Excerpt from letter from Mrs. J. C. Adams, Rumson, New Jersey
September 22, 1956
Although the local paper did not use the word "tornado,"
that's what everyone said it was. They (the paper). called it a
"freakish violent wind storm." See what you think. It was
a,warm sunny day all day on Monday. At about seven I drove
to Red Bank to pick up Jim at the station. The sky directly
above the horizon suddenly looked pitch black, with occasional
zig-zag streaks of lightning. The rest of the sky above us
was clear. Within ten minutes or so the black cloud had
covered about one-third of the sky. On top of it (or rather
in front of it with the blackness as a background) was a large
gray mass - it was churning and it looked like a gray ghost -
two large, long arms reaching down toward earth - they didn't
quite touch it.
Within seconds after we got home, all hell broke loose.
The whole outdoors made a roaring noise like a train. It
was blowing so wildly that you could not see more than a foot
or two. It was madly roaring and hailing huge things - some
of them golf ball size. There was lightning of the big flash
vapiety but not in a clear form. Within about 5 or.8 minutes
the whole thing was over and: the moon came out.
It had a path about a mile or two miles wide. On either
side of it there was only a slight wind and no rain. Here
in Rumson and Sea Bright trees were uprooted and a roof was
pulled off. All electricity and stuff was off, and things
were in a general mess - roads blocked by trees and branches
etc. The school was closed because a giant oak tree in front
of it had been uprooted pulling with it the sidewalk and water
pipes and falling across the electric wires. A stop sign was
folded back in two like a piece of paper. Was it a tornado?
