“One of the unique characteristics of the Hurricane of 1938 was how rapidly it moved up the coast traveling at 50 miles per hour covering over 1,000 miles in 24 hours. This rapid movement combined with the category 3 winds of 130 miles per hour caused an enormous storm surge of 17 feet at Westerly resulting in the loss of 100 lives. ”
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Misquamicut was the hardest hit area in town with the loss of 42 people and 396 houses destroyed. One couple in Misquamicut saw the waves come over the sand dune in front of their house, in the few minutes it took them to reach their car the water was up to their waists. The husband survived by hanging onto a telephone pole as he watched his wife be swept away. On Fort Road in Watch Hill, the rapidly rising water trapped 42 people. All 27 survivors were swept across the bay after their houses were demolished and washed up on the Connecticut shore; tragically 15 wouldn’t make it.”
“In part one of the story, “”we left the family of Catherine and Geoffrey Moore at their house on Fort Road. The Moore’s had loaded their four children and all the pets, four kittens, and the dog, into the station wagon in the first-floor garage. Mrs. Moore came upstairs and saw the living room window broken in. ”
“We pick up her narrative here, “The living room window had broken in and the waves were crashing against our second-floor windows. We had noticed that houses were being blown over. Geoffrey was trying frantically to nail up our winter shutters over the broken window. Loretta and I threw our weight against the shutter to try and hold it against the tremendous force of the wind.” ”
“When the dining room windows broke out Mrs. Moore feared the first-floor garage would flood with the children in the car. She and Andy Pupillo (their handyman) raced to the garage and managed to get the children out and up to the second floor. Major, their Newfoundland, was frightened and wouldn’t leave the car, the car was found later upside down in the bay underwater.”
Bayside of Moore cottage. Butler cottage on the right where three people died.
“At this point, Mrs. Moore thought the house would stand even if the first floor was flooded. ”
““I hurried through the second floor grabbing woolen clothing and coats from the closets thinking that we might have to spend the night in the windowless house. I wanted everyone to be warm. I placed all these things on the bed in the green room. My throat was parched so I started for the bathroom when I saw the Butler house had blown over. ”
Moore Cottage showing the two third floor windows under peak where they escaped.
“”I said nothing but the children had seen it too and began to cry saying they didn’t want to die. I told them that they would not die but they might have to swim. I asked them if they wanted some milk to take their minds off what they had just seen. They refused but I took a sip and so did May. May knelt down and started the Rosary. I knelt too for a minute and we all tried to respond but I couldn’t stay on my knees; there seemed to be too much to watch out for.”
““At this point, Jim Nestor, Mrs. Butler’s 18-year-old nephew, arrived clad only in his underwear. He had seen his Aunt, Anne Nestor, with two others, Margaret Tetlow and Ethel Watson, all washed away when the Butler cottage went. He had made it to our house somehow and climbed to the second floor. ‘It took every bit of my strength to do it’ Jim said. Jeff asked, ‘Where’s the rest?’ and Jim answered, ‘They’re gone.’ We echoed, ‘Gone!’ And the horror of it gripped me. I felt we had small hope for our lives. Jim asked what we should do and Jeff told everyone to stay together no matter what happened. Cathy came to me and said, ‘Mummy, if I must die I want my Rosary.’ I went to my room across the hall and found a little blue Rosary and told her to put it over her head. It wouldn’t fit so I wound it around her wrist.””
“Mrs. Moore calmed the children and put the only three life preservers she had on the youngest. There was no panic. ”
““We all prayed constantly, sometimes silently, and sometimes aloud.” Mrs. Moore wrote. “We just waited for the next move that would decide our fate. Suddenly the house began to collapse beneath us. We ran, with lighting speed and as a unit, down the hall and up the stairs to the third floor, and just in time for the second floor had gone down like an elevator, only with a sideways motion.” ”
“Mrs. Moore tried to look for a way out of their situation but it seemed totally hopeless. They had a V-shaped roof over them with windows at each end and they were trapped. Mr. Moore tried to break out the bathroom window with his fist cutting his hand. ”
Anne – 10, Cathy – 8, Margaret – 4, Geoffrey – 12
““I had Margaret by the right hand and Cathy by the left. I looked down and noticed Margaret was holding her sandals. I told her to drop them, which she did reluctantly, and Anne took her other hand. I heard Anne say, ‘Now say it, Margaret say it after me, Oh my God,’ and Margaret’s high pitched voice said, ‘Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee,’ etc. These little ones facing death so gallantly and in the proper manner inspired us. Just then the roof blew off the maid’s room nearest us. Without any hesitation we made for it, finding it the perfect raft with two iron pipes sticking up through the floor. I caught hold of one and sat down holding Cathy tightly by the hand. Geoffrey had taken Margaret in his arms and sat with his legs around the other pipe.””
“The 11 survivors clung to the roof and each other as best they could as huge waves broke over them. As theirs had been the last house to go there was nothing in sight around them but the angry sea. By the size of the waves they thought they were being carried out into the ocean but after a while, Mr. Moore spotted telephone poles sticking out of the water behind them and realized they were in the bay. There was more good news. Geoffrey told Catherine they had just passed the Dennison Rock buoy. That meant they were halfway across the bay. ”
Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Moore
““About this time we heard our parrot, whom Loretta had let out of her cage when we arrived on the third floor, from somewhere in the peak of the roof, ‘Hello Polly.’ We prayed harder that we’d make it to the other side and pretty soon I saw land in the hazy distance. Soon I recognized the land to be Osbrook Point to the right and straight ahead Barn Island. By this time the floor had begun to buckle and we thought of our chances of swimming for it. I wouldn’t have given two cents for our chances of swimming ten yards in that water. But the land was nearer now and the raft swung around into the cove and we jumped off. We found ourselves stumbling over wreckage uphill to safety.””
“With no shoes, they fought their way through bull briars and blackberry vines. Mr. Moore stepped on a nail. They reached a little knoll and found the remains of an old collapsed barn with hay still in it. The barn was behind an old stone wall which gave them protection from the wind which was still bending trees to the ground. The light was fading fast and they were very cold. They pulled the hay around them for warmth and spent the cold night huddled together in the old hay. ”
““The next morning we finally got up and laughed to see that we were all covered with dirt from the hay, and our eyes and teeth stood out from our blackened faces. The children were very much amused and said, ‘Look at Mommy, she’d always so clean, but now she’s the dirtiest one of us all.’” ”
“It wasn’t long before a shout went up that a boat was sighted. Mr. Scott had come from Avondale in his fishing boat searching for them. They made their way through wreckage down to the shore. ”
““We waved wildly to him. If it had been the most palatial yacht ever to sail the seven seas, it couldn’t have looked more beautiful to me than Mr. Scott’s boat did that morning. We glanced over the bay at the place we had loved so much, the place we had often called Heaven on Earth; it just wasn’t there. A strip of sand and a few telephone poles were all that remained to mark the place that was known as the Fort Road.””
