The hurricane-strength Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 was one of the most destructive storms to hit the mid Atlantic, and it caused significant damage to Chincoteague and the surrounding islands. You may be familiar with the storm and its effects on the island from Stormy, Misty’s Foal , the Marguerite Henry book that tells a fictionalized tale of the nor’easter. Dozens of wild ponies died as a result of the storm. Three years later and hundreds of miles away, Illinois was dealing with a flood of its own. In the spring of 1965, the Mississippi River rose about 22.5 feet, causing $125 million in damage to the Quad Cities region—the equivalent of almost $1 billion today. Patricia “Tish” Hewitt of Moline, Illinois had read articles about the Ash Wednesday Storm and Chincoteague’s plight, but seeing the flooding in her own town spurred her to action. She reached out to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company to see if they would be interested in using one of her Arabian stallions, ...
The stories behind the beloved breed