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The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
August 16, 2013
80 Years Ago, Storm Created Ocean City Inlet
When Ocean City residents woke up on Aug. 23, 1933, their town was forever changed, as an Inlet was carved. Aside from that new creation, the entire town was under water for several tidal cycles in the days following, right. Photos from Bunk Mann Collection
By SHAWN J. SOPER
NEWS EDITOR
OCEAN CITY – Next week marks 80 years since the epic storm of 1933 ravaged Ocean City, and while the deluge nearly erased the fledgling resort town, the cataclysmic changes left in its wake changed the course of history along the sleepy barrier island forever. Significant storms have hit the resort since, most notably the March
storm in 1962, and Hurricane Gloria in 1985, which ripped up much of the Boardwalk and served as the catalyst for the building of the seawall and the birth of beach replenishment. Most recently, Hurricane Sandy, which brushed Ocean City last October, smashing the end of the iconic fishing pier before moving on to devastate New Jersey and New York, will likely be remembered for decades. However, the 1933 storm has marked the test of time.
In August 1933, the storm battered the Boardwalk and beachfront properties with massive waves, severe rain and hurricane-force winds. The streets of the town were already flooded from four straight days of torrential rains when the wind began to blow and the seas began to rise on Aug. 22. When the storm finally subsided in the evening hours of Aug. 23, the hearty residents who had stayed throughout began to take stock of
the damage. They emerged from their safe havens to find battered and destroyed homes and businesses, streets filled with water and sand, and the Boardwalk, which had been the center of summer activity in the resort just a few days earlier, reduced to kindling. However, the most historically significant change in the storm-ravaged resort was the existence of a new 50-foot-wide, eight-foot-deep SEE NEXT PAGE
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