The Hurricane

In August of 1933, my grandpa (Stan) was three years old and visiting the “Deal’s” Island family with his mother, 26-year-old Mava. Since they lived in Baltimore, Maryland, his father Harry, 31, would occasionally stay back because of his job at the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company.

As the oldest child of her father Stanley James Hoffman and her late mother Helen Louise (Daniels) Hoffman, Mava (born in 1909) kept connected with her younger siblings back on Deal Island.

But during that visit, a hurricane was on its way and the marshy island waters were quickly rising.

When word got to Harry back in Baltimore, he knew that driving would take too long. A steamboat across to the “Shore” wouldn’t work, either. The Bay Bridge wouldn’t be built until 1947 (finished in 1952) which would have cut the driving time down. Harry, a man of many interests, was an amateur pilot. He made the decision to fly to the small village of Wenona at the southern most point of Deal Island. Friend Al Bozman flew with him.

In reality, most likely the winds were still mild enough to fly, but my imagination goes to an epic action movie scene.

“Dad flew down to Deal Is during Aug ’33 hurricane with Al Bozman and landed in ball field by Parkinson Lane Rd (Wenona by little bridge) to pick up mom and me when leaving load was too great. So Al was flown up to Salisbury or Princess Anne to get a bus back to Balto. And dad returned to get mom and me.”

Known now as a Category 4, this Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane made landfall in North Carolina on August 23 and worked its way up the mid-Atlantic states and into New England’s coastline. Because of advanced warning, hundreds were able to evacuate. Still, there was $40 million in damage ($956M today). At the highest the winds were upwards of 140mph in the Atlantic but by its landfall date it was starting to weaken and winds died down to a speedy 90mph. Wharfs, piers, boats, crops, miles of roads, bridges, and private property were destroyed mainly by the storm surge. The storm finally dissipated on August 28th, leaving 47 deaths in its wake.

I grabbed a few of the pilot log books my grandpa saved of his fathers. Amazingly, one of them was when he got his private pilot’s license, in May of 1933. He had learned and flown from around 1928 as far as I can tell, but worked to finally get his license.

The following are his log entries from the 22nd to the 24th. I’m not sure about his note from the 22nd, but he’s obviously referring to the storm. Since the 23rd it made landfall, it seems like during these couple days the decision was made to get his wife and kid outta there.

The 24th marks a day of quite a few miles put on the Curtiss Robin, so I’m guessing this was when he and Al Bozman made it to Deal (landing near Parkinson Lane Road near Wenona), learned the weight limit was going to be an issue, and made a quick decision to fly Al to Dames Quarter to catch the bus to Baltimore (hoping it could out pace the the storm!) and fly back to Deal to get Mava and Stan and go back to Baltimore, landing at Logan. Since it doesn’t show the back and forth to Princess Anne or Salisbury like Grandpa noted, so I wonder if all four of them flew in the plane from Deal to Dames Quarter and felt it’d be safer to drop Al off to catch a bus there.

However, in another note Grandpa made, he shares that rather than stay at his grandfathers place near the shore line in Wenona, he sent Mava and Stan up to his sister-in-law’s place. Bessie (Daniels) & Norman Wallace lived in a home with their 10 children. He goes on to write: “Their home (a small farm) was just NE of the great marsh and the elevation above seal level…Note: Hurricane story, the casket & dad’s fly-in to pick us up. ( the John Wesley Church cemetery, flooded vaults.)”

And by that he is referencing a very interesting story he shared with us. Due to the water table being very high on the island, graves now have cement covers placed on top to help keep them from rising in flooding from bad storms. But back then, they would occasionally become dislodged from the ground and lifted out.

While at the Wallace’s home, he said there was a consistent banging on the side of the house as the flood waters rushed past. He was told it was one of the caskets from a lady who had been buried recently at the John Wesley Methodist Church down the road.