Hurricanes
My first Hicksville September was in 1954, and it was dramatic. Hurricane Carol knocked out telephone service and power for 200,000 LILCO customers, including most of Hicksville. Winds tore shingles and antennas from houses; rain found new ways to leak into homes. We read by candlelight, as we had been told Abe Lincoln had done. A record tidal surge of 14.4 feet flooded the coast. With aircraft all across the east seeking shelter, Mitchel Field offered use of its hangar space, after first evacuating the bombers stationed there to inland USAF bases.
No one had been ready, largely because the day before, Carol had been downgraded to a gale, and forecasts called only for rain and occasional gusts of wind. Oops. Ten days later, when Hurricane Edna struck, people were better prepared. Ahead of time, LILCO conferred with contractors at the Old Country Road offices, planning which of them would be dispatched to repair fallen power lines in different parts of the Island.
This time, workers at La Guardia built a temporary dike to keep out surging sea water:
New York Daily News, September 11, 1954
Although Edna did not strike Long Island as squarely as Carol had, it deposited more rain in 24 hours than Greater New York had received in such a period in more than 50 years. Before our power died (it soon would be restored), we watched WPIX broadcast storm scenes live, a first for the New York area. The next day, much of our class time was spent talking about having once again "roughed it" at home with no power.
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