tv 1978 New England Blizzard CSPAN May 29, 2021 1:59pm-2:50pm EDT
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haraden recalls the blizzard that hit new england in 1978 and the flooding that followed. he is the author of the book "storm of the century: new england's great blizzard of 1978" and this talk is part of the beach community series. >> welcome to the lecture series. i am jessica, a visitor supervisor for the department of conservation and recreation. this is a cosponsored event put on by dcr, the lifesaving museum, and friends of the whole public library. we are also thankful the whole community television --hull community television. if you want to see the lectures you missed or other ones you are not able to attend, it gets put up on the access youtube channel. feel free to check that out if
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there is something you are interested in. before i introduce the speaker i should think the hotel. thank you to the nantasket beach resort for hosting us tonight. without further ado, and thank you for your patience as we try to get technology up and going, i would like to introduce tonight's speaker. christopher haraden has worked for various newspapers in massachusetts and new york. his publication credits include numerous tourism, historical, financial and real estate publications across new england. in 2001 he was a contributing author for nantasket beach, then and now series, a collaborative effort for the committee of preservation of hull's history. the last two years he has been working on a book that should be debuting the summer. please join me in welcoming
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christopher haraden. [applause] christopher: thank you thank you. i used to joke we did this talk before and it was an actual slideshow. it was a 1970's event with 1970's technology but this doesn't work so well either. [laughter] we were trying to get a video up and running that was shot 14 years ago -- i was going to say here at the museum but we are not at the museum -- down at the museum where some of the survivors of the blizzard talk about their experiences. but it also had archival footage that was really neat to see some of the things that colombians went through. i have got some experts in the audience. no pressure. we will try to work on that if we can get going. >> of course. christopher: awesome.
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thank you you to the friends of the library, dcr, and thank you for being here. we were originally going to do this two weeks ago during the anniversary week of the blizzard and what knocked us out was a blizzard. [laughter] i guess that's good although this morning i didn't interview on radio and just before i went on -- you can hear what is happening on the radio when you are on the phone -- and the next thing before me was the weather talking about record heat. we are going from one extreme to the other. technology wise you may wonder why i am wired up. this is for cable, this is for you. if anyone cannot hear me, let me know and i will move the microphone or shout a little bit. it is so great to see 70 people. thank you. i know there are people here who know stuff. [laughter] i was hoping we could get a
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group of people i could say. whatever came to mind. the chief is here. i want to talk about the experiences people have and what we can do to help that along. if something inspires you or triggers a memory, share with us. we won't get too far of track. this is the cover of the book i wrote 14 years ago called "storm of the century." i was trying to brand the blizzard a little bit. i was trying to get people to call of the storm of the century but stephen king has a book by this name so it kind of didn't take off. [laughter] that is the cover and it is
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still available. my son is here with some books if anybody is interested. say hi adam. [applause] but we are here to relive great memories. let's talk about the blizzard and what happened. where we start is where most people look at it. what happened? why were we in such bad shape? without getting into the weather events and the weather circumstances, although i did have to learn that when doing research, it was an incredible coming together of weather events. there were low-pressure systems which are the storms, high
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pressure systems are fair weather but hold these in place. the arrow shows where hull is and that is the storm barreling down on us 1978. we were really in harm's way. how many people -- i brought two with me who were not alive -- but how many people were kicking? [laughter] good. how many people were here in hull? ok. how about in new england? good. you were in california. >> southern california. christopher: southern california. [laughter] who let him in? we will talk about our experiences because as we know, if you were in different places, your experiences differ.
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people here in hull, marshfield, down the coast were affected by the flooding and water. it was a blizzard in the sense there was a ton of snow and those conditions -- one of the things we have to think about and we see is that we have become in tune to what weather terminology means. two weeks ago, three weeks ago they were dying for it to be declared a blizzard. [laughter] the wind over a three hour period, the snowfall and all that sort of stuff. back then the terminology was not what it was. about where you were or what your result was depended on where you were. we will see the pictures as we go through. we are getting the storm, the snow -- and the slides will talk about the snowfall -- but the real thing that occurred to us here and had a lasting impact
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was the tides, the water, the damage. this is what we were facing. the thing that was most interesting to me in recounting and looking back at what happened then was i was seven years old at the time. for me the biggest memory was two weeks out of school. [laughter] and also being at home. we lived here in hull and we had water in the backyard but not of the house. we didn't have to leave. we were huddled around the fireplace and we stayed in the house. but what i think people remember when they think about it was we have to go back to 39 years ago and what was life like then? for those of us who lived it we know what it was like, but think
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about the things that occur to you now that are, place. one of them is the forecast. we cannot get rid of the weather forecast. some people have said we have become kind of jaded to it or wimpy. we cancel school to early or don't go to work to early. one of the things we get the video going -- no pressure tim -- [laughter] one of the things you will see, if we go that far, is governor dukakis asking people to stay off the road. never happened. >> he had that sweater. christopher: he had the sweater on. that was 1978. did you know he lost the election that year? he lost the primary in november. from february to november it did not work out for him but the sweater is what people remember. he was on tv and he was the guy talking to you.
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interesting thing about dukakis, everybody kind of started monday. monday was february 6 and everybody started the day. it was sort of normal, it was ok. in rhode island one of the newscasters said people woke up and they were supposed to be in six inches of snow already and there was nothing. everybody went, they did it again. [laughter] they tricked us. they didn't do anything. they didn't take any precaution, they didn't think the snow was coming. here people had already gone to work. there are some forecasters now, don kent being one of them, who said we started talking about that a little earlier. they didn't really. [laughter] somebody may have said something on the 11:00 news but if you weren't watching, go back 39 years ago where we weren't looking at the weather on our cell phones, there were not many
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morning local newscasts. you didn't get up and watch anything like that. people went to work, they went to school, they started their day and then the snow started and things started to become significant. that was when we really were in the middle of the storm and by that it was too late. we will see what happened when everyone got out of work at the same time. there are a couple of slides that talk about the snowfall. the red area is the big area and the light blue is 10 to 20 inches, which doesn't sound like a lot, but for the blizzard's record-setting 21.1 inches in boston. what we measure generally is in boston. it is not always an accurate measure because it is in the middle of the water. sometimes it's warmer, it
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doesn't always know as much, but that is what we are being consistent with. look at all the other snow, the other parts of new england in the mid atlantic states. if you were to google "blizzard of 1978," you will get reports and memories of other parts. i thought it was just us. i thought we were the hardest hit but this time, there was a lot of other stuff going on. the storm itself stretched a lot longer and farther than many people remember. we will also see some of the snowfall totals. here is what are the top 10 snowfall totals in boston. the first yellow when here is the blizzard. this is snow in one storm.
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it could be one day, two days, usually it is a two day storm. that record stood until february 2003. 27.5 inches, so four inches above the blizzard. interestingly enough -- the one before that actually stood -- this was the 100 hour snowstorm. the other yellow piece was something that people don't remember as much. it was at that time the second-highest snowfall. all of these occurred after 1978. second-highest snowfall january 1978. we already had snow on the ground. >> that was the friday -- christopher: they remember. a lot of people don't. we already had snow. we got nothing bad was going to happen but there was already snow on the ground.
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you have to think about the 27.1 on top of 20 inches already on the ground. it is an incredible series of weather. the one we talk about now -- people always compare every storm to the blizzard of 1978. now the one people are comparing it to is 2015. it was terrible. it was. there were higher snowfall amounts as you look around you. this is the graphic from channel 4. but what the blizzard of 2015 didn't have was the flooding. one of the things people talked about is are storms worse through the years? they are. they are getting more and more significant, more and more snow, but what we are not seeking as much is the long effects of this. that could be for many reasons and we will talk about what those are. this is one of the pieces --
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images of the day. people started their day. they went to work, went to school, went to places in boston and then the snow started. then they started to think, ok, maybe we should think about leaving work. but again how did that message get out? you didn't have the notes coming across your computer every day. you didn't have that weather update always coming to you. when people started to think about leaving town, leaving work, leaving school, everybody was doing at the same time. that was in boston. the bank building on, i want to say atlantic avenue, but people started leaving. all of a sudden the cars are filling up the streets. this is providence, rhode island and the snow is starting to get a little heavier and a little heavier and a little heavier.
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it became so much that you started to find it difficult to get around. even emergency crews could not get around because, as we will see, everybody is doing it at the same time. this is what you get and it is an amazing, amazing confluence of trying to get everyone out of the city, out of where they are at the same time. of course, public transportation. get as many on the buses you can but you didn't know the next one was going to come because it was snowing so bad. in boston -- we mentioned dukakis in the sweater -- he went about his day the way everybody else did. he was on the radio monday night doing his normal, i want to say it was a monthly show, where people would call in about issues of the day and they were talking about some tax or
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something. all the while all of the people at the statehouse are calling in on the other line saying get him out. [laughter] we need him back at the statehouse to make decisions. he kept talking and talking and talking. [laughter] there is the bunker where the storm center is. it was too late. he had to go back to the statehouse. but he didn't. he stated the studio and started in a way that, i think, is typical of the way dukakis' style was. he started putting the guys who were calling on the air. what's going on? tell people what's happening? people started getting live from state officials and i can just imagine these people saying, am really on the radio talking to the governor? [laughter] telling you you should declare state of emergency? he did live on the air declare
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state of emergency. it was an incredible thing because that is not something sort of happened on a talk show on the radio. but one of the things that happened was the snow started falling so quickly that it shut down public transportation in addition to the roads and monday night the tides started to come through. that is what we are most familiar with. as the tide rose it started a little bit unknown to all of us because there was already a snow cover on it. the only way you knew there was water under it was when you started seeing the snow move a little bit. this is what we were waking up to or what -- you have to think about darkness is starting and the tide is rising. as things are beginning -- this is right out here at the dcr
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garage -- water is starting to rise. this is the next morning but again, monday night, the next morning it is high tide, how do you alert people to what is happening? it was difficult because power started to go out. as people are losing electricity they are losing communication sources. it was very difficult to get people -- the message to people and we will see how some of that happened. i know at least one of us here was stuck on 128. this is what happened. this is where we were -- if you were in lent --inland -- this is a plow stuck in the middle of it all. you can see one side of the road is completely clear, the northbound. southbound is where the problems happened and it was an eight mile stretch.
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these tracks are people going from car to car checking on other folks. the police came by. they didn't know where to go. they were in their cars try to keep themselves warm. on some roads, as we were told to not go anywhere, there was just nobody on the roads. i think that is pretty amazing to look at. one thing that we did remember or will remember for a long time is the presence of the army here with us. >> yes. christopher: army trucks, army vehicles, there is a lot of them you will see because these were the only vehicles that could get through the snow. this is looking over 128. these were some of the folks -- it became a spectator sport because nobody had anything else to. [laughter] what else were you going to do? or if you were like mark, you were hoping they would get your car out eventually.
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if you were on the highway, it allowed us to walk many places including walking on the highway. this is in rhode island. a woman named elaine. some of these photos were from newspaper articles, some more from people i met along the way doing research. a couple i may have stolen from the internet and i apologize in advance. [laughter] these were some of the photos from the newspapers. the boston herald won the pulitzer prize for some of the images. that is one of them. the famous cover on my book is one of them. there were three that were submitted and these were the ones that won. >> [indiscernible] christopher: kevin cole. stanley was his editor i think. this illustrates where we were.
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they would go along every mile and cut a hole in and pull out the cars. if you were stuck on the highway and couldn't make it to a shelter or place, you sat around and watched the weather. [laughter] or whatever else was on because you could get home. this is the one where people make fun of this. are you going to run out and get milk and bread? you are going to run out. no. the store is going to run out and you will be able to be restocked at all. this is from a place in brockton but one of the great parts about it was, in addition to everybody else getting stuck, the bread truck got stuck. [laughter] they just delivered all the bread to the store. if you lived -- i think this was the brockton public market -- you had no problems. this is one of my favorite,
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favorite pictures ever. route 195. [laughter] they just turned around and said were not going any further. the question in the city was where do you put the snow? you cannot probably see it but this says "car here." [laughter] people would put those in the snow to make sure you knew because if you are walking down the street, you might have a car underfoot. people walked everywhere. it was the only way to get anywhere or you ski down the train tracks. why not? the t was an operating. [laughter] another great photo from brockton. stanley bauman, this became a
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famous photo. i also put it on the cover of the book. years later on the 25th anniversary, i want to say it was this guy's son or nephew was tried to re-create the picture but couldn't find a phone booth. [laughter] he had to sit on a mailbox on a cell phone. it was actually kind of funny. i wish i had the picture but they would not sell it to me. you walked everywhere and then when the plows were able to get out they had a job ahead of them which was incredible. sometimes they didn't get to do the job. [laughter] this is from connecticut. connecticut was another place hard-hit. this is the other thing to remember. we didn't take as many pictures as we did today. if someone for my family wants
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to take a picture of the slideshow, that would be a great idea. but we didn't take as many pictures. this was great that there was a shot but that was one of the things. as things were happening taking a picture was a big deal. you had to have a camera, get the film developed, it took time. we don't have as many pictures of things as they were happening as we do today. the other thing that is interesting, anyone who is a photography person will appreciate this. 25 years later or 23 years later when i started calling people i said, i want to see your blizzard pictures. they said, what? we don't do negatives anymore. those are in the attic. the technology even then is different. we have these things locked away a little bit. one of the things i like to say is if we are trying to remember this is straight, if you have
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these images or negatives, get them printed. to it now before we lose this kind of stuff because it is a great thing. any environmentalists? turn your head. [laughter] we didn't know what to do with the snow so we dumped it in the river or ocean. there is the photo from kevin cole. there have been others like that of the same idea but that was a pull a surprise winning photo. we talked about the ice flows. dennis i think mentioned that in the lobsters and fish. this is what we were used to on the coast. there also was a tanker off the coast of salem that ran aground in the coast guard rescue mission failed actually. some folks drowned trying to save the people on this tanker. there were tragedies. there were 54 people who died. some of them were in cars, some of them were drowned in the
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floodwaters. there were a lot of good memories of people getting to know each other again, getting to know their neighbors and learning about each other, and some tragedy. one of the big things that happened which beach erosion. this is along plymouth. remember in the 1980's we started having these problems with the cliffs and this is why. if it didn't happen during the storm, it was undermined enough that erosion would take it away later. when things started to kind of calm down a little bit, the water started to calm down, we had snow and ice in our cars were pushed everywhere. this is up in riviera beach. this shows some of the damage. they also the presence of the national guard and army. old orchard beach in maine. the pier is still there.
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a couple of landmarks were lost. anyone read henry beston? this got completely destroyed. motif number one, that is what it looked like in 1977. that is what it looks like in 1978. now we are back to this sort of, but this was vulnerable. anybody read the globe this past week? this was kind of cool. anyone go to pier 4. >> yeah. christopher: did you get the popovers? >> yeah. christopher: it is now being redeveloped. for 10 years the steamship, which was very similar to the
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mayflower that we had here, the ss peter steiversan was also here. it was stable and it was a place to be. >> low. whoa. christopher: it was picked up out of the cradle and onto its side and it didn't make it. the reason i mention did anyone read the news, the ship was scrapped. what we didn't know is that a piece of the under structure and some of the ship was still down there. they just sort of left it there and as the redevelopment of the peir started -- pier started
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they started pulling up the ship. >> [indiscernible] christopher: that's where i stole the picture from. [laughter] >> what was the name of the boat? christopher: ss peter stuyvesant . he was the guy that settled new york. he bought the boat but never renamed it. i don't know why he didn't name it the john adams or john winthrop. we moved to the coast. these photos will be more familiar to all of us but one of the things i think we don't remember as clearly was we had water, we had snow but then we had mud, dirt, rocks. some of them were probably ice flows knocking on dennis' door but also rocks. you can see all the stuff that was pushed into somebody's living room. this was a long minin.
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this is the damage. this is what was left over. >> [indiscernible] christopher: i'm not exactly sure where this is. i thought this was the top of a house picked up and pushed over but it was stuff pushed into a house which is amazing to me. this when i think is amazing. this car was just parked in someone's driveway and all of that stuff piled it up. >> [indiscernible] christopher: i would guess. this is probably the best plumber ever. [laughter] the entire house was destroyed except for the plumbing. [laughter] whoever that guy was, you've got to see some humor in it. our hometown paper. the headline, which i think is interesting, this is days later. still trying to get the water level down.
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the water stayed in the streets on the oceanside. we have the drain system now which runs under nantasket avenue out to brockton circle, draper avenue. we needed to get the water out and back into the ocean because it was staying here and that is what the boats were driving through. >> [indiscernible] christopher: pumps. pump it out and keep it going. it was just a time-consuming process. these were folks that found their homes damaged. right out here -- there is paragon. right in the front beach parking is at a premium. good old paragon. there was a lot of snow and a lot of water. the story -- not a lot of pictures inside either. i asked myron clayman whose
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family was part of the family that owned the park and they felt so awful about looking around they didn't take any pictures. they didn't want to remember it. but the story he told about the force of the water -- two stories he told. one was funny. there was a guy that was the caretaker all winter and he called myron at home and said, myron, you have got to come down and help me with this water coming in. he said, go down to the shop on the second floor and set up their. you will be fine. he said, i am on the second floor. [laughter] the water is up to my chest and i don't know what to do. if you know myron, he had a great sense of humor and he said get the hell out of their. [laughter] but they had these custom-built picnic benches that were heavy. it usually took three or four guys to pick them up and move them.
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they were in storage and weighted down with stuff. they were picked up over the fence and brought all the way to the back. tells you the force of the water. there verizon machinery and things that were there that needed to be repaired. according to myron some of the games were saved which i think is hysterical. they were under saltwater for two weeks but they were still working. [laughter] but a lot of the machinery had to be replaced and the amusement park industry is pretty tightknit. they came and helped him, people from other parks. this was taken by my brother that shows you the water level. i wish we had thought to pose somebody there to show you how high it is but that was a long park avenue. this was the bathhouse along what is now a concrete -- it was built in 1978 after this -- this
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was part of the original bathhouse destroyed. fascination which is now dream machine, the penny arcade completely blown out from beginning to end. along the bathhouse -- sorry. just completely took away the seawall that was there. this is in gun rock -- gunrock. you can see all the muck they had to clear out but these were the guys from the national guard and the army. you can see the bulldozers and tanks always around. red cross ambulance down at the a street fire. >> they also had a full-service bar on the second floor. [laughter] christopher: ok.
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i'm with you. the other thing that happened as we had to clean up or folks had to clean up was all of these cars that were underwater didn't work anymore. they had to be taken away. this is across from the temple on nantasket avenue. i don't know why that cars facing the wrong way. probably got pushed by the snow. where did they put them? we had an empty piece of land down there. this is the bayside lot filled with cars as people put them off the street. this is what was a relatively new road. it is just filled with stuff, dirt, muck. as you can see from where we were they turned to the camera and looked this way. the seawall is destroyed and
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stuff is just everywhere. along samiset -- did you find your house? i want to say that is revere street. this is, to me, this famous image of hull. this blue van in front of the temple. this is days after the storm. still underwater. water just everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. people were living in schools. the reason we were out of school was because people were living in the schools. i stole that from somebody. the corner of a street and central. he is up to his knees and water. when the tides receded you saw
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what happened. you saw what damage could be done. flip the car. -- flipped a car. this is two days after the storm. long beach avenue there are some shots here of utter destruction and one of the things that is interesting is in some of these areas now the dunes have grown a little bit, but it still shows you the destruction. if you are some of mike me that likes to walk the beach because it is peaceful, look at what the water can do. this is the small house at the point of ollerton an nantasket avenue. down by the museum -- there is the museum -- but look at the piles of mud.
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it took a plow to get rid of the snow but this is to get rid of the other stuff. the house behind the museum. i did mention there was a fire here in the village. two houses were burned. this is the remains of the two houses. we wanted to talk about irony about all of us being unable to come because of the snow. they couldn't fight the fire because they couldn't get to the hydrant because there was too much water. if you think about the irony -- >> a lot of people did not have flood insurance. christopher: did not have flood insurance. >> then their houses were burning down. [laughter] christopher: i never thought of it that way but ok. we will finish up in just a minute.
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how bad the seawalls are. the destruction of the water. this is one of my favorites. this is a hole in the seawall. it looks like a painting but this is a long channel street along the dustbowl. this is gunrock and we will get closer to stony beach. >> [indiscernible] christopher: this one right here? >> [indiscernible] christopher: ah. >> after the storm. christopher: did you really? >> [indiscernible] wonderful times. christopher: you were right on the water. we have a couple of pictures of that house. >> [indiscernible] said we could have a party. christopher: you certainly had a front row view. look how damaged it is. once a seawall becomes breached like that it is really useless.
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this is a long stony beach across from you. number 31 stony beach road. >> i watched that collapse and videos. christopher: this video we are talking about, look how it is pointed this way. i think there are just two parking spaces now. you see it pointed straight up. this is the reverse view of it pointed straight up and this is the sandbag while we were talking about that wasn't there. these are the houses dennis and i were talking about. this is the house, or what was the house. this one now has that cool atrium window on the front of it. another view of it. just an amazing, amazing look at what can happen along the way. this is a better view. this is taken from up above looking down stony beach. this was installed after by forest labor. [laughter]
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but along the atlantic avenue, the piles of muck. couple of houses if you drive down and were to look -- if you were driving down atlantic and look to the left, there are a couple of spaces where there were houses. this is one of them. after the storm the government decided to buy out some of the people that were in these houses, in these areas prone to flooding, and a couple of them did sell. those pieces of land are owned by the town. this is looking into somebody's kitchen at everything just thrown in. there is your house. >> there is my house. christopher: what's left of it. that house is still there actually. not sitting like this but still there. >> there were three houses in between mine and the next. christopher: there were houses here. >> three. christopher: i think the one next to you was never rebuilt.
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>> there were three that were not rebuilt. christopher: oh, three were not rebuilt. the crane in the back is beginning to take down the houses. there is the foundation of one of them. some of them were just never rebuilt. this is the white house being taken down. this is how it ended. some of them were just completely unusable and unsalable. the other thing that happened was the red cross helped a lot of people in hull and set up a disaster center at town hall and the damon school. anybody live in the damon plays condos? good. that was right where -- that was where you went if you were staying in the middle school as a shelter. the damon school was the place you went for disaster help and town hall was another place you
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were able to get supplies, help and information. we are just about wrapping up. a few things that i mentioned. the bean pot tournament in the video. that was happening and it was close to valentine's day. the florists and candy people went crazy because nobody could get out to buy flowers and cards. [laughter] we ended up with valentines week that year. we had ash wednesday not that week but the following week but we were still under this don't leave your house thing. the archbishop, i think it was cardinal maderos, did away with lent and whatever. [laughter] i think the quote in the globe was "god understands." do what you have to do. [laughter]
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valentines week was kind of cool. the other think it was funny or not funny was life went on. we had weddings that were canceled or moved or held in various things. funerals as well for people who were already planned as much as they can be planned. you couldn't get to where you had to go you, -- to go, you couldn't have a proper sendoff. we think about a storm and we think about it leaving and the sun comes out the next day but the effect of the blizzard and the reason it is still, 39 years later -- 50, 60 people in a room talking about it -- it affected us so much. the thing i want to finish on is anyone remember those bumper stickers? >> yes. christopher: you have the book right? one of the reasons i'm interested in this topic and i
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am here tonight is my dad came up with that slogan. >> aw. christopher: there he is. these were the state senator and state representative. hull was the only town that in the year afterward held an appreciation day. it was called hull appreciation day for the people that came to help. the american red cross, the mennonites of pennsylvania, a bunch of other groups. who ever came there was a fantastic day. it started with sunrise service at fort revere. they went to paragon park which was open again. and there was a fair that was held at the work mansion. everyone or member the work mansion? >> before it burned. christopher: yes. this was a fundraiser and it became this idea that people really did have an appreciation
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for the help people gave them and understood that that piece of community, because that's what we kept hearing -- the blizzard brought people together in a way it hadn't before. people knew their neighbors in a different way because they were stuck with them. [laughter] but they were really trying to figure out what it is that made our community special and that was one of the things. the last slide i want to end with is when i was writing the book at the 25th anniversary of the blizzard one of the things was what have we learned? have we learned anything? are we better prepared? are we doing anything differently? the answer was no, we are not. flood insurance is still a major issue. but one of the things that is happening and happening now more and more these people are taking effort, better efforts, to
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protect their homes and their selves. i don't know if this is in response to somebody trying to flood proof their home or if they were just fixing the foundation, but it was an example of if we want to avoid what is happening next, this is what we need to do and these are the steps we need to take. i think we are better prepared from a warning point of view. we take better steps now and we tried to be better at preventing things from happening. but if we really, really, really want to preserve our way of life around the ocean and near the ocean, we need to be ready for the next storm of the next century which we are already in. hopefully it will go anytime soon. i thank you for your attention and i thank you for being here. [applause] announcer: american history tv is on social media. follow us @c-spanhistory. the c-span city's tour travels
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the country exploring the american story. since 2011 we have been to more than 200 communities across the nation. like many americans our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. next a look at one of the city's tour visits. announcer: the following program has images some viewers may find disturbing. viewer discretion is advised. >> the book is "the big show in bololand." the first thing i realized was there was no book about the 1921, 19 22 famine in english. i would have to do double duty. the famine and the relief. the thing that happens to me and a lot of people as i get into the archives, i opened up an archival
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