"Hundreds of boats ranging from small skiffs 

 to luxurious power cruisers and sailboats were 

 smashed to kindling wood. 



"The fleet gathered at Galilee for the Atlantic 

 Tuna Derby sustained major damage, with UO expensive 

 boats sunk or damaged at their moorings in Point 

 Judith Pond. 



"Seawalls weighing thousands of tons were 

 smashed to pebbles and thousands of trees, both 

 inland and along the waterfront, were smashed to 

 the ground. 



"The pattern of the storm as observed by 

 reporters at shore locations began to appear as early 

 as 9:3*^ a.m.. when powerful easterly winds bore in 

 on the coasts. By 10:30 a.m.. tides had risen about 

 5 feet above normal and normally would have begun 

 to ebb. The wind shifted to the southeast during 

 the next hour and finally into the south and south- 

 west. 



"But the water continued to climb higher, finally 

 going 10 or 12 feet above its normal highest level. 



"The highest water, which flooded into downtown 

 Providence stores, ripping out hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars in fixtures and mierchandise and sending 

 shorefront homes topjiling over wavecut banks, actual ly 

 came after the winds began to abate. 



"Tide estimates in the Warren and Harrington 

 Rivers, placed the height of the water at from 10 

 to 1$ feet above normal, where the waterfront picture 

 of devastation was similar to that in the other 

 shore communities. 



"As water fron the Providence River, swollen 

 by torrents from the skies, receded slowly it left 

 the business district strewn with all imaginable 

 kind of debris. 



A-2h. 



