Hurricane of 1938 article remembrance
I enjoyed the article and pictures you recently had in the Transcript of the 1938 hurricane in Peterborough. My family and I were survivors of that unforgettable event .
We lived on Summer Street and finally made the decision to leave to higher ground. The firemen were rescuing people from their flooded homes and came to get us. By making a chair with their hands they gathered me up to be carried to the house of a relative. Because the water was so deep, they were unable to see where the sidewalk began and ended. Consequently they were unable to walk and dropped me in the water! Arriving at my Aunt Clara Downing’s house, my cousins were able to provide me with clothes for the rest of our journey. Our next stop was at the Brown family home and we were entertained by the stacks of comic books they had on hand. Knowing that we could not stay there we decided the best thing was to go to my Aunt Lillian’s on Main Street. By now, most of downtown was not only flooded but on fire. Because her building was all wood and because of the fire, we decided to go to people on High Street where we stayed with some family friends for a couple of nights. After two or three days we were able to go back to our soggy home on Summer Street. On arriving, we found our cat on top of the ice box. This memory has stayed with me all these years. … I am now 96 years young! Over the years my son has collected many postcards of the 1938 Hurricane; some of the pictures in the story are the same as what he has in his collection.