A powerful hurricane struck the Middle Atlantic coast and permanently altered the geography, transportation system, maritime economy, and environmental history of Ocean City, Maryland. The storm breached the narrow barrier landform south of the resort town and created the waterway now known as Ocean City Inlet. Before the hurricane, the barrier beach was continuous between Ocean City and Assateague Island. After the storm, the new inlet separated Fenwick Island, on which Ocean City stands, from Assateague Island. Federal engineers subsequently stabilized the opening rather than allowing natural coastal processes to close it. That decision transformed a storm-created breach into a permanent feature of Maryland’s Atlantic coastline.
The hurricane developed in the tropical Atlantic and moved northwestward before turning toward the American coast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the storm crossed the North Carolina coast on August 23 and continued through the Chesapeake region. It became one of the most destructive tropical cyclones to affect the Middle Atlantic states during the early twentieth century. High winds, heavy rainfall, waves, and storm surge caused extensive damage around Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast. Contemporary federal studies estimated the tide at Ocean City during the storm at approximately 7.5 feet above mean low water.
Conditions along the Ocean City barrier beach produced a major breach. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has documented that shifting winds, storm-driven water, and the outgoing tide moved large quantities of water from Sinepuxent Bay toward the Atlantic. The flow cut through the barrier south of Ocean City. The result was a new connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the coastal bays. Worcester County historical records date the creation of the inlet to August 23, 1933.
The storm also destroyed the railroad bridge that had provided direct rail access to Ocean City. Rail transportation had played an important role in the resort’s development since the nineteenth century by bringing visitors from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other population centers to Maryland’s Atlantic shore. Destruction of the bridge marked a major disruption in that transportation system. Ocean City increasingly depended upon automobile travel as highway transportation expanded during the twentieth century.
The newly opened inlet created an important opportunity for maritime navigation. Before 1933, boats operating from the coastal bays lacked the direct Atlantic access that the modern inlet provided. Recognizing its value, federal authorities chose to maintain the opening. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed north and south stone jetties during 1934 and 1935 to stabilize the inlet. Federal navigation channels were then dredged, with a channel approximately 10 feet deep and 200 feet wide completed in 1936. These improvements converted a naturally created storm breach into an engineered navigation system.
The inlet contributed substantially to Ocean City’s subsequent development as a center for commercial and recreational boating. Fishing vessels gained direct access from local harbors to the Atlantic Ocean, while recreational fishing became an increasingly important part of the resort economy. The inlet remains regularly used by commercial fishermen, recreational boaters, and the United States Coast Guard. Its existence therefore changed Ocean City from a resort dependent primarily upon its beach and boardwalk into a community with direct maritime access to the ocean.
Federal stabilization also produced long-term environmental consequences. The jetties interrupted the natural southward movement of sand along the coastline. Sand accumulated around portions of the inlet while less sediment reached northern Assateague Island. The Army Corps of Engineers has identified this interruption of sediment transport as a major cause of accelerated erosion along the northern portion of Assateague. Federal agencies eventually developed sand-bypassing and restoration programs intended to move sediment across the inlet system and reduce those effects.
Ocean City Inlet therefore represents more than the physical evidence of a destructive hurricane. The events of August 23, 1933, changed the configuration of Maryland’s Atlantic barrier islands and redirected Ocean City’s transportation and maritime development. Federal stabilization made the storm-created opening permanent, while later dredging and engineering projects maintained navigation through it. At the same time, those modifications altered coastal sediment movement and required continuing management of Ocean City and Assateague Island. The modern inlet remains one of Maryland’s clearest examples of a natural disaster producing a lasting geographical change that subsequently became an important piece of public infrastructure.
References / More Knowledge:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Weather Prediction Center. “Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane – August 1933.” NOAA. https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropical/rain/chesapeakepotomac1933.html
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. “80th Anniversary of the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane.” August 22, 2013. https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hurricane_blog/80th-anniversary-of-the-chesapeake-potomac-hurricane/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Hurricane Study: Atlantic Coast, Delaware-Maryland Line to Gargathy Inlet, Virginia. https://coast.noaa.gov/data/hes/images/pdf/HURRSTUDY_DE_MD_LINE_TO_GARGATHYINLET_VA.pdf
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water Resources. “Wind and Barriers.” Tales of the Coast. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Coasts/Tales-of-the-Coast/Coastal-Dynamics/Wind/Wind-and-Barriers/
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. Ocean City/Assateague Island, Maryland, Studies. https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Portals/46/Users/219/67/2267/Proceeding.pdf
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. Ocean City Harbor and Inlet and Sinepuxent Bay Project, Worcester County, Maryland: Inlet Navigation Improvements, Draft Environmental Assessment. 2022. https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Portals/63/1_OC_DRAFT-EA_MAY2022.pdf
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. Restoration of Assateague Island: Ocean City, Maryland and Vicinity Water Resources Feasibility Study. https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Portals/63/docs/Civil%20Works/Restoration_of_Assateague.pdf
Worcester County Library. Worcester County History: Storm Surges & Modern Times. https://worcesterlibrary.org/sites/default/files/documents/worcester_county_history.pdf