Hurricane Carol: August 1954

[Alan Bernheimer Jr]

These photos were shot by my father, Dr. A.W. Bernheimer, with his old Kodak bellows camera that used postcard-sized film. Hurricane Carol swept through Cold Spring Harbor on August 31, 1954. Since I was only six at the time, I can’t dredge up many memories of the event. The summer of Carol was the last year Mark Adams taught the Phage Course at CSHL. At the height of the storm surge, he rowed his rowboat across Rte. 25A.


All these pictures are of the 1954 hurricane Carol and the storm surge that came well over the seawall.

This picture shows the corner of Jones lab and the dock with the ramp sloping up, rather than horizontal or down. The seawall is submerged.



This picture shows the small sailboats pulled up on the dock to ride out the storm. The one on the right, still afloat, looks like my father’s boat, the Henry Morgan.



This is a view from an ivy-covered hillside southeast of Wawepex, showing Wawepex and the back side of Jones. Water didn’t quite reach the old crab apple tree that dominated the lawn between the buildings, with its wooden bench encircling the trunk. I remember the tree on the right as a black cherry. Wawepex in those days housed the children’s nature study program in the summertime.



This is a similar view but more to the east. The sandspit is barely visible, with gas tanks across the harbor.