Cape Cod History

1960: A look at Cape Cod history. 1991: Storm waves worse than a hurricane

If this were 1960

Nov. 1, 1960 the headlines in America's newspapers read:

Country to 'Start Moving Again' Kennedy Says, Defense Advances Supersonic Bomber, Nixon Optimism

The story began; "Senator John F. Kennedy called on Americans [yesterday] to tell the world in the election on Nov. 8 that 'this country is going to start moving again,'" The New York Times reported today.  (at right,  Jack, Bobby and Ted in Hyannisport.)

"'I do not downgrade America,' Senator Kennedy said, 'but I do downgrade the kind of leadership America's been getting. I run for the presidency,' he continued, 'not to downgrade America -- but to achieve the kind of America for which every American family fought and in which every American family believes.'"

"The Defense Department, in a reversal of administration policy, ordered today a major expansion in developmental work on the B-70 supersonic bomber," The Times reported.

1991: Storm's Huge Waves Make Hurricane Seem Tame on Massachusetts Coast

Waves breaking over the top of Minot's Light, a 100-foot-tall stone lighthouse off Scituate.

Peter Montgomery knew the storm was bad when he looked out his window Wednesday and saw waves breaking over the top of Minot's Light, a 100-foot-tall stone lighthouse that is a landmark of the Massachusetts coast.

The old gray shingled house where Mr. Montgomery lives, a mile from the lighthouse on a spit of land that juts out into Massachusetts Bay, was also being pounded by the raging northeaster. "Every time a wave hit the building, you could feel it -- va boom! -- the whole house shook," said Mr. Montgomery, a caretaker for a group of summer residents.

Mr. Montgomery and his wife wanted to evacuate, but when he stepped out the back door, a wave came crashing over the top of the three-story building, sending him scurrying back inside. By his calculation, the wave must have been at least 50 feet above the normalhigh-tide mark...

Cape among hardest hit

Parts of Cape Cod were among the hardest-hit areas, especially those facing east and north along the outer Cape from Chatham at the elbow to Provincetown at the tip. "There are some places on the outer Cape where the beach is completely gone," said Tony Bonanno, the chief ranger at the Cape Cod National Seashore. Surprise Lobster Dinner

On Nantucket Island, just south of the Cape, a number of residential areas remained under three to four feet of water today, and several stores were flattened by the pounding waves... NY Times.