"The Killer Storm"- The 1991 Halloween Gale

This History Channel Documentary is about a monstrous nor'easter that formed in late October 1991 off the coast of Nova Scotia. The nor'easter had absorbed a weak, dying hurricane called Grace to balloon to monstrous proportions. When that happened, you had an extratropical low pressure system on steroids. It wreaked havoc along the East Coast of the US from Maine to Florida, pounding the Atlantic Seaboard with tropical storm forced winds and 30 foot waves. The effects from the storm where felt from Newfoundland to as far South as Puerto Rico. There were 13 fatalities from the storm including 6 Gloucester, MA sword fishermen on the Andrea Gail. It was this account that inspired Sebastian Junger to write "The Perfect Storm", an NYT best seller that was later made into a motion picture. On the open ocean the 1991 Halloween Nor'easter packed hurricane forced winds and generated seas of 100 ft. It has been suspected that the Andrea Gail sank in the vicinity of Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia and was assumed to have been engulfed by one of these towering monster waves.

The documentary tells of brave heroism in the face of enormous adversity. It tells how the Coast Guard and the Air National Guard were pressed into service to save people out at sea from the storm's wrath and fury. It also tells the account of how the Coast Guard had to save Air National Guardsmen who had to ditch their helicopter because it couldn't refuel and run out. The documentary delves in the formation of hurricanes and how they wreaked havoc on the US from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Gulf Coast. I hope you'll find this as fascinating as I have.

Thank you for watching!