Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Mueller of the 1300 block of Elizabeth Avenue in Laureldale were swept up in the passage of Hurricane Hazel as it blew through eastern Pennsylvania 70 years ago.
The Oct. 16, 1954, Reading Eagle detailed the predicament of the couple, who operated a chain-owned ice cream stand along Fifth Street Highway near the entrance to the Reading Fairgrounds.
The storm roared into Berks County on Friday the 15th. The Muellers were in their store and when the high winds really kicked in, they ducked inside the large refrigerator in the store. Winds destroyed the building and blew debris against the door, and the Muellers were trapped.
They were trapped for about an hour or so, anyway, before a passing driver pulled over to investigate and approached the wreckage. The man yelled a few times, and the Muellers got his attention and soon were freed.
The storm had knocked out power, like it had for most Berks County residents, so the refrigerator had stopped working.
Hazel’s passage set a record for a wind gust at an official weather station in Berks at 82 mph. That record stood until a gust from the violent derecho in June 2020 hit 83 mph.
By Oct. 16, 1954, half of the Reading and about two-thirds of the rest of Berks were without power. Hazel was the top half of the Eagle’s front page that day with a large photo of damage to a hosiery plant along Belt Line Avenue in Muhlenberg Township.
The fast-moving storm dropped 1.03 inches of rain at the official U.S. Weather Bureau site in center city.
In other Hazel news, the Eagle reported that 10 people were injured in a three-vehicle crash during the storm on Route 22 near Krumsville, the Reading Fire Department under Chief Russell C. Bowers worked through the night and helped dozens of residents with damage, and the control tower operators at Spaatz Field evacuated for fear of the wind blowing in the glass that surrounded them.
The storm “uprooted trees, blew down television aerials, unroofed buildings, depositing the debris across wires.”
The storm also dragged cold air down from the north with the temperature plunging to a low of 37 degrees by the morning of Oct. 16, a Saturday, a sunny and crisp day. There were several sunny and calm days in a row to make the cleanup easier.
The weather bureau office in Reading, which at the time was run by Matthew I. Peacock, had a lot to say about Hazel in its monthly wrapup:
“At the beginning of the day, a cold front approaching the state from the west was accompanied by heavy rain in the leading portion of the cold air mass, and hurricane Hazel’s cloud umbrella extended over much of the state as the hurricane approached the Carolina coast.
“The hurricane’s center reached the North Carolina coast southwest of Wilmington before noon, and rapid northward movement carried it to the Pennsylvania-New York boundary north of Coudersport by early evening. The frontal system from the west was drawn into the hurricane circulation before the storm’s center reached Pennsylvania and was perhaps a contributing factor in determining the pattern of the storm rainfall.
“Rail traffic was delayed or halted by downed trees, wires and poles. Many highways were blocked by fallen trees and downed wires. Ships and small craft were torn loose from their mooring in the Delaware River. Wind damage could have been greater from falling trees, but for the fact that the ground below the surface layer was still fairly dry and firm when the winds were strongest, thus providing better anchorage for the root systems.
“Scores of homes and buildings suffered major structural damage; hundreds of others suffered minor damage. Hundreds of television antennas were damaged. Thousands of trees were uprooted or broken by the winds. Over the eastern part of the state (from about Williamsport south and east) more than 600,000 electric power users were without service at one time or another. Many sections were without power for periods in excess of 4 days. Over 70,000 telephone subscribers were with- out service for varying periods, with some areas being advised it would be as long as 4 weeks before service would be restored. Radio and television stations in many sections suffered interrupted programs due to transmission line failures.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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