using its searchlight to help the ship locate the crew
members. TheTamaroathrew a cargo net over the
side of the ship to assist the crew members in climb-
ing aboard, but a fifth member of the crew was lost to
the storm despite the efforts. TheAndrea Gailwas a
seventy-two-foot fishing vessel returning from a fish-
ing expedition and was caught in the storm. On Oc-
tober 28, the last transmission from the ship re-
ported waves of thirty feet and wind gusts up to 80
knots (92.2 miles per hour) The ship was reported
overdue on October 30, and after a massive search,
the six-member crew was presumed dead, missing at
sea. Debris from the ship was later found on Sable Is-
land. Overall, the storm was responsible for twelve
deaths.
Beach erosion and flooding were widespread.
There were reports of damage from the Bahamas to
northern Canada, with the worst effects seen in the
New England states. There was a record-high tide in
Ocean City, Maryland, that reached 7.8 feet; in Bos-
ton, the tide reached 14.1 feet above the mean low
water. Lighthouses, homes, and businesses were dam-
aged by the lengthy storm. Piers and seawalls were de-
stroyed, and in an area where fishing is vital to the
economy, numerous small boats and lobster traps
were also destroyed. Federal disaster sites were de-
clared for seven counties in Massachusetts, five coun-
ties in Maine, and one county in New Hampshire.
Impact The Perfect Storm was a rare and massive
combination of three separate weather events that
created a front hundreds of miles wide. It affected an
area that encompassed the entire eastern seaboard
of the United States and Canada and affected areas
as far south as Puerto Rico. It caused hundreds of
millions of dollars of damage, and the impact on the
New England coast has been referred to as “the
worst in living memory.”
Further Reading
Houghton, Gillian.The Wreck of the “Andrea Gail”:
Three Days of a Perfect Storm. New York: Rosen Cen-
tral, 2003. An account of the Perfect Storm that
focuses on the ship,Andrea Gail, and its crew.
Junger, Sebastian.The Perfect Storm: A True Stor y of
Men Against the Sea. New York: W. W. Norton,
- A riveting account of the Perfect Storm that
was the basis for the 2000 film adaptation.
Sargent, William.Storm Surge: A Coastal Village Battles
the Rising Atlantic. Hanover, N.H.: University Press
of New England, 2004. Focuses on the regional ef-
fects of storms, with a section on the Perfect
Storm.
U.S. Department of Commerce. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. National Weather
Service.The Halloween Nor’easter of 1991: East Coast of
the United States...Maine to Florida and Puerto Rico,
October 28 to November 1, 1991. Natural Disaster Sur-
vey Report. Silver Spring, Md.: Author, 1992. The
official account of the Perfect Storm by the Na-
tional Weather Service.
James J. HeineySee also Global warming debate; Hurricane An-
drew; Natural disasters; Oklahoma tornado outbreak;
Storm of the Century. Perlman, Itzhak
Identification Israeli American musician
Born August 31, 1945; Tel Aviv, Palestine (now in
Israel)
Perlman became an ambassador for classical music in the
1990’s with his engaging personality and ability to appeal
to popular audiences.
From the 1960’s through the 1980’s, Itzhak Perl-
man developed a reputation as one of the finest
classical violinists in the world, despite having sur-
vived a childhood bout with polio that left him par-
tially paralyzed. Possessed of an accessibility and
sense of humor that endeared him to popular audi-
ences, Perlman had also increased public aware-
ness and appreciation of classical music through
numerous television and radio appearances and by
the 1990’s had become the face of classical music to
many audiences who previously had had little or no
exposure to the genre. In addition to historic visits
to former Soviet-bloc nations in the early 1990’s
and to China and India in 1994, Perlman raised the
profile of classical music in the United States, ap-
pearing on such popular American television pro-
grams asMister Rogers’ NeighborhoodandLate Show
with David Letterman. He appeared frequently on
programs broadcast by the Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS) and in 1994 hosted the U.S. broad-
cast of a performance by the Three Tenors, viewed
by millions of Americans.
Perlman continued to perform frequently during
the 1990’s and released a prolific body of recorded662 Perlman, Itzhak The Nineties in America