Edna formed early in the month off Barbados. Slowly strengthening, Edna followed the shape of the Caribbean islands, never moving more than 100 miles away from land. Edna was a Category 3 by the time it took aim at North Carolina's Outer Banks. Edna raked the Outer Banks, which had already been devastated by Hurricane Carol less than a month earlier. Fortunately, Edna's strongest winds were too far offshore to affect the battered area. The hurricane weakened slightly as it moved north over cooler waters. Before striking New England, its eye actually split into two different ones, up to 60 miles apart. It then moved over Cape Cod before finally making landfall near Eastport, Maine with sustained winds of around 92 mph.

[edit] Impact

Edna was one of Maine's worst hurricanes, yet this storm could have been much worse. Carol hit Long Island directly as a Category 2, while Edna hit a less densely populated part of New England and was weaker. As it was, Edna still killed 29 people and caused $40.5 million in damage. For the citizens of Maine, it was a painful reminder that they were not immune from the dangers of hurricanes. The state would have the occasional hurricane brush by in the years to come, but none of them (with the possible exception of Gerda in 1969) were as destructive as Edna

My most vivid remembrance of this was watching the cows swim over to the high interval to feed for the day.