Path of Hurricane Donna
In 1960, when I was five years old (yes, boys and girls, just after the age of the dinosaurs), my family rode out a major hurricane that struck most of Florida. This was the mighty Hurricane Donna, for decades listed among the top ten most destructive hurricanes in American history. Thanks to the climate crisis, Donna has long since been eclipsed by monsters such as Katrina, Andrew, Sandy, and others. Now, sadly, Ian will probably be added to that list. The beginning of Ian's path seems remarkably similar to Donna's back in 1960.
Donna was a Category 4 hurricane that devastated Florida and went on to move up the entire Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. from Georgia to Maine, hugging the coast and creating havoc wherever it went. It eventually ended up as far north as Quebec and Labrador.
My family lived in Dallas at the time, but we'd been visiting my grandparents in Orlando. We were on the verge of wrapping up our vacation and heading home when word came of the approaching hurricane (thank you National Weather Service--the things we take for granted in our modern world!).
Because my grandparents were old, and because we would have gotten caught up in the massive exodus on highways out of the area, my parents decided to stay and ride it out with the elders. Fortunately Orlando isn't on the coast; the tidal storm surge on the southwest coast of Florida (scene of today's Ian) from Donna was eleven feet. But even inland, she did some major damage.
Photos top, middle, and bottom: Aftermath of Hurricane Donna
Remember that building codes were vastly different sixty years ago and buildings more vulnerable. I'll never forget the intensity of my father and grandfather working together to prepare the house for the storm. They installed support timbers at various points to buttress the roof inside the house (this turned out to be a very wise precaution, as you will shortly see). They methodically criss-crossed masking tape in a tight, even diagonal pattern across the inside of every window so that if the windows broke the tape would capture the flying glass. My mother went to the grocery store to stock up and the scene was just the same as it probably is today with any advancing hurricane. She said the frenzy was as if war had been declared. The shelves were bare of non-perishables like bottled water, bread, and canned food. Realize, youngsters, that sixty years ago there were only a fraction of the food products there are now, and not many convenience foods--certainly no Tetra Paks existed for things like shelf-stable milk and juice. My mother particularly remembered the grocery store begging customers to take as much of the frozen food as they wanted for free, since it would spoil with the coming power outage.
Aftermath of Hurricane Donna
When the storm hit, the six of us (grandparents, parents, little brother and me) sat huddled together on the floor in the main room. There was some kind of lantern--kerosene, maybe? I don't remember, but it must have been. Of course we lost power almost immediately although I remember that, oddly enough, the telephone worked (landline back then, naturally). One could make and receive calls but there was a roaring sound in the background during conversation. No one but my mother could sleep during the storm because of the tremendous roaring sound. And in the middle of the night, at the height of the hurricane passing over Orlando, a gigantic palm tree uprooted and crashed against the roof of the house. I'll never forget the sound of that crash. We all looked up in fearful silence as the roof shuddered, but the internal supports kept it from collapsing. Then I remember the sound of that massive tree rolling down the roof and falling to the ground.
Suddenly, just like that, it was over. The next morning everyone came out of their houses to look at the destruction and swap stories. I played with the kids next door and we climbed over the fallen palm tree.
Because of its devastating effects and high mortality, the name Donna was retired forever by the National Weather Service in 1960. It will never again be used for an Atlantic hurricane.
P.S. Interesting fact: in his memoir, Travels with Charley, Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck talks of weathering Hurricane Donna while up in Sag Harbor, Long Island, NY. He nearly drowned trying to save his boat.
Photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Donna are in the public domain and courtesy of Florida State Archives. Map of the path of Hurricane Donna is originally from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and is now in the public domain.
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