Hurricane Gloria

By Wikipedia

Hurricane Gloria was a hurricane during the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season and prowled the Atlantic Ocean from September 16 until September 28, 1985. It reached Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, but had weakened to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it made landfall.

Gloria was a Cape Verde-type hurricane, developing off the coast of Africa and traveling all the way west to the United States. It veered north of the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic. While east of the Bahamas the storm reached its peak intensity on September 24. It weakened slightly by the time it struck Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on the night of September 26, the eye of Gloria skimmed the Outer Banks and the next day slammed into Long Island, and bore through Nassau County, New York, before slamming into land near Milford, Connecticut, and eventually moved up into New England.

Incredibly, only 8 people died in Gloria, mostly from falling trees. The storm hit the Northeast at lowtide, saving much of the coast from a terrible storm surge. Quick and organized evacuation procedures in most of Long Island's coastal communities like Fire Island and Long Beach also was credited with saving lives.

Gloria did leave behind over US$900 million in damages.

By contrast, 1991's Hurricane Bob, a storm of nearly identical strength and size, did a lot more damage and was a lot more destructive to parts of New England.

The name Gloria was retired in the spring of 1986, and was replaced with Grace in the 1991 season.

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"I just started my job in NYC in August 1985. Not having any vacation days yet, I had to go to work the day Gloria was to hit LI on a Friday. I was about to leave for the train when I heard on the radio that the company had closed. Gloria's eye went right up route 110 through Amityville & Huntington. Living a few towns east of A'ville, my town, Lindenhurst was damaged pretty bad with downed trees & power lines. We were without power for about a week. I remember trying to get to a bank before it closed Friday morning but was unable to. I needed money to go to the Jet game that Sunday. I hoped I would be able to find gas pumps working for the trip. That Monday, since most of the NYC area didn't get hit, I was asked if it was a good thing that the company closed due to the storm. The next day I brought in pictures from my disk camera of all the damage. One was a crushed car next to a newly cut tree stump. Another was a collapsed garage." --Anonymous