Hurricane Hazel Personal Accounts

I was between five and six years old when Hazel ripped through our little village - Homer, New York. Homer is located in the 7 Valley Region of the Finger Lakes area in central N.Y. I don't remember any flooding but the winds were terrible. What I do remember, (vividly, in fact) is my grandma going out to the clothes pole to "rescue a couple of items" when the worst of the winds hit. She was clinging to the pole, her feet blown right out from under her as my dad ran out to save her, literally!!! My older sister, Ellen, had a toothache. The rest of us ( Mom, Dad, Grandma, me and my younger sister) all were scared one minute and bored the next. We all sat at the kitchen table around an oil lamp, as we had no electricity and she held her hand over her cheek, moaning.

My next memory is when it was all over and we drove to check the status of my father's wholesale plumbing and hardware warehouses.

The cement block one was fine - the wood frame building had been completely flattened. I have old black and white pictures of the damage.

Reading about Hurricane Katrina prompted me to research it on the net and, in the process, has brought back these memories.

Barbara Eggleston

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