Greater City Providence

Before Earl there was Bob

The Cape Cod Times posted this old video from 1991* of Hurricane Bob and his aftermath.

It brings back a lot of memories. The armies of utility workers that came from as far as Virginia and Québec. No power for 2 weeks. Downed trees everywhere. The sound of the wind. The miles of coastline littered with boats that broke free from their moorings.

Following Fred’s tweets, it is looking more and more like Earl could be a repeat of Bob. We made it through Bob, but I do remember, the summer season pretty much ended when he hit, the Cape was pretty much a disaster area and none of the tourist were willing to come back.

There’s probably no need for us all to panic, but it behooves us all to be ready for Earl to mess us up a bit tomorrow and tomorrow night.

*I’m having trouble making peace with the fact that a video from 1991 is old, but the TV station that video was from does not exist anymore.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

3 comments

  • The difference is that the reservoir isn’t full and the ground isn’t already saturated the way it was in March, so hopefully there won’t be a repeat of last spring’s events.

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