On September 10, 1960, Hurricane Donna approached the U.S. Mainland at south Florida and crossed the peninsula over the everglades and entered the Gulf of Mexico. At that time we were relieved believing that the storm would stay in the Gulf. However it reversed course and passed over the middle of the state and reentered the Atlantic Ocean. It started up the coast and we were alerted of a possible evacuation. At that time on September 11 the weather people still were not sure of the track north. At Cape Hatterus the storm made a turn that would aim it directly at the New York/Long Island area. Sometime in the early morning of September 12 (before dawn) Tower 4 was notified that we would be evacuated until after the storm had passed. I don`t recall being told where we would be evacuated to. I believed that at daybreak we were told that a cutter was coming out from the New York Coast Guard Station to get us and so we began our preparation. We waited and were told that the cutter had to rescue some fishermen off Long Island and that they would come for us as soon as possible.

As I recall the cutter arrived about mid-morning and was prepared to take us aboard in the crane lowered "donut." Due to sea condition the cutter was unable to approach the Tower for fear that it would ram the legs. The skipper of the Cutter and Captain Phalen decided that the best course of action was to put a life boat in the water and lower the donut to the life boat. The crane operator lowered the donut with three men aboard and an attempt was made to transfer from the donut to the lifeboat. The man that made this attempt was SSgt. Van Dyke. I remember him well because we were both transferred to Almaden AFS, CA after our tower assignment. Sgt. Van Dyke wound up in the water up to his life jacket. (We later joked about this but it wasn`t funny at the time.) The attempt to evacuate was abandoned and we were told that we would have to ride out the storm on the tower.

As you know Tower was always called "Old Shaky" but that was an understatement compared to the gyrations during the storm. There were some very severe creaks and groans as the tower went from one side to the next and back. We were all wearing life jackets and pacing the deck. The Cutter backed off (I`m not sure how far) and stayed with us throughout the storm. I recall the weather man saying that we recorded winds in excess of 140mph. Looking out the Oceanographer`s hatch in the bottom of the tower, some swear that they saw the upper below the water line braces exposed. Needless to say when the storm subsided we were relieved. I don`t mind telling you we were all very scared.

After the storm, "Old Shaky" was a lot more shaky. The attempts to repair the tower while we were aboard was for naught. Every time work was done to repair the braces a heavy sea would come along and rip the repairs away. I have a couple slides showing the divers being lowered into the water to inspect the damage and start repairs. I will have prints made and forward them to you and Tom Page at my earliest opportunity.

All personnel non-essential to the repair were evacuated, except for our fallen comrades, in December and I was transferred to Tower 3. The original intention was to complete the repairs and we would go back. As I recall we were told that at the time Tower 4 fell the decision had been made to terminate the tower repair until spring when the weather would be better. I will continue to research newsprint, my files and memory for any additional information that will tell the story of this tragic tower 4.