Carol still the last major hurricane to hit Massachusetts 70 years later

BOSTON - This weekend marks 70 years since Hurricane Carol hit Massachusetts, the last major hurricane, a Category 3 , to make landfall in New England.

Carol was part of an extremely active and damaging hurricane season in 1954, one which would lead to the immediate creation of the National Hurricane Center in Florida that remains to this day.

August 31, 1954

Forming in the Bahamas, it rocketed north with a forward speed of 40 miles per hour before making landfall in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on August 31, 1954. From there it continued swiftly northward through Massachusetts and New Hampshire while producing extreme damage, particularly for areas east of the storm's center.

Carol is thought of as one of the most purely tropical hurricanes to ever strike this far north, retaining a classic tropical look and a clear eye that was visible on the Connecticut coast during landfall. Wind gusts of 135 mph on Block Island and 125 mph at Blue Hill Observatory were measured, with sustained winds briefly exceeding 100 mph across portions of eastern New England.

4,000 homes destroyed

That wind helped destroy 4,000 homes and 3,000 boats in the storm's path.

The steeple of the Old North Church in Boston was toppled and came crashing down on Hull Street, though the original weathervane did manage to survive. At WBZ-TV's studios in Brighton, a transmission tower was crumpled on Soldiers Field Road.

Amazingly, WBZ Radio scrambled and was only off the air for a matter of minutes before figuring out a way to continue their broadcast during the storm.

At the coastline, landfall coincided with high tide and brought a destructive storm surge of over 14 feet in spots along the South Coast, inundating many towns.

First hurricane name to be retired

At the time, Carol was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, and it became the first storm name to ever be retired.

It was also a time when satellites did not exist yet (those entered the picture in the early 1960s). So the next time we get hit by a major hurricane in Massachusetts, it will be the first time we've ever been able to truly track one start to finish.

2 weeks later, Hurricane Edna

It's hard to fathom, but less than two weeks later another Category 3 storm roared ashore on Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod.

Hurricane Edna made landfall on September 11, 1954, bringing more destruction. Though this time around much of the impacts were contained to the Cape and Islands with much less damage for inland areas. Between the two, another storm named Dolly passed just offshore to the east!

As Edna approached, Edward R. Murrow and a CBS News crew flew with hurricane hunters into the storm. The distinguished anchor reported back that "If a true definition of humility is ever written, it might well be written in the eye of a hurricane."