Harry Cane of 1667
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| Unknown strength hurricane (SSHS) | |
|---|---|
| Formed | August 1667 |
| Dissipated | |
| Highest winds |
|
| Lowest pressure | Unknown |
| Fatalities | |
| Damage | Unknown |
| Areas affected |
Virginia, North Carolina, northeastern United States |
| Part of the 1667 Atlantic hurricane season |
|
The Harry Cane of 1667 was a major hurricane that struck Virginia during late August 1667.
This appears to have been the first major hurricane to have struck colonial Virginia, and the damage was tremendous. While measurements are impossible, it seems from damage assessments that the "Harry Cane" was on the boundary between Categories Three and Four on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It appeared to make landfall near the Virginia-North Carolina border, and the storm passed up the Atlantic coast.
[edit] Impact
The massive damage possible from an Atlantic cyclone was beyond the scope of many Englishmen, and a pamphlet titled Strange News from Virginia, being a true relation of the great tempest in Virginia, was published. An excerpt follows:
- Neither did it end here, but the trees were torn up by their roots and in many places the whole Woods blown down, so that they cannot go from plantation to plantation. The sea (by the violence of the winds) swelled twelve Foot above its usual height, drownding the whole country before it, with many of the inhabitants, their Cattle and Goods, the rest being forced to save themselves in the Mountains nearest adjoining, where they were forced to remain many days in great want.
More damage is described by a letter from Mr. Thomas Ludwell to Lord Berkeley:
- This poore Country…is now reduced to a very miserable condition….on the 27th of August followed the most dreadful Harry Cane that ever the colony groaned under. The night of it was the most dismal time I ever knew or heard of, for the wind and rain raised so confused a noise, mixed with the continual cracks of falling houses….The waves were impetuously beaten against the shores and by that violence forced and as it were crowded the creeks, rivers and bays to that prodigious height that it hazarded the drowning of many people who lived not in sight of the rivers, yet were forced to climb to the top of their houses to keep themselves above water…the nearest computation is at least 10,000 houses blown down.
The storm is believed to have created the peninsula of Sewell's Point and Willoughby Spit in modern-day Norfolk.
Matters were made much worse with nearly two weeks of rain following the landfall of the Harry Cane, including a possible visit from a smaller hurricane.
