The catastrophic Hurricane of 1938 hit Bourne on the afternoon of Sept. 21, killing seven townspeople. Selectmen in their report said the storm “tore through an unprepared community; the angry sea irritated by ceaseless winds, arose like one huge wave and approached helpless nearby villages.”
Buzzards Bay shopkeepers were forced to evacuate their businesses due to rising water, and townspeople boarded themselves up in their homes.
Selectmen later praised the National Guard, which patrolled the town for two weeks, “keeping the hungry looters on the starving line.”
The Bourne Courier’s Paul Gately recently spoke to people who remember the storm.
Hunkering down on the farm Pat Fisher, Head of the Bay
We were living at what was then Bay End Farm in Head of the Bay. I was home with my mother and father. I couldn’t believe they were picking people up at the [Main Street] fire station to take them to higher ground.
This was way back when Mrs. (Hope) Ingersoll and the Garlands had guests staying at Taylors Point. We had to go down and get them, pick them up and bring them back to the farm to get them out of harm’s way.
Getting out of Burtonwood William Wright, Pocasset
We were living at Burtonwood. My father came home and loaded us up. Said it was time to go; and we went to Pocasset and watched the storm from the top of the hill. The high ground. It was something.
Water flowed through Keith Car Donald Ellis, Sagamore
We had a birthday party planned for me at my grandmother’s place in Sagamore. Six or seven people were invited. The storm really hadn’t started yet. Everybody showed up. But my father decided he should take everyone home.
He had a Ford convertible. The top was on. I insisted on riding in the rumble seat. But I soon changed my mind. It was a memorable birthday.
When the storm tapered off, we walked down to the canal, and the water was flowing through the remnants of the old (Keith) Car Works. You can’t imagine the amount of debris floating down the canal.
Water swelled up Back River Mabel Anderson, Monument Beach
I was at home with my parents on County Road when the water came up Back River, through the marsh, up the hill owned by the town, I think, and crept across County Road. It was quite a storm. Monument Beach got whacked pretty good.
All Moody’s turkeys drowned Dudley Jensen,Bourne
It was the depths of the depression. I was back in Schenectady with my mother, who planned to teach school there. We came back the weekend after the storm. Old Shore Road was moved 50 feet by the tidal surge up Back River. But the rail bridge didn’t seem to be damaged.
All of Carlton Moody’s turkeys drowned. Old Dam Road residents evacuated to the Chamberlain homestead up at County Road. It was the highest point around.
I was in Wisconsin; I had just gone out there. But the family cottage (at Phinneys Point) took a blast. The first floor of the cottage was gone. And the bedrooms were right down on the ground.
We rebuilt it, and it wasn’t the first time either. Most of the time, this is a great place to live; pleasant, but during the hurricane season it can be different.
I was working for the Works Progress Administration out on the base. Manny Rapoza from East Falmouth was the assistant superintendent. He came back after lunch that day and told the superintendent he should send everyone home because the storm had blown the doors off the pubic works barn in Falmouth.
I went down to Monument Beach and watched the water come up and take out the pier. It was smashed. The pier at the old Hotel Norcross disappeared. We went over to Phinneys Point where Doc Leavitt had a place. He was a surgeon in Brockton, but he was friendly with the call firefighters here.
He left his place open. So three of us went in and started moving things upstairs. When the water finally came in, we decided to get out of there. The wind was blowing.”
Aboard a train, cut off from the world Barbara Condon, South Plymouth
Iwas on the train coming from New York, along the water in Connecticut. There was no talk of a storm. No phones. Nobody had a radio. It’s like we were cut off from the world. Isn’t it funny. And the storm was probably moving faster than we were.
My brother met me, and it was beginning to really blow; water all around us. We got home, and we had been the first to receive electricity (at Great Herring Pond) in those days. But we lost power and it wasn’t restored for about three weeks.
We learned the hard way; to fill the tub with fresh water so we could at least flush the toilet. We washed our dishes in the lake.
A beautiful forest quickly destroyed Jim Mulvey, Buzzards Bay
I was living in Worcester. My mother had walked to the market. I watched out the living room window and saw a crab apple and pear tree next door go over. In walked my mother with two grocery bags in her arms, wet but holding together.
I remember the major destruction of several acres of 60 to 100 white pines at a large tract owned by Crompton & Knowles Co. It was used as a beach and recreational area for employees.
So much timber felled, the company brought in a sawmill that worked for months, turning out lumber used to ship their looms worldwide. I vividly remember this beautiful shaded forest tumbled like jack straws. Our home was largely untouched.
I particularly remember the impression I had the next day when the newspapers came out with pictures of the total devastation at Westerly, R.I., with whole areas of home gone and the damage at New Bedford and the Buzzards Bay area.
It was a horror for a lot of people Jane Nam, Bourne
I was up at Head of the Bay in school; in the fourth grade. After school I went home to my friend Ruthie Raymond’s house to play. Later the tree trunks started wavering; they were shaking.
My father came and took me home. He worked for the Nickerson funeral home people. He had to go back out in the middle of the night due to the drownings in Buzzards Bay.
I was too young and too dumb to realize the horror of it all. It was so exciting, but it was a horror for a lot of people.
Shore Road at Back River was gone Gardner Nightingale, Monument Beach
I was on the police force then as a clerk when that thing hit; on duty. It was a pretty tough storm, actually. Bill Crump was the police chief. He sent me to Monument Beach for one reason or another.
When I crossed the Bourne Bridge, it was actually moving in the wind. I got as far as Back River on Shore Road. But the road there was gone. You couldn’t get to Monument Beach along Shore Road.
I was 10, living in Sagamore. We had a tree come down but nothing like the damage at the other end of the canal with all that water.
Nobody knew what was going on. We had radios, but there were no warnings. The wind started to blow and the storm hit. The power went out. We had never had a storm like that before.
Bourne Courier
