1955 — Aug 11-13, Hurricane Connie, esp. NC/2, VA/2, DC/4, MD/14, PA/9, NY/12 — 43

–43-48 Blanchard tally from State breakouts below (if the reporting was accurate).
— 43 Blanchard estimate. While we show a range of 43-49, there is a lack of detail with
some deaths (who, where, cause). Thus we choose to rely on Douglas and the Assoc.
Press reporting of Aug 17, both of which note 43 deaths, the low-end of our range.

— 74 Queens Chronicle, NY. “Hurricane Connie blew through NYC 60 years ago.” 6-4-2015.
— 43 AP. “Hurricane Diane Due to Crash into Carolina Coast this Morning.” Titusville Herald, PA. 8-17-1955, 1.
— 43 Douglas. Hurricane. 1958, p. 315.
–>42 UP. “Hurricane Connie Causes $15-Million…” Daily Independent, Kannapolis NC. 8-14-1955, p1.
— 41 Associated Press. “Connie Leaves 41 Dead.” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p1.
— 40 INS. “One-Two Punch By Hurricane Winds Staggers Coastline.” Daily Herald, PA. 8-17-1955, 1.
— 32 Associated Press. “Death Toll For Connie Set at 28.” Chester Times, PA. 8-13-1955, p.1.
— 30 UP. “30 Deaths Blamed on Connie.” Syracuse Herald-Journal, NY. 8-13, 1955, 1.
— 28 Associated Press. “Death Toll For Connie Set at 28.” Chester Times, PA. 8-13-1955, p. 1.
–10 Chesapeake Bay, MD shipwreck (notes 4 missing which we now know drowned)
— 9 NY
— 5 NJ
— 4 DC
— 25 Hebert/Jarrell/Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest…[US] Hurricanes… Feb 1993, p. 80.

Summary of State Breakouts Below

District of Columbia ( 4)
Maryland ( 14)
New Jersey ( 0-6)
New York ( 12)
North Carolina ( 2)
Pennsylvania ( 9)
Virginia ( 2)
Total (43-48)

Breakout of Hurricane Connie Fatalities by State (and locality and cause where noted):

District of Columbia ( 4)
–4 AP. “North Carolina Hardest Hit By Hurricane Connie’s Fury.” 8-14-1955, p. 43.

Maryland ( 14)
–14 Schooner Levin J. Marvel founders Chesapeake Bay near Fairhaven, MD. (USCG. 1956)
–14 Schooner Levin J. Marvel (built 1891), excursion boat out of Annapolis.

New Jersey ( 0-6)
–6 Associated Press. “Connie Leaves 41 Dead.” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p.1.
–6 Assoc. Press. “North Carolina Hardest Hit By Hurricane Connie’s Fury.” 8-14-1955, p. 43.
–? Blanchard. We can find no details on any hurricane-related deaths in NJ via newspaper search.

New York ( 12)
–12 Blanchard. If there were 11 NYC metro area deaths and 1 in Dewitt, then death toll was 12.
–11 Assoc. Press. “Connie Leaves 41 Dead.” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p.1.
–11 AP. “North Carolina Hardest Hit By Hurricane Connie’s Fury.” 8-14-1955, p. 43.
–11 NYC metro area. AP. “Connie’s Sidelash Stalls [NY].” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p1.
–11 NYC. Queens Chronicle, NY. “Hurricane Connie blew through NYC 60 years ago.” 6-4-2015.
–10 NYC metro area. “…record August downpour, directly, or indirectly, caused 10 deaths.”
— 1 Dewitt, Aug 13. Lineman Claude B. McIntyre, 58, electrocuted restoring storm damaged lines.

North Carolina ( 2)
–27 NWS, Newport/Morehead City, NC Weather Forecast Office. “Hurricane Connie…”
–25 Rappaport and Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994. 1995.
— 5 AP. “Connie Pounds NC Coast With 100-Mile Winds.” Wilson Daily Times. 8-12-1955, p.1.
— 3 UP. “Death Laid To Connie.” Daily Independent, Kannapolis, NC. 8-15-1955, p.1.
— 2 Blanchard estimate.
— 0 Dunn/Davis/Moore, Weather Bureau, Miami. “Hurricanes of 1955,” Monthly Weather Review, Dec 1955, 317.
— 0 Ruzek, Martin. National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Twins Connie and Diane. 8-13-2002.

Pennsylvania ( 9)
–14 AP. “Connie Took 14 Lives ‘ere She Broke Up.” Somerset American, PA. 8-15-1955, p1-2.
–1 Coatesville, Rt. 385, Aug 14. Flash flood and drowning; Mrs. Emma G. Todd, 92.
–1 Downingtown, Aug 13. Car goes off rainswept road; John Letenauchyn, 35.
–1 Lancaster area, Aug 14. Car found submerged in Conestoga creek; Mrs. Betty K. Reidenbaugh, 31.
–2 Philadelphia, Aug 13. Car goes off pier during storm.; John O’Leary, 21, Daniel Mallon, 19.
–1 Philadelphia, Aug 13. Unidentified woman hit by car during heavy rain.
–1 Pocono Lake, Aug 14. Car “plunged into rain swollen Tobyhanna creek; Rev. Minot C. Morgan, 78.
–2 York area, Rt. 111, Aug 12. Car skids off road; Alan Sechrist, 20, Hubert Batty, 31.
— 9 Blanchard. We include only the named deaths noted above.
— 8 AP. “State Mops Up After Deluge by Hurricane Connie; 8 Dead…” Gettysburg Times, 8-16-1955, 7.
— 6 Assoc. Press. “Connie Leaves 41 Dead.” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p. 1.
— 5 AP. “North Carolina Hardest Hit By Hurricane Connie’s Fury.” 8-14-1955, p. 43.

Virginia ( 2)
–2 Hampton Roads. USN plane crashes while being evacuated from “the tempest’s path.”

Narrative Information

Douglas, August 12: “Heavy swells smashed waves up North Carolina beaches up to the doorsteps of beach cottages…. Swells more than ten feet high came in north of Wilmington, North Carolina, at Topsail Island and over the sea wall at Holden’s Beach. Everywhere along the coasts thousands fled….The hurricane bore inland near Morehead City, North Carolina, and went sixty miles west of Hatteras, smashing at villages from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to Wilmington and along Pamlico Sound….

“Connie’s winds were slowing but her rains flooded New Bern, North Carolina, knocked out electric light and power systems as she toot an erratic course to northwestern Pennsylvania, flooding the hills….

August 13: “New York City under ‘Hurricane Alert’ was badly damaged on the thirteenth by the fringe gales of more than sixty-seven miles per hour and terrific rains, as the hurricane itself spread northeast of Pittsburg and diminished in heavy rains across Lake Erie, leaving forty-three dead.” (Douglas 1958, p. 315)

Nese and Schwartz: “August 13, 1955 — Hurricane Connie. As with Hazel, Connie tracked well west of Philadelphia. After making landfall in North Carolina, the storm curved northwestward skirting the western shore of Chesapeake Bay… A schooner sunk on the bay, drowning fourteen people….” (Nese, Jon and Glenn Schwartz. The Philadelphia Area Weather Book, including Delaware, the Poconos, and the Jersey Shore. Temple University Press, 2002, p. 143.)

North Carolina

National Weather Service: “Overview. Connie was first detected as a tropical storm over the tropical Atlantic on August 3, 1955. It moved west-northwest for several days, reaching hurricane strength several hundred miles northeast of the Leeward Islands on the August 5, 1955. After passing north of the Leewards on the 6th, Connie turned northwestward, a motion that continued until the August 10th. An erratic, generally north-northwestward motion then brought Connie to the North Carolina coast on August 12…as a Category 3 hurricane. This was followed by a gradual northwestward turn through August 14, when Connie dissipated over the eastern Great Lakes.

“Impacts

“Ahead of the storm, about 2000 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas in New Bern and up to 14,000 people were evacuated along the North Carolina beaches. As the storm reached landfall near Fort Macon…sustained winds of 75 mph with gusts to 100 mph were observed, while a storm surge of up to 8 ft occurred along the coast.

“Rainfall amounts of over 10 inches were observed along and west of where Hurricane Connie made landfall…In Eastern North Carolina, the most significant flooding occurred along the Pamlico River in Washington where National Guardsmen evacuated nearly 1,000 people during the storm. Power was knocked out over much of Eastern North Carolina and rainfall flooding closed U.S. Highway 17 in the New Bern area. The hurricane caused nearly $40 million in damage in North Carolina, much from crop damage. There were 27 deaths in the state related on Connie, including traffic deaths, drownings, people in damaged buildings and electrocutions….” (National Weather Service, Newport/Morehead City, NC Weather Forecast Office. “Hurricane Connie, August 12, 1955.”)

Associated Press, Aug 11: “Wilmington, N.C. (AP) – Hurricane Connie, losing some strength but still plenty powerful, battered the Carolina coast today. Winds just under hurricane force of 75 miles an hour, and towering waves broke up fishing piers and filled the air with flying debris in many exposed areas. The hurricane’s eye, now packing winds of about 100 miles an hour, moved at a steady 6 to 7 miles an hour toward the resort beaches between this port city of Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, S.C. At the present rate the eye would reach shore about 9 p.m., EST. It was about 110 miles southeast of Wilmington at 11 a.m.

“….The Wilmington airport reported gusts of 82 miles an hour – only three miles below official hurricane force – at 11 a.m. At Frying Pan Shoals near the mouth of the Cape Fear river gusts up to 92 miles were recorded. Connie’s central winds have reached as high as 135 miles an hour….Hurricane winds licked 100 miles to the northeast and east and 50 miles to the southwest. Gales extended 300 miles to the northeast and 150 to the southwest.

“The pounding waves came in on tides and waves from five to six feet above normal in some places were expected to go nearly twice that high….” (Associated Press. “Hurricane Batters Carolina Coast Today.” The Wilson Daily Times, NC. 8-11-1955, p. 1.)

Pennsylvania

Gelber: “Eastern Pennsylvania suffered through the most destructive flood in the region’s history in August 1955, ironically, after the driest July in Pennsylvania since 1909. Two ex-hurricanes unloaded wave after wave of heavy rain on eastern Pennsylvania in quick succession, resulting in severe flooding that took at least one hundred lives in Pennsylvania.

“The first storm to hit the eastern seaboard was Hurricane Connie, which brought drought-bursting rains to the Middle Atlantic states on August 12-13. Ex-Hurricane Connie weakened over North Carolina after making landfall on the twelfth, but it was still a prolific rainmaker. Ex-Hurricane Connie crossed the Chesapeake Bay before heading into south-central Pennsylvania during the mid-day hours of August 13.

“A tropical deluge pelted eastern Pennsylvania as the remains of Connie traveled northwest to a position near Erie, in the northwestern part of the state, around 7:30 p.m. During the soggy period of August 10-14, 1955, 6.00 to 10.00 inches of rain pelted the rugged hills of Monroe County and portions of Montgomery and Chester Counties in the southeast. Stroudsburg received 6.82 inches from August 11 to 13 (6.17 inches in twenty-four hours on the twelfth and thirteenth), and Mount Pocono had a storm total of 9.84 inches from those days.

“Two persons, one in Lancaster County and the other near Coatesville, west of Philadelphia, drowned in flooding caused by ex-Hurricane Connie, according to the August 1955 edition of Climatological Data. Both fatalities happened in automobiles that were swept away in swift currents….” (Gelber, Ben. The Pennsylvania Weather Book. 2002, pp. 203-204.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Connie Leaves 41 Dead.” Syracuse Herald American, NY. 8-14-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/syracuse-herald-journal-aug-14-1955-p-17/

Associated Press. “Connie Pounds NC Coast With 100-Mile Winds.” Wilson Daily Times. 8-12-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/wilson-daily-times-aug-12-1955-p-1/

Associated Press. “Connie Took 14 Lives ‘ere She Broke Up.” Somerset American, PA. 8-15-1955, p1. Accessed 8-14-2022: https://newspaperarchive.com/somerset-daily-american-aug-15-1955-p-1/

Associated Press. “Death Toll For Connie Set at 28.” Chester Times, PA. 8-13-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/chester-times-aug-13-1955-p-1/

Associated Press. “Hurricane Batters Carolina Coast Today.” The Wilson Daily Times, NC. 8-11-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/wilson-daily-times-aug-11-1955-p-1/

Associated Press. “Hurricane Diane Due To Crash into Carolina Coast This Morning.” Titusville Herald, PA. 8-17-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/titusville-herald-aug-17-1955-p-1/

Associated Press. “Hurricane Pelts City With 11.02.” Kingston Daily Freeman, NY. 8-13-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-daily-freeman-aug-13-1955-p-2/

Associated Press. “North Carolina Hardest Hit By Hurricane Connie’s Fury.” Star-Gazette, Elmira, NY. 8-14-1955, p. 43. Accessed 8-13-2022 at: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29927825/star-gazette/

Associated Press. “State Mops Up After Deluge by Hurricane Connie; 8 Dead From Storm; Damage is Heavy.” Gettysburg Times, 8-16-1955, p.7. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/gettysburg-times-aug-16-1955-p-7/

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. Hurricane. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1958, 393 pp.

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Dunn, Gordon E. Walter R. Davis, and Paul L. Moore, Weather Bureau Office, Miami, FL. “Hurricanes of 1955,” Monthly Weather Review, December 1955, pp. 315-326. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/mwr_pdf/1955.pdf

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Hebert, Paul J., J.D. Jarrell, Max Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes of This Century (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS-NHC-31). Miami, FL:

INS (Independent News Service) “One-Two Punch By Hurricane Winds Staggers Coastline.” Daily Herald, PA. 8-17-1955, 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/tyrone-daily-herald-aug-17-1955-p-1/

National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Feb 1993, 41 pages.

Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, PA. “State Begins Mopping Up Hurricane Damage (cont. form p1). 8-15-1955, p. 6. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/indiana-evening-gazette-aug-15-1955-p-5/

Melamud, Bob. “Remembering the Levin J. Marvel. 60 years later, this Chesapeake shipwreck remains a cautionary tale.” 2017. Accessed 1-5-2018 at: http://www.bayweekly.com/articles/boating/article/remembering-levin-j-marvel

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Nese, Jon and Glenn Schwartz. The Philadelphia Area Weather Book, including Delaware, the Poconos, and the Jersey Shore. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.

Rappaport, Edward N. and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994 (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47). Coral Gables, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1995, 42 pages. Accessed 8-20-2017 at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1995-47.pdf

Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Lineman Electrocuted At Dewitt.” 8-14-1955 final edition, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/syracuse-post-standard-aug-14-1955-p-37/

Queens Chronicle (Ron Marzlock), NY. “Hurricane Connie blew through NYC 60 years ago.” 6-4-2015. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://www.qchron.com/qboro/i_have_often_walked/hurricane-connie-blew-through-nyc-60-years-ago/article_9ca1c415-e828-5c20-8130-f1de888fd549.html

United Press. “30 Deaths Blamed on Connie.: Syracuse Herald-Journal, NY. 8-13, 1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/syracuse-herald-journal-aug-13-1955-p-1/

United Press. “Death Laid To Connie.” Daily Independent, Kannapolis, NC. 8-15-1955, p.1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kannapolis-daily-independent-aug-15-1955-p-1/

United Press. “Hurricane Connie Causes $15-Million In Damages.” Daily Independent, Kannapolis, NC. 8-14-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/kannapolis-daily-independent-aug-14-1955-p-1/

United Press. “Vacationers Caught As Gales Spread Out.” The Victoria Advocate, TX, 8-13-1955, p. 1. Accessed 8-14-2022 at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VSwPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XYUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6640,2016629&dq=hurricane+connie&hl=en

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