2 LIVING HERE 



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47 



across the street against 100-mile-per-hour winds and waited tensely in the 

 familiar Mess building well into the night for relief from the storm and word 

 of relatives and friends. News of drownings and of lost houses and boats 

 began to come in. Finally, relief arrived when the wind picked up from the 

 north; water flowed from the Buzzards Bay side through the streets of 

 Woods Hole and out to sea. Maria's husband arrived safely, at last. Then it 

 was time for everyone to assess damages and to compare stories. 



Water had rushed into the basement of the brick buildings. Chemicals 

 of all sorts floated around chaotically in the dark, deepening water. The 

 carefully gathered animals in the collecting cage next to the dock had 

 escaped as the high water released them. The reprints in the library base- 

 ment absorbed water, turning an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 of them into a 

 worthless, soggy mess. Main Street had had knee-deep water, and the 

 drawbridge foundations had shifted and cracked with tlie flood. But the 

 rushing water from Buzzards Bay pushed back to safety many of the boats 

 that had nearly been beached on Woods Hole streets. 



In total, the MBL suffered only about $20,000 damage, and the Carnegie 

 Institution, which had befriended the MBL before, quickly came forth with 

 the money to make repairs and replace supplies. But outside the MBL there 

 were drownings and great financial loss. Individuals lost their boats or 

 suffered damage to the contents of their basements. There was also such 

 great devastation along the train track into Boston that no one around at that 



Receding water in Eel Pond after Hurricane Carol had passed, 1954. MBL Archivea 



If 



