This storm took place during November 1951 and pretty much was a coastal event. It never got much publicity during later years, even here in New England. However the gale battered the coastline with plenty of wind and rain, gusts as high as 70 mph. Shown is a section of roadway affected by the storm with town Highway and Light Department workers clearing tree debris so that the snapped poles and wires in the background along Water Street could be repaired with service promptly restored. This was a heavily tree-lined street with extended (alley-arm) crossarms. However the heavy weight of the falling elms broke everything within their descent like twigs.

1950-1953 were Korean War years and that meant sacrifices for American-made equipment. The priority was for the war effort. The issue of postwar WW2 shortages of line-building equipment and material continued and whatever was available from suppliers either was slow in delivery and/or expensive. This coincided with record growth in housing and consequently more demand for electricity.

In order to satisfy and meet these necessities electric utilities reclaimed much if not all stock brought in from the field. Anything reusable was cleaned, inspected and put into inventory as during the WW2 years. This practice was without choice and put a lot of older equipment back in service during the postwar years well into the 1950s. This included insulators, hardware, watthour meters, transformers, etc., and everything else an electric utility could confidently give a second life to that passed integrity tests as applicable.

As one late lineman (from Hingham, MA) said upon a co-worker in the 1950s...tossing away some used pole-line hardware: "You are throwing away your next raise, you know". The other guy questioned what he meant and Stanley replied..."When the management says they cannot afford to give you your next raise it probably will be because you are throwing away useful, reusable things that they have to spend more money on to buy and nothing left to give to you."