Hurricanes Carol and Edna

Hurricanes Carol and Edna struck eastern New England eleven days apart in the late summer of 1954. Carol came ashore on eastern Long Island and the Connecticut coast on the morning of Tuesday, August 31, 1954 and crossed Massachusetts that day with hurricane winds, and Edna passed over Cape Cod and the islands on Saturday, September 11. Billerica, sixteen years after the New England Hurricane of 1938, lay inland from the worst of both storms, but its Civil Defense director called them "two major disasters," and the Selectmen reported that the damage "affected this department more than any other," meaning the tree department.

The storms cut off all electric power from Lowell. The town's Civil Defense organization, only a few years old, ran its emergency work from the Billerica Town Hall (1895), where an auxiliary electric power plant installed by its first director, Charles Richards, "gave excellent service"; Richards himself had died on August 17, two weeks before Carol. His successor, William H. Fuller, acting director since June and appointed director on August 3, had under him Deputy Director Ralph Brown, Chief Warden James Lumbert, Communication Officer Charles Duarte and Medical Officer Dr. George H. Boynton, with an auxiliary fire department trained by Captain Reginald Horman of the fire department and auxiliary police under Officer James Callahan. Fuller wrote that his personnel "were active on these two hurricanes" and that the emergency showed how much equipment the department still lacked, and the Selectmen thanked "all of the men in the Civil Defense" for "a splendid job, well done during hurricane emergency."

The wind did its greatest harm to the trees. Tree Warden George F. Williams reported that "the number of trees that were blown over, split in two or damaged beyond repair went into the thousands," that all town trees in that condition were promptly removed, and that the late start of his brush program and the next year's pruning were both owed to the storms. Because the work was done under state aid, the state would pay to remove a hanging limb but not to cut its stub flush with the tree, so many trees had to be pruned again. Williams had been fighting Dutch elm disease, and the storms scattered elm wood over a large area: "Things were bad enough before, but now the future is not very bright for our elm trees." The Selectmen quoted his one consolation, that "at least the hurricanes have helped by removing some of the many elm trees affected with Dutch Elm disease." Highway Superintendent Paul F. McNulty reported that Carol and Edna "interrupted the Highway program in September when the entire crew were required to clean up the debris." Superintendent of Schools George S. Goodell reported wind damage, chiefly to the roof shingles, at the Pollard School and the Talbot School, and new roofing was put on the Talbot School annex and the rear half of the Pollard School roof late that fall. The Building Inspector issued fourteen permits in 1954 for the repair of hurricane damage.

The town's Hurricane Damage account for 1954 came to $27,846.26: $15,742.05 for labor, $7,584.10 for the use of equipment, $2,355.06 for equipment and repairs, $886.88 for fire alarm equipment and repairs, $555 for clerical work and smaller sums for gravel, gasoline, meals and medical care. The Selectmen, whose board that year included Frederic H. Brown and the newly elected Stuart L. Potter, credited Mrs. Gladys Terry with preparing the warrants for the hurricane emergency so carefully that they hoped for "almost 100% reimbursement" from the state and federal disaster funds. The year-end balance sheet carried $35,000 for hurricane damage to be met from the revenue of 1955, and in 1955 the town received $25,155.33 from the Commonwealth and $247.98 in insurance for hurricane costs, while the school department had received $1,332.62 of hurricane damage insurance in 1954. A further $1,738.03 for the hurricane was raised in the 1955 tax levy. The power unit in the Town Hall became, in the Selectmen's words, a memorial to Charles Richards, and the Civil Defense department went into the floods of August 1955 (see Flood of 1955) better equipped, with a portable lighting plant and two-way radios bought that year.

People

• William H. Fuller: Civil Defense Director (appointed August 3, 1954), who led the town's Civil Defense personnel through both hurricanes.
• George F. Williams: Tree Warden and Moth Superintendent, whose men removed the thousands of trees blown down or broken by the two storms.
• Paul F. McNulty: Highway Superintendent, whose whole crew was taken off the highway program in September 1954 to clear the storm debris.
• George S. Goodell: Superintendent of Schools, who reported the wind damage to the Pollard and Talbot School roofs and their reroofing.
• George H. Boynton: Medical Officer of the Civil Defense department during the 1954 hurricanes, thanked in the director's report.
• Frederic H. Brown: Selectman (re-elected 1954) on the board that reported on the hurricane emergency and its reimbursement.
• Stuart L. Potter: Selectman, newly elected in 1954, on the board that reported on the hurricane emergency and its reimbursement.

References

1. Billerica Annual Report for 1954 (in the 1950-1954 volume), p. 23 (Selectmen: Carol and Edna, Gladys Terry, Civil Defense), p. 39 (highways), pp. 42-44 (tree warden, Dutch elm disease, Civil Defense director W. H. Fuller), p. 48 (building permits).
2. Billerica Annual Report for 1955: hurricane reimbursement from the Commonwealth ($25,155.33) and insurance (p. 67); hurricane sum in the 1955 tax levy; Civil Defense equipment bought in 1955 (p. 51).
3. Wikipedia, 'Hurricane Carol': landfall on eastern Long Island and Connecticut on August 31, 1954 and the storm's effects in Massachusetts.
4. Wikipedia, 'Hurricane Edna': the September 1954 hurricane that crossed Cape Cod and the islands on September 11, 1954.