoboth resort
but the light house near Lewes leans perilously. Buildings are
swept away and the estimated damages may be more than $100,000.00 .
Just before high tide at
9:30 the northeast gale let up to a northerly wind. Henlopen
light
having withstood the gale
for hours was leaning perilously. Early the crew had removed
personal effects but
returned and remained on duty. Communications were out but the
light
told of its survival.
Buildings were swept to
sea, the life saving station was lost except for its cook shack.
A
pavilion at the north end
of the boardwalk went to sea also. There was not splinter of the
boardwalk left.
Third Avenue and Ocean
Avenue felt the effects as fifty porches were washed to sea,
lawns
ruined and foundations
undermined. Coopers cottage toppled into the sea early. b. F. Shaws
cottage which had been
moved back in the spring and securely buttressed escaped damage.
The bulkhead was destroyed.
In Dewey only three of
twenty eight cottages are left , YMCA is gone. There were no phone
lines left up and several
feet of water reached up Virginia Avenue.
Reported from New York
February 5th
New York reports fifty mile per hour northeast gale winds were
still
sweeping the north Atlantic
coast tonight where towns were trying to dig out after the
deepest snow of years.
Shipping remained at anchor
where large ice flows menaced navigation. Snow, ice and
high seas make it
impossible to to transport coal and the coast faces a fuel famine,
shutting
transportation down. New
York and New Jersey rivers are at and above flood stage while
still digging out from the
snow.
At Rockaway Beach, two
summer hotels, 30 cottages , a forty suite apartment house, bath
houses and many small
structures were washed out to sea.
ABSTRACT: 06/29/18 BY
HARRISON H FOR www.delmarhistory.blogspot.com
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