CAPE COD – As Cape Cod recovers from the massive nor’easter Wednesday, 30 years ago, another storm with eerily similar characteristics was battering the Cape. Dubbed “The Perfect Storm”, it was actually two systems that came together offshore. A low pressure combined with remnants of Hurricane Grace to explode into a monster that actually backed up westerly into coastal New England. The single worst incident was the sinking of the Gloucester based swordfishing vessel “Andrea Gail” with all hands lost. The tragedy was transcribed with great detail by Truro author Sebastian Junger and turned into a major motion picture starring Doug Clooney. Here in the Cape for what seemed like an eternity, near hurricane force easterly winds lashed the coast with pounding surf. An assistant harbormaster at the time in Provincetown told this reporter the wind gate at the office on Macmillan Wharf registered 79 MPH.
The National Weather Service has put together a retrospective of the storm you can view here.
