A look back

Jerry Person

This week we’ll look at the great storm of ’35 and the events that

happened during the windstorm that blew into town.

At the Sugar Shack one morning several of the regulars were discussing

some major earthshaking topics when Steve “beer can” Johnson remarked

about our weather.

When the subject of the “big wind” is discussed, these guys think

“what has our city council done now?”

But instead, we are going to look at one of the great windstorms that

blew in from the canyons and wreaked havoc on our town.

It was on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1935. That the day began as it had the day

before, with residents sweeping the cobwebs from their eyes and starting

out for work.

But by nightfall, Huntington Beach didn’t seem so normal as the Santa

Ana winds slowly increased in velocity. Throughout the night residents

heard the winds blowing parts of roofs, trees and fences into their

yards.

As the force of the storm reached a mile-a-minute things began to

happen. Out on 16th Street near Walnut Avenue, one of the wooden oil

derricks blew over taking down a steel derrick next to it belonging to

Superior Oil Company and starting a fire.

But with the help of Old No. 1, Huntington’s fire truck, and the

heroic actions of both our police and firemen, the entire town including

a lot of fields, homes and possibly lives were saved.

Power lines went down all over town and many residents in the outlying

areas of Huntington Beach found themselves without power for hours. Fires

erupted, telephones lines snapped and roads were blocked to traffic as

the winds increased.

Randall Stone was the manager of the Oil Well Supply Co. out on

Garfield Avenue. When the supply company had a 50-foot section of the

roof blow off Stone, his wife and their son Dick spent the night

anchoring the exposed beams together with ropes in the dark to keep them

from swaying back and forth.

Police officer Lloyd Groover was directing traffic on the Irvine Ranch

when he was knocked off his patrol car’s running board by a falling tree

and was left unconscious with a broken arm.

Huntington Beach police officers Les Grant and Jack Tinsley were

dispatched to a machine shop at Frankfort Avenue and Alabama Street only

to find that the wind had blown part of its roof off.

A live power line was singeing in the intersection of Alabama Street

and Acacia Avenue sending sparks into the night air. Another wooden oil

derrick blew over on Walnut Avenue near 11th Street crashing into a large

tank filled with crude oil and sending the black ooze into nearby lots

and overflowing into nearby streets. Store windows were broken by the

gale force and store signs were flying down Main Street.

Palm trees shed their fronds into streets and in neighboring yards

throughout the city. Doors were blown in as if they were made of paper

and the winds continued into the next day. More oil derricks became

victims of the storm causing more damage. Police patrols fought many

small fires with hand-held extinguishers. Dust filled the air causing

several traffic accidents, not to mention the fine dust getting into

furniture and clothing in homes.

By late morning the next day the winds subsided and 19 oil derricks

were found damaged in the wind and officials put the damages to

Huntington Beach in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But there was one highlight to the great windstorm and that was during

the height of the storm’s fury, Jerome Kennedy and Vivian Emery stood

before Judge Charles Patton in the police station and took their vows for

their hurricane wedding.

Officer Grant and City Attorney Ray Overacker were their official

witnesses along with several of our finest in attendance to throw rice on

the newlyweds.

What more could two people want during a wedding than to be surrounded

by Huntington Beach police officers.

And like Huntington Beach people had done before and have done since

this storm, they have come together as one to help their neighbors in

their time of need.

* * *

For those of you who remember buying your pastries and fresh homemade

bread from Linderoth’s Bakery at 209 Main Street in the 1960s and 1970s

we’re sad to relay the news of the passing of Bill “Willy” Linderoth, 75,

on Dec. 17, in Perris.

Linderoth had taken over the ownership of the bakery that had formerly

been owned by John Eader in 1961.* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and

longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns,

write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.