Recent bouts with freezing temperatures and record-breaking rainfall have caused some inconveniences, but no great damage on the South Beach. The same can’t be said for the great blizzard that hit Washington State in the early morning hours of January 13, 1950. That storm caused major devastation from the coast east to Spokane and from Bellingham south to Vancouver.
More than 21 inches of snow fell in Seattle Jan. 13, the second greatest 24-hour snowfall recorded. The storm claimed 13 lives in the Puget Sound area. Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and parts of Oregon were also paralyzed.
At lower elevations in eastern Washington, snow depths ranged up to 50 inches and temperatures plunged into the minus teens and twenties. The Pacific Northwest recorded several dozen fatalities.
While there was no loss of life on the South Beach, there are still many locals who will forever remember the blinding snow and bitter cold winds of up to 65 miles per hour that slammed into what was then called the Westhaven Fish Base, where 75 boats were moored. At that time, there was no breakwater across the eastern approach to Westhaven Cove, which is now the Westport Marina. The moorage area was openly exposed to the whims of wild weather that roared across the breadth of Grays Harbor, often times without much advance warning.
A stirring account of that blizzard and the damage it caused was chronicled in the January 20, 1950 edition of the area’s newspaper at the time, the SOUTH BEACH NEWS-REVEW. The following are excerpts from the lead article in that edition:
“Striking with fury in the pre-dawn blackness, the blizzard, said to be the fiercest ever to strike the Pacific Northwest coast, hit Westhaven Cove almost head on. In a matter of minutes, the cove, with its docks and slips aligned with compactly moored boats, was a splintering, tossing mass of broken hulls, smashed pilot houses, masts, lines and wreckage heaving, chopping and groaning in the icy seas which swept into the unprotected cove from an East Northeasterly direction.
All hands on deck
Residents of Westport, a mile away across the sand flats, were alerted by radio appeal for every able-bodied man to report to help save the fleet— then the power wires went down.
The trip across the exposed flats was an ordeal. Many cars were frozen and snowed in their garages. Several rescuers had only to glance at the intensity of the blinding blizzard to realize that any attempt to walk to the cove would have been ended in their being frozen dead.
Total devastation
Arriving at Westhaven, rescuers reported boats, barges, mooring floats and wreckage torn loose and crashing across the cove in a white welter of tossing ice-tipped surf and wind driven snow. The broken skeletons of fishing boats were already scattered grotesquely along the icy margin of the cove.
An estimated 30 to 40 boats had broken loose in the first fury of the gale, crashing them aground at the base of the dock. Amid the flotsam, boats were sheered over, holds stove in, deck housing and splintered masts dangling over the side in a tangle of lines. The sound of the storm, the crashing and creaking of the boats, the shuddering and straining as docks and barges ground against each other and the cries of storm muffled voices from the dimly seen men on the stricken boats will never be forgotten.
Buying Barges break loose
At the end of the dock, the big concrete buying barge of the Pacific Pearl Seafood Company, was also among the first victims of the storm. Breaking loose from her moorings, the gigantic barge swung, crashing into the offshore side of the Whiz Fish company barge, Golden Gate, taking the small Standard Oil Company barge in her stride as though it were only so much sandwich filling.
On Saturday, the ice covered boats, beached by the storm, were pulled free again into ice-choked water by the powerful motors of the Coast Guard lifeboat Invincible.
This terrible storm finally brought assurance that the long sought after Westport Breakwater would be built. Bids were called for on March 1 of 1950 and construction began that summer.”
Tokeland hard hit
Westhaven Cove wasn’t the only area fishing base hard hit by the blizzard. The fleet moored at Tokeland was also ravaged by the storm and ice build-up. Boats were tossed about the marina, with crab pot stacks on the dock frozen in place for days.
Tokeland was without electricity for 12 days after the initial blast. Residents were forced to hand pump water from a nearby well for drinking and melt snow for other household activities.