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Documentary chronicles devastating Ash Wednesday nor’easter of 1962

The “Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 in Nags Head” documentary is, by design, a cautionary tale.

But it’s also filled with stories of bravery, resilience and hope.

Co-produced by the Town of Nags Head and the Outer Banks History Center and funded by a grant from the government channel CurrentTV, the 30-minute film focuses on the four-day – March 5-9 – nor’easter that blindsided weather forecasters and locals.

The original “perfect storm,” two cold fronts meeting a powerful upper-level low-pressure system with the moon in close proximity to the earth, destroyed or damaged dozens of buildings and homes on the barrier islands, including many in the newly (1961) incorporated Town of Nags Head, the most developed and populated area of the Outer Banks in 1962.

“We wanted to create a history lesson with a message,” says Roberta Thuman, the town’s public information officer and brainchild of the project. “That it could happen again.”

“I hope it’s an emergency wake-up call,” adds Tammy M. Woodward, director of the history center in Manteo.

As the documentary shows: the ocean breached the dunes, causing massive flooding from the Beach Road to the U.S. 158 Bypass (many people had to be rescued by emergency personnel and local residents on boats).

Grainy images capture six-foot sand-drifts on the beach road.

Witnesses in the film talk about septic tanks being compromised, causing shortages of fresh water, and several mention that it was “months” before things returned to “normal.”

The U.S. Weather Bureau called the system, which affected six states, the “Great Atlantic Coastal Storm” and it was as stubborn as a mule, raging through five high-tide cycles over four days.

But the late Aycock Brown, the legendary Outer Banks photographer and public relations man, noting that it reached its peak on March 7, christened the weather event the more poetic “Ash Wednesday Storm.”

And that’s how it’s known on the Outer Banks 61 years later.

The mini-documentary, directed and edited by Raymond Wallace of the Kill Devil Hills-based Rayolight Productions, had its premiere last month at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

About 300 people, including several former and current town commissioners and mayors, as well as Dare County officials, attended the free showing.

The screening, hosted by current mayor Ben Cahoon, was followed by a panel discussion and question-and-answer session, which included town commissioner Renee Cahoon, National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Erik Heden and local residents Buster Nunemaker and Juanita Wescott, who lived through the storm.

Several audience members also shared personal stories.

The film and panel discussion can be viewed for free on several websites.

In the documentary, Heden, who’s based in Newport, North Carolina, offers sobering information, stressing that even a storm that is 200 miles off the coast like the Ash Wednesday system can cause extensive damage and loss of life.

Nunemaker and Wescott, who both grew up in Nags Head, were middle-school students when the storm struck.

Their recollections figure prominently in the illuminating documentary that uses still photography, mostly by Aycock Brown, recently-discovered aerial video footage, archival interviews and narration by local actor Kelsey Thompson to tell the harrowing story.

The late Walter Gray, founder of Gray’s Department Store, and the late George Crocker, known for his businesses A Restaurant By George and the Galleon Esplanade, all in Nags Head, are among the well-known voices in the film.

In one telling passage, Wescott, whose family lost their house in the storm, speaking directly into the camera and visibly shaken, says “from six o’clock in the morning ’til three in the afternoon, with a lot of hours of praying that God will spare your very life.”

Nunemaker in the film recounts standing on the toilet to stay out of the two-feet deep water at his family’s home.

He and Wescott in a light-hearted moment recall the disappointment of not going to school, calling it the “social network” of the era.

In a later phone interview, Nunemaker says: “There was rain, sleet, snow, howling winds, lightning and thunder, it was scary for a 12-year-old boy.”

He echoes Thuman’s and Woodward’s thoughts about the documentary, saying “We need people to know the loss of property and life would be much greater now.”

Wayne Gray, another longtime Nags Head resident and former town commissioner, also contributes first-hand accounts of the storm’s effects.

Wallace, the filmmaker who moved from Lynchburg to the Outer Banks in 2015, spent about five months working on the documentary.

He says it was an eye-opening experience.

“It gave me a more basic perception of the town (Nags Head) and its future.”

“I hope it reminds people of the importance of storm preparation.”

“The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962” documentary and panel discussion can be viewed on Current TV channel 191, as well as the websites YouTube.com/CurrentTVOBX and CurrentTV.org (Video on Demand section)

The documentary, without the panel discussion, is available at: nagsheadnc.gov and YouTube.com/Town of Nags Head