I called up my mother last night to find out how my grandmother in Far Rockaway is doing. It tuns out that she moved two weeks ago to assisted living in New Jersey, and we have no word about the condition of the house.
She then told me her memories of the 1938 hurricane. She remembered looking out the window of her third floor apartment in Brooklyn, seeing the wind bending the trees over to the ground, and being very scared. She also remembered very heavy rain.
That major hurricane killed nearly a thousand people.
I once talked with a fellow who lived in Newport RI and went through the 1938 hurricane. He said he planned to stay in his house and ride out the storm. Then he looked out the window and saw a large refrigerator flying by. That was the moment he decided to get out of town.
Brooklyn was on the weak side of the 1938 Hurricane. On the strong side of the storm, the winds were twice as strong. The Hamptons may have had winds approaching 200 mph.
It is good she is no longer there. I worked at the Far Rockaway Power Station in the 90’s. I recall a couple of nice streets on the shore, but as a whole the town was bad. Once a coworker had his hardhat shot off his head with a pellet gun, and when we reported it to the police, They laughed and said they have people being shot with real guns in the area. My friend who is a former NYC detective and is presently in the NYC Child Protection Bureau called me from far Rockaway this morning. He said the place is a legitimate war zone. While not as bad as Breezy Point where the whole town burned to the ground, there were many fires, destroyed buildings, homeless people all over, destroyed storefronts and looted buildings and occasional gunfire. He also saw utility crews working with police escorts.