The storm started on a Tuesday and did not leave until Thursday. Between Tuesday, March 6, and Thursday, March 8, 1962, a nor'easter ground slowly up the Atlantic coast and stayed over Delaware long enough to bring five high tides. It is remembered as one of the most destructive storms in the First State's recorded history.
What made it different
Coastal storms come and go with a tide or two. This one did not move on. Lasting through five high tides, it pushed the Atlantic onto the Delaware coast again and again, and each tide arrived on top of damage the last one had done.
What it cost
The storm claimed seven lives in Delaware and about 40 along the East Coast. Damage along Delaware's Atlantic and Delaware Bay coasts was estimated at $50 million at the time, which the Delaware Public Archives puts at roughly $465 million today.
The beach towns took it hardest. The boardwalks in Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach were pulverized. The bay shore was hit too: the archives' photographs show damage at Bowers Beach and Slaughter Beach as well as along the ocean.
The record
Much of what is known about the storm in Delaware is visual. The Delaware Public Archives has digitized and curated more than 500 photographs of it from state agencies. They cover Bowers Beach, Slaughter Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, the Indian River Inlet, Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, Oak Orchard and Massey's Landing in Millsboro. Most had not been released before.
The collection is free to browse online. It is the closest anyone now living can come to seeing the coast as it looked when the water went down.
Why it still matters
Sixty-four years on, the Storm of 1962 remains the benchmark the Delaware coast is measured against: a reminder of what a slow storm with a long fetch of high tides can do. The towns rebuilt. The photographs are the record of why the rebuilding was needed.
Sources: Delaware Public Archives, "Storm of 1962" digital archives collection (archives.delaware.gov), for the March 6–8 dates, the five high tides, the seven Delaware deaths and about 40 on the East Coast, the $50 million (about $465 million today) damage estimate, the boardwalk and structural destruction, and the photograph collection; University of Delaware UDaily coverage of the storm's anniversary. Figures for wave heights and house counts that appear in other accounts were not consistently sourced and are left out. Delaware Beach Finds' account is drawn entirely from these records.