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The Nor’easter

 

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During the second winter I was there a storm was predicted to be a little worse than normal. By this time my wife and I were used to the storms on the island and didn't concern ourselves with it and didn't feel that it would effect our routine to any great extent.

This might have been different if I had known about the past reputation of the island and how some of the structures had been destroyed. Fortunately we didn't know much about it and this never entered our minds.

We watched the news and weather on the television and the amount of snowfall and the winds and because I had grown up on the coast I didn't really think too much about it. I did get together with the assistant keeper and told him I thought it would be good to close the storm shutters on the east side of the dwelling and around the southern side of the station. This was just normal procedure when we knew a storm was coming. He told me he would close them and I pretty much forgot about it. He didn't like to close them as it made things dark on his side of the dwelling as the shutters were made of heavy plywood to protect the windows.

Aside from closing the shutters about the only thing we did was make sure the pipe to the cisterns or storage tanks was removed. If this pipe was left connected the gull messes and salt would wash into out potable water supply. Usually we put this in about 20 minutes after it started raining and took it out shortly afterward. This gave the roof a chance to rinse off before letting any water in our tanks. I am not sure if this helped but it did make us feel better. We hoped to get a reasonable amount of snow because we usually ran low on water during the winter because so much of the snow just blew off the roof. Because the station was so exposed to everything perched on that rock the wind was always more noticeable that if we had anything at all to break some of it.

The evening before the storm we got together, both families, and talked over what preparations we had made and because the final burden was on me I decided that everything was set and we were ready for what was coming. We figured just another little snowstorm.

Shortly before dark I had taken a look around and not much was happening. The clouds were moving in and there was a very slight increase in the wind speed but nothing very alarming. I also walked around the station and double-checked or looked to see that the storm shutters were closed and that the boathouse was secure and that the station was ready as it could be.

After checking the station I went inside the station and told the assistant keeper that I had turned the light on and was going in to my apartment.

It was about 8 o'clock that I noticed the snow falling so I went up and started the compressors and turned the foghorn or signal on. At this time I could still just make out the light on Ram Island 2.5 miles to the east. This was our signal to turn that horn on, if visibility dropped below this 2.5 miles then the foghorn had to be activated.

My wife and I watched the 11 o'clock news and it said that we were supposed to get about a foot of snow and the gale warnings were up and it would be the worst storm in several years. As I mentioned, we had seen storms out there and even other northeasters so we really didn't worry. I went out and the tide was higher than normal but not much and was receding so I knew things would be fine for the night. It had started to snow and the wind was increasing but when the tide was down the station was well up out of the way of the sea swells.

My wife went to bed around 10 o'clock or so as she would be up at least once with our son during the night and then again early in the morning and I went up at midnight as this was the end of my watch.

About 3 o'clock my son woke us up as he wanted a drink so my wife went and got him a bottle and he went back to sleep.

While she was getting the bottle I had been lying there listening to the wind which was screaming by now and decided to get up and have a look outside.

The snow was falling and visibility was about zero so this was normal but the wind was making the old house creak and groan which wasn't normal so I decided to stay up and sort of check things out. I went to up the stairs in the tower and the light was humming away and the foghorn was working normally and all was fine. I couldn't see outside because of darkness and snow but knowing that the tide was low there was no problem anywhere so I went back into the house and made some coffee.

When daylight came sometime around 6:30 I got dressed and went out and looked around. It was dead low tide and the whole ramp was out of water and the tide was a little lower than normal. I also noticed a couple planks at the lower end of the boat slip had loosened up and were sort of washing back and forth. There were a couple inches of snow but like normal most of the snow had blown off the island. Everything seemed fine. The only things out of the ordinary that I noticed was the loose planks and the fact that the flag which we almost never took down was slightly tattered from the wind which was blowing so hard now that I had to really lean into it to remain standing.

A higher than normal tide had been predicted on the evening news so we all figured that the water would be up close to the boathouse. There was nothing on the floor so we didn’t worry about anything getting ruined and still weren't very alarmed about anything.

The assistant keeper came over around 8 o'clock and we talked about the storm. We were getting a little concerned, as we had never experienced wind like this on the island. We really had no accurate way to tell what it was as the old anemometer had broken a long time ago.

We figured wehad gale winds and possibly close to hurricane force by now and the snow made visibility only a few yards.

I went out again around 9 o'clock and by now I was getting more concerned as the wind wasn't lessening and the tide, which had over two more hours to come in before reaching its full height was already washing well over the usual high water mark.

It was around this time that the power went out and I started the generator and called the station at Boothbay Harbor to see if it was our line of if the power had gone out onshore. It was an onshore problem which was a relief as it would take weeks to get a new line if the under sea cable had been damaged. Listening to that diesel generator for any length of time would get very old fast.

The helicopter pad, barely visible even from the southwest corner of the island already had waves starting to wash over it and the whole south end of the island was getting washed by the waves. This was normal as the helicopter pad often was under the waves in most storms of any intensity at high tide but we had more than two hours to go and it was already getting the wash from the waves. This water was the indication that we were here for the duration of the storm. With water over the pad there was no way we could get off the island.

On the east side of the building where there stood a 6' high seawall of 12" x 12" pressure treated lumber the waves were washing up the this seawall which protected the assistants side of the dwelling. The waves were also just reaching the side of the boathouse which was on the protected side of the island.

If you look at the picture, facing up the boat slip, everything outside of the fence was just awash with the surf. The only dry land on the island was inside that fence and this was half covered with foam from the wind and waves. By 9:30 you could catch glimpses of the helicopter pad as the massive waves receded and prepared for another assault on the island.

On the east side of the house the waves were beginning to wash over the seawall and onto the side of the house. Again, this was normal for some of the more intense storms but at high tide, not with close to two hours left to come.

I went up on the catwalk around the front of the station and pulled the pipe out of our water tanks as the spray and salt could contaminate our water and then I went to the tower to look out at the massive swells. From here I could see the whole island was awash except for the house. The waves were now washing across the front lawn (what we called our few blades of grass) and the boathouse was taking a real beating on the northeast side.

I went down and then my wife and I went to see the assistant and look out the window and watch the surf. By now it was well up onto the side of the house and the house was taking quite a beating. I offered to let the assistant and his wife come to our side of the house, which was in the lee, but he chose to stay there.

My wife and I returned to our side of the house but I kept going outside to watch the action, sort of going outside and then back up to the tower. Looking down it didn't seem so bad but the roar from the wind and then the blaring or the foghorn made things seem very spooky.

I went into the house for coffee and my wife kept looking out the windows and wondering if this would be the storm that would force us into the cistern room where the walls were 3' thick of granite to keep from getting washed away.

We were just sitting there and we heard a tremendous crash and water running. I opened the door to the station to find several inches of water on the floor. I window by the boiler had broken as the shutter latch had busted and this shutter was flopping and the waves had smashed the window flooding the whole area. The assistant and I went outside and we debated for a few seconds what to do. We actually knew so I waited for the waves to wash back at the boathouse door so I could get there without going through 5 feet of water and got in and closed the door. On the floor there was close to a foot of water and the boat was floating inside the boathouse. I went to the bench and grabbed a hammer and a handful of nails and returned to the patio.

One of us had to go behind the seawall between the waves washing in and out and somehow get the shutter closed and nailed. At this time there was about 3-5 feet of water coming over the seawall with every wave. I wonder to this day how the side of the house stood this abuse without more damage.

The assistant offered to go behind the wall and nail the shutter and I didn't argue with him so he took the hammer and nails and waited for the waves to recede and ran in behind the wall. The first time in he got the shutter closed and a nail part in before I screamed to get out and he ran out. This went on for half an hour or more, just running in and out between the waves and getting a few pounds in on the nail and eventually he got half a dozen down the side and we assumed the shutter was secure. Had the window a few feet back broken it would have been in his living room. It would have filled the room and shattered glass would have gone everywhere.

Fortunately the boiler didn't quit and the only real damage that was done was it soaked a bunch of paper towels in a storage cabinet in that room. The loran beacon somehow missed getting soaked but the bottom of the cabinet was sitting in the water. The things that saved the loran was that it was located about chest high and with only a few inches of water in this room when I opened the back door it quickly drained out. We were able to close this door once the shutter was secure.

Back out on the patio the waves were hitting the house so hard that a sheet of water was now forming a solid wall when it hit the house and washed back. Before this was over the waves were washing so high that it was taking shingles off this side of the house.

I went back between the waves into the boathouse and where the waves were hitting the north side the siding had pulled from the shoe, floor joists, or whatever water was shooting up beside the foundation and the wall like a geyser.

Aside from that I saw no real damage and went to the door to go out. I took a quick look outside and closed the door and waited until I thought he wave was just starting back but clear enough so I wouldn't have to just about swim to get back up the stairs to the patio. The women were understandably nervous and even us men were to some degree. About the only way I can describe it was I felt like it was like being on a ship in a storm with everything awash only the deck didn't move. There was no place outside where you could escape salt spray or salt water hitting you.

The helicopter pad was basically not visible at all and I think because of its location out on the southwest corner of the island it was breaking the waves enough so that the waves didn't hit the island from that direction. One could stand by the corner of the yard and look up at the massive breakers washing around the island. I didn't understand then and I still don't understand how those waves, which appeared to be at least 20 feet higher than where I was standing didn't wash onto the island on that side and do much more damage.

When the tide finally turned the wind dropped almost as rapidly. It was nearly halfway out before the water stopped hitting the side of the house and boathouse.

We all just sat in the house looking out occasionally to make sure the light was working but couldn't access the damage until the next day when we had daylight with us.

We just were happy that no personal belongings were damaged like a few years back when the assistant keepers windows broke and he lost half his things that were on the first floor. I easily understand how this could happen after seeing the power of the waves during this storm.

It stayed rough through the night but even at high tide just after midnight, even though the tide was a high one it didn't have the wind and wasn't nearly as bad as during the day.

We went around the station the next day to access the damage. The fence in front was half down and we had lost most of the soil in the front yard but that was the only damage on the west side of the dwelling.

We found that the boat slip, shown in the picture, had many planks missing and part of one rail making it impossible to get the boat off at low tide. Inside the boathouse the wall was pulled out and you could look down and see the shore but we did manage to renail it and figured everything else would dry out.

The east side of the dwelling had asbestos shingles and a few of them were busted off and missing similar to the roof missing a very few shingles but there appeared to be no structural damage.

It took a few weeks but eventually the men from Group South Portland came and rebuilt the slip and repaired the damage. Later that same day we were able to go back on shore power. We cleaned up the station where the water had come in. Thewindow was repaired a few weeks later as we couldn't get ashore to get glass for a few days because of the rough water around the island.