Adventures in Gastronomy

Here’s a posting all of my Cape Cod readers may recall. My last summer on Cape Cod was 1991…and less than two weeks before I was to permanently move to Boston, the region was struck by Hurricane Bob. The track of the storm brought it just west of the Cape Cod Canal. As with all hurricanes, the strongest winds are to the east of the eye so the Cape received the brunt of the storm (as it was the only land east of the eye as you can see by the green portion of the track in this map):

However, the further away you got from the eye (Chatham, for example) the less damage there was. The worst of the storm struck the Buzzards Bay area (Wareham, Bourne and even Falmouth) were some coastal homes were literally moved off their foundations. Osterville was somewhere in between. The storm was a level 3 just before hitting the Cape, but when we got hit on Monday, August 19, 1991 it was a level 2 – with sustained winds of 90+ miles per hour and gusts up to 120 miles per hour.

My family watched in the morning as the clouds grew ominous. We could hear the winds get worse – yet for some reason we had very little rain. Mostly, we had ocean spray (you could smell the salt in the air when the storm was over). The winds were so strong that entires trees were up-rooted and we lost portions of our roof. Fortunately, no trees landed on our house. I can’t say the same for three of our neighbors. Our house was white and the side facing south-east (the direction the wind came from) ended up with a pale green shade as a result of the grass and leaves that were blowing in that direction.

We were without electricity for 6 days which I didn’t really mind except that I was dying to see footage of the storm on the news. Well, and having no hot water after the second day was rather annoying, too. That Friday I had to go to Wentworth for something (make a payment? orientation? I can’t recall) and I was relieved that they let me use their hot showers. The drive up to Boston was very interesting, too, because the damage became non-existent within miles of the canal. It was like nothing had happened up there. Yet 75 miles south was a whole different story.

I also recall within a week or so of the storm that the trees all shed their leaves (what few leaves were left, that is). But then the trees tried growing their leaves back again off-season, only to lose them again weeks later at the normal time in October.

Anyway, why am I bringing all this up? Well, because I scanned those photos yesterday! Enjoy!

Here is the back corner of our yard.

And the other side of the back yard. Notice the leaning telephone pole? It snapped at the base and was propped up by the tree. It remains that way to this day (well, at least until my parents sold the house 10 years later).

And our front yard…notice the three completely uprooted trees across the street? Those were HUGE trees – as tall as the tree that remains standing.

This is at the end of our street at West Bay. Even in these protected waters boats were thrown into the street and onto people’s yards.

And here I am….in my neighbors yard (the top of the tree is on their house).

And here’s my street from a different angle. My house is the white thing in the center left behind the trees.

This is the same street facing the other direction. It was completely blocked for a week by many trees.

This is Main Street in Osterville. See the snapped-in-half utility pole hanging sideways by wires?

Another shot of Main Street in Osterville – the main road into (and out of) the village.

My other neighbors…they lost two huge trees.

Another neighbor – this tree even took the sidewalk! This one landed on their house, unfortunately.

And here’s a bit of whimsy taken a few nights later in my neighbors yard. In case it’s not legibile, the signs says: “Pictures $1.00. With the female crew, $2.00. Kisses, $3.00. Advice from Lucy, 5 cents.”

March 21st, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl

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