Communities mark killer storm's centennial

By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – If you’re unfamiliar with the worst storm in Great Lakes recorded history, there will be plenty of opportunities to learn about it this year. November marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, the “white hurricane” – named for its hurricane-force winds in a blizzard– that destroyed 19 ships and killed more than 250 people. It was the worst maritime disaster to hit the Great Lakes, according to Paul Carroll, author of “The Wexford: Elusive Shipwreck of the Great Storm, 1913” – a history book about a steamer sunk by the storm and eventually found in 2000. Carroll is a member of a committee recognizing the centennial in Ontario. A number of the ships caught in the storm foundered in Michigan.