Page 101 - Fish in OC Magazine 2024
P. 101
THE HURRICANE OF 1933
TUESDAY / AUGUST 22
Fred Segelken / White Marlin Sliding away in the post-storm flooding.
Ocean City dates its history back to 1875, but But before that, Ocean City had endured four
the resort town we know today really didn’t take long days of torrential rain. One hard-to-believe
shape until Aug. 22, 1933. That’s when a hel- newspaper account says that 10 inches of rain
lacious storm tore a hole through town and al- fell on Ocean City on each and every one of
tered the course of its future forever. those four days. That was just the warm-up act.
Nobody gave names to storms back then, so The hurricane itself lasted two days. Winds de-
this one is generally known as The Hurricane of stroyed the boardwalk. Streets filled with flood-
1933. It arrived in the midst of one of the wick- waters, sweeping cars and trucks up and away
edest hurricane seasons ever with 20 big storms with the current. A good number of homes and
formed in the North Atlantic that year. businesses were washed into the ocean. Many
of those left standing were badly damaged. But
The storm made landfall on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Ocean City was lucky in one respect: While the
