I was 10 years old and living in Norfolk when Hazel hit town. I remember not being able to even leave the house for almost three days because of the rain and the wind. Finally, my mother allowed my brother and me to run to our detached garage to play. Or maybe she just wanted us out of the house.

I was 8 years old and living in Baltimore County on a wooded lot with many mature oak trees. I recall the power going out in the early evening and standing at the living room window watching the 50-75' tall oak trees bending in the wind. About 7:00 PM my father left the house in the midst of the storm to appear in traffic court, which was open that night. He returned safely, case dismissed and told a fantastic story of dodging fallen trees and riding on sidewalks to avoid flooded roads. I don't recall when the power came back on, but I'll always remember listening to the Lone Ranger on a battery powered radio, while the wind howled and rain pelted the house.

Thanks for your contributions. I was in 1st grade, living in northern New Jersey. I went to bed that night listening to the wind, then slept through the whole storm. When I woke up, I looked out my bedroom window and saw a huge tree, maybe an oak, that had fallen from our neighbor's yard into ours, it's top landing maybe 20 feet from my window. We walked around the neighborhood that morning and there were mature hardwoods down everywhere. I've read since that wind gusts topped 100 mph in Brooklyn, NY that night, far east of the storm's track. The power was out for many hours.

I was a mere lad when the great storm hit our farmhouse that second weekend of October in 1954. The farm was located on what is now known as Sawmill Road at the entrance to White Oak Valley, just south of the hamlet called Potosi and east of another one known as Hametown. It happened during the onset of my teenage years in southern York County, Pennsylvania, about seven miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The wrath of the hurricane's winds took out the old pear tree from which my mother used to can pears and make her delicious pear butter. My father took black and white photos with his Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera of the downed tree with my siblings perched precariously ontop. Somewhere in and among the family photo albums, those photos still exisit. Needless to say, Hurricane Hazel made an indelible mark on my memory.

I was nine years old when hurrican hazzle blew threw Ridge, Maryland in southern Maryland. All the shingles blew off all the homes around. The road to Point Lookout was washed out and it was over two weeks before it could be used again. Hundreds of feet of shore line was washed away. The sand bar that protected the area was destroyed and never rebuilt itself. Barns were blow down. A neighbors cinder block garage, had the whole back wall blow out. My uncle Clarence at the end of Airedele Road was cut off for several days. The water was over the road and a small portion washed out. I thought my brother and I would never get all those shingles picked up.

Well, I was 8 years old living with my grandmother at the time. She lived right across from Brooklyn Park, on third street in Brooklyn, Md. I remember the address, 3545 Third Street and remember standing in the sun parlor looking out the windows. I can still see a man holding on to a street sign trying to get home, he lived at the end of the block and everytime he took a step trying to get to the next street sign or tree to hold on to his feet would lift out from under him. I remember that because I wanted to go out side and fly like he was. I loved superman back then and that is what the man reminded me of. I also seen trees bending and the flag poles bending in the wind, things blowing across the park from one side to the other. The rain would slam against the windows with force from the wind at times. I remember it raining really hard that day, like cats and dogs as the saying goes. The Street out in front of the house was flooded in the curb sides with water running wild down to Patasaco ave.The cars were shaking from the wind. I do remember we were all scared. My cousin, Lynn and my best friend Joe and his sisters Dee Dee and Nancy from up the street were there that day to. We were all looking out the windows asking my Grandmother all sorts of questions. We could see Patasaco bay I think it was called from the sun parlor windows. I remember seeing white caps in the water all the way from my grandmothers house and ask her what was wrong with the water , LOL. That day sticks in my mind as if it were yesterday for some reason. My grandfather was a fire fighter then and he wasn't home because of being on duty. Yep, I remember that being a fierce storm, It had left a lot of damage around from what I remember after going outside to play the next day. For some reason, of all the Hurriecanes in my life that one stands out in my memory like it was yesterday. None of the other Hurricnes I have ever been in have left any memories so it must have been a fierce storm or I just remember that one because of being so young and scared.

I was a young child in Rose, New York- a small town located 8 miles South of Lake Ontario, midway between Rochester and Syracuse when Hazel hit. Our family always remembers Hurricane Hazel because the force of the winds shattered an upstairs bedroom window and blew off shutters on our house. My parents carried us small children down to the basement to wait out the storm.

We lived in what was then a remote suburb of Philadlephia- my sister was an infant and I was 5. There was no electricity and my mother went next door to borrow some sterno to heat the baby's bottle. We were alone in the house. A huge tree fell and missed my mother by inches. As my mother was a severe and violent alcoholic throughout her life, I have often wondered what my life would have been like had she died that night. We had just moved into that house and I was just beginning to recognize that something was very wrong. It is perhaps a metaphor for the nature of the life we lived from that point onward.

I was five years old and living in the southern part of Syracuse. My parents, brother and I spent the night in the basement of our home. I remember hearing the Andirondick chairs on the front porch hit the house and front windows. I also remember walking to school and having to crawl over a downed tree. I am not sure how many days after the storm I had to return to school, but do remember there was rain for days after. The destruction in the neighborhood was quite extensive.

I it so bad

I would not stay there

What are you doing in that city

I was six years old when I watched Hurricane Hazel tear down the street we lived on in Richmond, Virginia. I remember trees bent over with their tips touching the ground. I kept opening the big double doors on our townhouse on South Pine Street to get a better look, much to my mother's horror. I saw one kid go flying down our street in his red wagon, propelled by the wind. What he was doing out in that storm I'll never know. What a stormy night THAT was! Gail Hutchins, Richmond, Va. native

I was eight. My dad was stationed at Patuxent River in flight training. We lived in a trailer park in a forest. I can still remember the fear that our house trailer would collapse or fly away in the wind. Trees were falling around and we had no power or phone. The eye of the storm came directly through and my dad and I walked around outside looking at cars and trailers that had been crushed by trees. There was debris everywhere. Then we ran back inside to wait out the rest of the storm.

We lived a row home in Govens on St Dunstance St. next to Chickapin Park. I was 7 yrs old and my brother was 3. When Hurricane Hazel came to vist us in Baltimore, the windows blew out and the curtins were blowing stright into the living room. My Mother was holding my Brother (Wes) in her arms and praying. Our street was a river running into the Park that was flooded to the street level but all I could think of was "Why would they name a storm after my Aunt Hazel?"

FR: I remember Hazel, too. I was a little kid in northern New Jersey. Went to sleep in the storm, and when I woke up there were trees down all around the house. Big ones. One of them fell from the neighbor's yard into ours, missing my bedroom by 10 or 20 feet. I thought it was magical. Everything outside had changed while I slept. Hazel's forward speed pushed hurricane-force winds farther inland than ever before - over 100 mph in New York City. In Baltimore, the coastal flooding was very much like we experienced in 2003 with Tropical Storm Isabel. Here's more on Hazel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hazel The storm was much stronger than Hanna, but followed a similar course from the Bahamas to landfall and inland.

I was 4. We lived in Toronto, ON and I recall the horrendous winds, lightning and deadly flooding (incuding the basement in which we huddled as the house shook and groaned........most terrifying. I have loved storms and storm watching ever since. Tornadoes are just as terrifying, and thankfully, much shorter-lived. I have experienced 4 of those close-hand as well and have still not lost my fascination for severe weather phenomenon. My kids caught the bug too............

In 1954,when Hurricane Hazel arrived, I was 13 years old and living in Syracuse, NY. The winds blew down a large tree near the house. When I talked to my sister about this last year, I told her that the tree fell on our porch. She said that the tree knocked out the electricity. I'll never know for sure which is correct (maybe both things happened), but we both remember that our family left the house and went to stay with my grandmother. I have no recollection of this, but my sister said that my mother was very frightened, and when the winds came, she ran around yelling, "It's coming! It's coming!" I don't remember being scared. Maybe my mother was scared enough for all of us.

I was 5. We lived in Linstead across from the community beach on the Severn. Attitudes were a little different then, there was a "hurricane party" at a neighbor's house a few blocks away, also on the shore, for residents and their families. I remember people watching the river through the large picture window when a rowboat flew by the window. My parents decided we should leave, but on the way home my father decided to drive down the small hill entrance road to the community beach to see what was happening. It was nearly dark, and we suddenly found the water was halfway up the beach road (about a 10' rise, if I recall) so we had to back up the hill. I could not understand what was happening, now I know this was a storm surge. We were without power for about a week.

We also lived on the Patuxent River, across the river on the Solomon Island naval base (my dad worked at Patuxent Naval Air Station). I was seven years old. I remember my dad was flying in Alaska and my mother was pregnant. Neighbors boarded up our windows, and because we lived in a brick house, people in more vulnerable buildings stayed with us. I remember that the pier was destroyed. It was also my first experience with death. A boy about 5 years old was playing in a cave the following year, and because it was weakened by Hazel, it caved in and he died. I doubt if that death is included in the hurricane stats. The next year Hurricane Diane hit. I was beginning to think hurricanes came all the time, but actually they are relatively rare in this part of the country.

Living in Richmond, VA, I was almost 10 at the time. We had to leave school early, and one of the students commented that it was a "hurry-up" cane. The newspaper boy delivered papers in the blasting rain before the hurricane actually hit. It was a devastating storm, uprooting 2 large paradise trees and downing power lines in our backyard. I was doing the dishes at the time when the lights went out. Thank God, our home was spared, which is not the case with many homes, whose roofs and whole sides were taken out. Fish from the James River lined some of our streets.