Remembering 1960's Hurricane Donna
Newsday's first Great Storms of Long Island section of 2022 takes readers back to September 1960, when Hurricane Donna roared across Long Island, washing over South Shore boardwalks, swamping shore communities and downing trees, electric wires and telephone poles with 125-mph winds that left more than 220,000 homes in the dark.
Sept. 12: Hurricane Donna hits LI
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
Teacher Louise Knopp reads to her first-grade class at the Woodmere Elementary School as Hurricane Donna rages on Sept. 12, 1960. The children were kept in school until the storm subsided.
Credit: Newsday/Tom Maguire
Lou Gerard, register clerk at the Garden City Hotel, signs in a guest, Henry Lehne, by candlelight after the storm knocked out power.
Credit: Newsday/Marvin Sussman
Hip deep in water, a man wades through the Jones Beach parking lot behind the administration building as a group pushes a car caught up in the flash flood.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
A young man floats a toy boat along Williamson Avenue in East Rockway.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
A stranded family waits for a rowboat to evacuate them from their flooded home on Williamson Avenue in East Rockaway.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
This apprehensive dog is looking for a dry way out as the rising tide reaches his East Rockaway doorstep.
Credit: Newsday/Dick Kraus
Another high-tide street scene in East Rockaway.
Credit: NEWSDAY/John Curran
False Channel Island in Merrick Bay is completely underwater from high tides and rains.
Sept. 13: The aftermath
Credit: Newsday/Walter del Toro
Furniture sits at an odd angle on the terrace of a Centerport restaurant, which was partly washed out from underneath.
Credit: Newsday/Walter del Toro
Three boys look at a spot where a pond in Centerport overflowed.
Credit: Newsday/Walter del Toro
John Idler of Huntington stands atop a footing where the dock that floated away had been before the storm on West Shore Road in Huntington.
Credit: NEWSDAY/Ike Eichorn
On Oak Beach, the water left by the storm outside homes gave a new meaning to the term waterfront property.
Credit: Newsday/Ike Eichorn
Laurelton Road in Long Beach is strewn with debris from what had been a hot dog and soda stand.
Credit: Newsday/Ike Eichorn
Here's the destroyed hot dog and soda stand under the boardwalk on Laurelton Road.
Credit: Newsday/Max Heine
Hurricane Donna tossed boats across Shore Road in East Setauket. Here, In the aftermath of the storm, a cruiser is removed from the center of the road.
Credit: Newsday/Walter del Toro
Stephen Jordan, 13, and David Jordan, 3, of Greenlawn look at a sailboat that had been deposited on top of Northport Dock when water from Hurricane Donna rose above the dock and into the parking lot.
Credit: Newsday/Max Heine
Ross Spinney looks for his Buick among the trees that crashed during Hurricane Donna on High Street in Port Jefferson.
Credit: Newsday/Max Heine
The ferry Fire Island Belle returns to Fire Island from Bay Shore with a full boat of passengers after the storm.
From the sky
Credit: Newsday/Cliff De Bear photo/Havecker pil
An aerial view of the damage done to a motel on the shore directly south of the village of Southampton.
Credit: Newsday/Cliff De Bear photog/Havecker, p
A portion of Westhampton Beach where high tides and strong winds from Hurricane Donna cut a broad breakthrough between the ocean and bay.
Credit: Newsday/Cliff De Bear photo/Havecker, pi
In Montauk Point, the hurricane tore away part of a roof.
'A spark for them to escalate the fighting' A standoff between officials has stalled progress, eroded community patience and escalated the price tag for taxpayers. Newsday investigative editor Paul LaRocco and NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie report.
