GEORGE WASHINGTON'S HURRICANE ~ 23 JULY 1788

On July 23 & 24, 1788 a hurricane brushed the coast of North Carolina with the eye passing to the east of Cape Hatteras. A report from Ocracoke after the storm indicated six vessels destroyed, eleven driven ashore and two dismasted. Strong northwesterly winds blew the water out of Pamlico Sound and left many vessels stranded in low water.

Not only did the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army end up with a snowstorm named after him, this hurricane was awarded his namesake also. The name stems from the path of the storm’s destruction as well as the fact that most of what we know about it came from Washington’s journals. The center of the hurricane passed right over his Mount Vernon estate where he’d returned after winning the War of Independence. He wrote of the storm, “In aword it was violent and severe—more so than has happened for many years.” Washington also wrote about extensive crop damage and several ships that ran aground including a small ship that had been gifted to him. The Federalist which he’d owned for only six weeks sank during the chaos.

Even before the hurricane made its way up the Potomac, it wreaked havoc on those living along the Chesapeake Bay. According to a Philadelphia newspaper account, when the storm hit the tidewater area, it “continued for 9 hours—wind at start from NE—at 0030 [hours] it suddenly shifted to S and blew a perfect hurricane—tearing up large trees by the roots, removing houses, throwing down chimneys, fences, etc., and laying the greatest part of the corn level… Only two ships in Hampton Roads survived the gale.”