McDaniel driven from home by Joaquin

Hurricane Joaquin, which caused a billion dollars worth of flood damage, breached 11 dams and was responsible for dozens of deaths in South Carolina, drove Jim McDaniel, Class of 1960, and wife Mary Curry McDaniel, who grew up in Monongah, from their home in Rehobothbeach, Delaware for two days in October.

Jim & Mary Curry McDaniel

Reports Jim:

“We had some minor damage; lots of areas here got it a lot worst. When the water cannot get out of Rehoboth Bay, it backs up and starts coming out of the ground. We are at sea level so it floods very easily. Only 1 road in and out; that is why we had to get out of here. We were gone for 2 days."

Jim is the youngest McDaniel sibling and grandson of famed Monongah streetcarstation master Ted McDaniel. So are Mary Jane McDaniel Pritchard and Donald McDaniel. Their sister, Joanne, still lives at the bottom of Kings Alley in Worthington.

Their father was Carroll Curry, who owned the hotel, theater and bank in Monongah.  His Mom and her 5 siblings were raised in the hotel. 

Mary Curry McDaniel's sister was Ava Curry Cogar, married to Fred Cogar and living on Cottage Avenue. Ava and my mother, Lena Futten Olesky, who lived across Camden Avenue (U.S. 19) on Church Street with John W. Olesky, Sr., were best friends and often sat on our back porch and talked of many things.

Ava was the lay assistant in 1924 when St. Stanislaus Church priest Father Lawrence Michalski asked Mother Mary Ursula, Mother Mary Arsenia and Sister Mary Clara to begin St. Stanislaus School. It later was renamed Sts. Peter and Paul School.

Jim met Mary, by then from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. They have been married 36 years. Jim is an Air Force retiree.