By MADDY VITALE
For nearly nine years, Joseph LaRosa Jr. worked on his second book about the 1962 storm that devastated Sea Isle City and other areas along the coast.
His first book, “Our Perfect Storm,” released in 2010, was an annotated history of the monster March storm that lasted a few agonizing days.
The retired Dennis Township school administrator said his new book, “Storm Stories: An Oral History,” released this July, is filled with oral accounts of what happened on the days of the storm, when so many things changed in Sea Isle forever.
LaRosa, 66, a Sea Isle native who lives in Seaville with Barbara, his wife of 40 years, shared accounts from more than 32 storm survivors.
He is one of those survivors.
LaRosa grew up with his brother, Pat, in a home on 43rd Street and Central Avenue. The two had a good childhood, raised by their parents, Joseph and Alice LaRosa, in a well-known family.
Their parents passed away in the late 1990s, but the LaRosa brothers kept the family home. Like so much else in Sea Isle, the home is close to their hearts, filled with so many memories.
Then there are those recollections, LaRosa admits, of things he wishes never happened — with the ’62 storm at the top of that list.
“The storm was a very pivotal time in my life,” he said in an interview at the Sea Isle library. “I was nine. I used to ride my bike on the Boardwalk, play miniature golf. Grab a hot dog. I had a complete command of my community. The storm took it all away.”
What was left were memories of what the community looked like before the enormous storm.
“We used to tell time by saying before the storm and after the storm. Now everything is fading in people’s memory,” he pointed out.
But some things remain vivid to LaRosa, an alumnus of the Sea Isle Beach Patrol, who said he will never forget some unusual sights during the storm that he and his brother, who now lives in New York state, explored.
“We were kids. I wasn’t afraid of things,” LaRosa said with a laugh. “You know those fun houses? We saw a house on 33rd Street tilted on its side. We opened the door and entered. Everything was on a slant.”
His memories and his brother’s recollections were notable, but he knew that there was so much more to tell, there were different sides to this storm story from the views of the kids, adults, shop keepers and homeowners, and emergency responders.
LaRosa wanted to show the reader how the people who endured the 1962 storm in Sea Isle coped and survived.
He admitted the thought of compiling oral histories into one flowing book was a monumental task.
“This book posed a challenge for me. How do you structure oral histories? I was trying to give it structure,” LaRosa explained.
As an author, he is very familiar with structure, and he went to work.
He chose New Jersey State Police teletype wires to break up the oral histories.
The storm began pelting the city on March 6. By March 7 at 8:42 a.m., a police teletype states: “SEA ISLE CITY AREA: NO POWER. FIRE BURNING OUT OF CONTROL. NO WATER PRESSURE DUE TO BROKEN WATER MAINS…SAME REQUESTS ALL AID POSSIBLE. AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF PEOPLE TO BE EVACAUTED FROM SEA ISLE CITY.”
And sprinkled in are words and so many stories, some that made a deep impact on LaRosa.
One memory was shared by Diana Gibson Perry, who still resides in Sea Isle. She and her husband and young children lived on Pleasure Avenue in a garage apartment in March of 1962. On March 6, they lost power. Floodwaters surrounded their home.
She detailed some of what was to follow:
“Looking toward the Boardwalk they had a clear view of the Madeline Theater façade getting pounded by raging surf… It was a very scary and eerie feeling as they watched the building disappear into the raging surf,” Gibson Perry recalled.
The family stayed in the home through the night, cold with no electricity. They couldn’t warm the baby’s bottle. They used a candle to heat it. By morning waters rushed down Pleasure Avenue.
“The picture window at the front of their apartment became their television set,” the description reads.
The family eventually got to safety and stayed with friends at 47th Street and Landis Avenue until they were evacuated along with other Sea Isle residents.
Then there was 7-year-old Ed Matlack who thought he would just have a day off from school because of the unusually high tide on March 6, according to the oral account.
As the storm grew, his happiness soon changed to fear. By the early evening, Sea Isle was getting pounded by high winds and very heavy surf.
When the weather worsened, the family moved to a safer location. When it was clear they would have to be evacuated, Matlack recalled this: “Not sure when, but I do remember the helicopter ride out to Ocean City with my mom. We then went to Philadelphia to my cousins and stayed there till we were allowed back into Sea Isle.”
Mark Creighton’s family owned the Western Union Telegraph Agency for Sea Isle.
“It seemed important to be able to send and receive telegrams,” Creighton, who was a 16-year-old Seaville resident and Ocean City High School student, explained in his oral description.
He took two telegrams to the firehouse and gave them to then- Mayor Vincent Lamanna. “Unable to leave due to the subsequent high tides, he and his father, because stranded in Sea Isle City,” the history reads.
Some of their storm photos have served to document the storm’s devastation.
LaRosa said he is eager to share his latest book with anyone who knows and loves Sea Isle, or is just interested in learning about the storm.
“It was an important book for me. I did a lot of research,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to put together. Hearing people’s stories of what happened, to me, this is as true as it can get.”
“Storm Stories” is available at the Sea Isle City Historical Museum, Dalrymple’s Card & Gift Shoppe and Sands Department Store and can also be purchased from Joseph LaRosa via email at march1962storm@comcast.net. The cost of the book is $25, plus $2 for postage.
