Worst ocean storm ......

[bgreene]

My vote goes for the "Perfect Storm ".....about 15 years ago.
The one that took out the Andrea Gail.

I've never seen the ocean so riled up. Hurricane Grace was turning up the atlantic while a low pressure system and a cold front were colliding in the north atlantic.

The entire ocean from Florida to Nova Scotia was rough - as if the entire ocean was being shaken up.

When the hurricane fed into that north atlantic system - it was like " jet fuel " tying right into the low pressure bomb.

I read that buoy's recorded maximum waves to 125' of Mass.
The north atlantic was heaving - conditions as bad as nearly possible.
People died out there -rescue people, fishermen....

[Destroyer]

I remember in the early 60's there was a huge nor'easter that came tearing up the Atlantic coast. Dubbed the Ash Wendsday storm of 1962, it is the most devastating storm to ever hit the Jersey shore. Although they wern't the biggest tides ever recorded in NJ it was 5-6 days of super high tides ... it was so bad that it drove the Destroyer USS Monssen aground in Beach Haven Inlet, Long Beach Township. She was being towed up the coast to the Philly Naval yards and she broke loose from the tug during the storm. It took almost 6 months to get her afloat again. It cut a path through the island into Barnaget Bay in several places and nearly destroyed the island in it's entirety.. More than 4000 homes along the NJ coastline were destroyed.

[bgreene]

That's right - the 62 storm was savage on the NJ coast.

[reelapeelin]

Knowing that kind of storm is eventual had me scratching my head a bit during my recent trip to the NJ coast...I was very surprised at how close to water and close to the ground many of the coastal homes were built...

[lumberslinger178]

Destoryer those pictures were from the 1944 hurricane not the 62 storm the 62 storm was in March and wasnt as voilent as others what did the damage was the record high tide the distruction on LBI was from the houses that floated off there foundations and washed around the island.... I was only 3 yrs old but my Dad and his friends have lots of stories.

[phatdaddy]

usually it's whatever week i take off for vacation...

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by lumberslinger178

Destoryer those pictures were from the 1944 hurricane not the 62 storm the 62 storm was in March and wasnt as voilent as others what did the damage was the record high tide the distruction on LBI was from the houses that floated off there foundations and washed around the island.... I was only 3 yrs old but my Dad and his friends have lots of stories.

I was a senior in High school when it hit. Even though my family lived in Clifton, NJ we still felt the effects of the storm in the form of sleet, rain and heavy winds for several days. I pulled those pics off the internet, and it was one pic, so the two bottom shots may indeed have been from 1944, but there's no doubt that the DD lying on it's belly is from the Ash Wed storm. She ran aground on March 6, 1962 after being savaged by 10-25 foot waves and wind gusts of up to 60 knots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monssen_(DD-798)

For a complete accounting of the storm you can go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wed..._Storm_of_1962

A brief excerpt on how the storm got it's name comes from that link and states that:

Its impact was so powerful that the U.S. Weather Bureau took the extraordinary step of giving it a name: "The Great Atlantic Storm." It is also known as "Five High Storm" because it lingered off the Atlantic Coast of the northeast United States over a period of five high tides. However, because the heaviest damages occurred in most areas on Wednesday, March 7, which was the Christian holiday of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent that year, it has become most popularly well-known as the "Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962."

In NJ alone over 45,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged. It was considered by the U.S. Geological Survey to be one of the most destructive storms ever to affect the mid-Atlantic states. One of the ten worst storms in the United States in the 20th century, it lingered through five high tides over a three day period, killing 40 people, injuring over 1,000 and causing hundreds of millions in property damage in six states.

I remember that in July of that year we went to the shore after school was out and we went to LBI for a look/see.. all you could see were sticks (telephone poles) sticking up out of the ground that used to have houses on top of them. Several areas were still closed and we never were able to get to the Lighthouse because the road was still being repaired from being severed in a few places.