The Great
Storm of 1933
(This hurricane
is the storm that brought the families of many of Morattico's current residents
from Tangier Island to Morattico)
August 23, 1933: The hurricane was born
off the Cape Verde Islands. It
reached Category 4 strength, but
weakened to a Category two and grew in
size before making landfall. The storm
approached the coast with its
area of maximum winds pushing water into
the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
North winds down the bay formed a bulge
of water in the Tidewater area
that moved north up the Bay and its
tributaries as the storm did. This
storm caused record high tides up the
entire west side of the Chesapeake
Bay with damages the highest ever
recorded from a storm surge. The
hurricane caused a total of 18 deaths
and 79 million dollars (adjusted
to 1969) in damages in Virginia. 15
lives were lost in the Tidewater
area. Huge plate glass windows in
downtown Norfolk crashed under the
pressure of the wind showering the walks
and streets with glass; awnings
and signs were ripped and large shade
tree (easy prey after the
record-breaking rain of 6.5 inches the
Sunday before) blew over, in many
cases carrying electrical and telephone
wires with them. Virtually the
entire tidewater area including Virginia
Beach was paralyzed by the
storm in the way of communication,
electricity, water service, and
traffic. 79,000 telephones were put out
of commission and over 600
trees, many of them a century old, were
uprooted in the city, while
shrubs, gardens, lawns, and parks
suffered severely. Highest 1-minute
wind speed was 70 mph at Norfolk, 82 mph
at Cape Henry, and 88 mph at
NAS, Norfolk. As the storm moved north
out of the densely populated
tidewater area, damages in the
commonwealth were largely to crops: $2
million (1933 dollars) in corn, $2
million in tobacco, $750,000 in
apples and half a million in other crops.
Record Tidal Surge: Established
the record high tide of 9.8
feet above Mean Low Low Water (8.0 ft
MSL) at Sewells Point with 9.0 ft
in Norfolk and 9.3 ft at Portsmouth
gages. The downtown business area
was flooded as never seen before. Stores
on Granby Street were flooded,
on the west side, from Atlantic Hotel to
Tazewell Street (about 4
blocks) and for nearly the same distance
on the east side, the water
being 4 feet deep on the street floor of
many businesses, damaging
stocks of goods and fixtures, as well as
the structures. Damage to
merchandise, stored in the warehouses
and piers also suffered heavy
damage. On Willoughby Spit, water
reached the ceiling of many homes and
141 were destroyed. Water at Virginia
Beach reached 8.6 ft MSL on the
Atlantic side (the tide reached two
blocks in from the beach), 8.6 ft
MSL at Lynnhaven Inlet, 8 ft at
Lynnhaven Bay and at East Bridge on the
Elizabeth River and only 3.8 ft MSL at
Back Bay. Extensive damage to
water front property occurred. At
Buckroe Beach and Old Point, 60 homes
and stores were demolished in addition
to concession stands, fishing
camps and seine houses. West Point on
the York River had is highest tide
of 10 feet Mean Low Water (8.5 ft MSL)
which is 5 feet above flood level
where minimum damage begins. About 5% of
the residential area was
flooded and a paper mill had about 5
feet of water. Yorktown also had
considerable flooding. It reached an
estimated 9.7 feet above Mean Low
Water which is about over 5 feet above
were damage from flooding begins.
Gwynn Island in Mathews County estimated
a tide of 8 feet Mean Low Water
for New Point Comfort (6.9 ft MSL in
Matthews). Roads begin to flood at
about 5 ft Mean Low Water. Homes, an
oyster plant and a store were
flooded. Urbanna in Middlesex County on
the Rappahannock River estimated
their highest tide at 5.7 ft Mean Low
Water (7 ft MSL). Some summer
cottages and an oyster plant had about 4
feet of water. Higher up river,
Tappahannock had a tide estimated at 8
ft Mean Low Water which is about
4 ft above flood. Lower on the River,
Morattico in Lancaster County
reached an estimated tide of 7 ft above
Mean Low Water and the entire
town floods at 6 feet with roads
flooding at 4.5 ft. At Dahlgren on the
Potomac River, tides were estimated to
have reached 8.5 ft above Mean
Low Water (close to 8 ft MSL) by the
Dock Supervisor.