At the storm's peak, the wind blew a steady 60 miles an hour and gusted to 75. Six feet of water covered parts of Main Street, and most of the island was flooded to various depths.  Half a block inland from Main Street, the water reached the tops of the pews inside Christ Methodist Church.

Just about every business on the island experienced losses, particularly those along and near Main Street.  Boats swept from anchor in Chincoteague Channel and rammed into the back of stores on the western side of Main Street.

The island's chicken and oyster businesses experienced great losses. As many as 350,000 chickens drowned, and every oyster shucking house on the western side of the island was damaged, those on the East Side less so. Oyster boats were damaged, and, because of fears that sewage had contaminated the island's oyster beds, oyster harvesting was prohibited by health officials for weeks. By the time the oyster houses could be cleaned up and reopened, buyers had located other sources.

Dan Jones, a waterman and lifelong resident of Chincoteague, saw a divine hand in the losses: "It was the Lord's punishment on us. There are evil men in the town. But He only took our worldly things, even our boats. He didn't take a life. He spared us that. We want too many things, and that's wrong." During the height of the storm, Jones returned to his house to rescue a piggy bank containing about 500 pennies and a leather purse containing about $25 in bills.

The tidal surge tore out the back of the Western Auto building and left bicycles hanging out the front windows. The building was so badly battered that it had to be razed.

Water covers the tires of cars on Cropper Street,