The story of 1976's Hurricane Belle in photos
An early warning from authorities on Aug. 9 gave everyone nearly a full day to brace for the destructive Hurricane Belle of August 1976. As the hurricane made its way up the East Coast, some 15,000 people fled to shelters in the largest evacuation in Long Island history. Belle blustered in just after midnight, toppling trees, blocking roads, knocking out power for a third of Long Island Lighting Co. customers, and taking one life. These pictures from the Newsday photo library, some published here for the first time, tell the story.
Aug. 8: Rain and foreboding
Credit: Newsday/Mitch Turner
As Hurricane Belle makes its way up the East Coast, a combination of stalled weather fronts dump heavy rains on Long Island, flooding roads like Bayville Avenue in Bayville. So Long Islanders were bailing out even before the storm hit.
Credit: Newsday/Stan Wolfson
Though the hurricane churning up the coast is still far away, a wave of surfers and storm watchers hits Gilgo Beach.
Aug. 9: The evacuations begin
Credit: Newsday/Dick Yarwood
Luggage is piled on the dock as residents of Point O' Woods on Fire Island board the Captree boat headed to the mainland.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
In the underground operations room of the Office of Civil Preparedness in Mineola, Nassau Executive Ralph Caso, right, hears from county agencies as Long Island braces for the hurricane's arrival.
Credit: Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill
Store windows are taped up along Main Street in Patchogue as shopkeepers prepare for Belle's arrival.
Credit: Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill
Long Islanders who evacuated to the Patchogue Fire Department watch news reports as Hurricane Belle heads up the coast.
Credit: Newsday/Thomas Koeniges
Marilyn Pinkey cares for Johnny, her myna bird, at the Westhampton High School evacuation center.
Credit: Newsday/Bob Luckey
A Sayville Nursing Home patient is evacuated to a nearby high school on a firetruck.
Credit: Newsday/David L. Pokress
Long Islanders found shelter at places like the Magnolia School in Long Beach.
Credit: Newsday/Mitch Turner
Richard Soverio and Jackie Houston pass the time at Magnolia School in Long Beach with their cat, Boots .
Credit: Newsday/Bob Luckey
Firefighter John Wiswall of Amityville's 1st Hose Co. carries a lantern as he arrives at Buddy Toomey's Pearl Grey bar on Ocean Avenue, already flooded by the rains that preceded the hurricane. The small boat is being used to take people back and forth.
Aug. 10: The hurricane hits
Credit: Newsday/George Rubei
A truck passes storm damage on East Shore Road in Halesite.
Credit: Newsday/George Rubei
Cars on East Shore Road in Halesite are forced by storm damage to detour to the wrong side of the road.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Yarwood
An old walnut tree rests on a house on Oakside Drive in Smithtown.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Yarwood
Another view of the same house on Oakside Drive in Smithtown.
Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles
LILCO workers Ed Serviss, in the bucket, and George Rogan try to restore power to a home hit by a large weeping willow tree on Pasadena Drive and Richard Street in Plainview.
Credit: Newsday/George Rubei
John Wahl gets ready to cut one of the main limbs from a tree that fell on a home on East Shore Road in Massapequa.
Credit: Newsday/Karen Wiles
John Wiswall of the No. 1 Hose Co. in Amityville looks at his flooded garage and boathouse on Ocean Avenue.
Credit: Newsday/Joe Dombroski
An aerial view shows the aftermath of the hurricane in Mastic Beach.
Credit: Newsday/Joe Dombroski
The wreckage in Mastic Beach included this flooded home and sunken boat.
Credit: Newsday/Don Norkett
The hurricane deposited a boat and part of its dock on Riviera Drive in Mastic.
Credit: Newsday/Joe Dombroski
Gov. Hugh Carey, center, talks with Nassau County Executive Ralph Caso, left, and Suffolk Presiding Officer Floyd Linton after landing in Westhampton to see the hurricane's aftermath.
Credit: Newsday/Ike Eichorn
Dune Road in Westhampton Beach, where the ocean broke through the dunes.
Credit: Newsday/Bob Luckey
Cars and bicyclists make their way through a flooded Browns River Road near the bay in Sayville.
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