The Ash Wednesday Storm

　I was looking through an old secretary that my grandmother had and noticed a Times-Herald newspaper dated March 13, 1962. It was a souvenir edition commemorating the Ash Wednesday storm.
The Ash Wednesday Storm was a nor’easter that struck our area March 6-8, 1962. This storm was the earliest memory that I have. I distinctly remember the power being out and our whole family huddling around a fireplace in the living room of our house. The tide had gotten to the side of the sound but did not get in. Isabel was the only tide to enter my parent’s house in Dare.
Poquoson was particularly hard hit. The flooding was the worse since the August 23, 1933 hurricane. The Hurricane Isabel would eclipse the flooding 41 years later.
Army and Nation Guard trucks had to be used to evacuate families from the Messick area. Boats were used for transportation along flooded streets.
Yorktown also saw its worse flooding since the 1933 hurricane. Several businesses were flooded. The mailed had to be transported to and from the Yorktown Post office by a rowboat.
The Ash Wednesday Storm caused severe damage to the Eastern Shore, the Outer Banks and to the Buckroe/Grandview area. Flooding would not reach such proportions until Hurricane Isabel in September 2003.