The
New England Hurricane of 1938 (or
Great New England Hurricane or
Long Island Express or simply
The Great Hurricane of 1938) was the first major
hurricane to strike
New England since 1869. The storm formed near the coast of
Africa in September of the
1938 Atlantic hurricane season, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on
Long Island on
September 21. The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at
US$306 million ($4.7 billion in 2005 dollars). In 1951 damaged trees and buildings were still to be seen in the affected areas. To date it remains the most powerful, costliest and deadliest hurricane in New England history.
Background
Before the 1938 hurricane it had been several decades since a hurricane of any significance adversely affected the northeastern Atlantic coastline. Nevertheless, history has shown that several severe hurricanes have affected the Northeast, although with much less frequency in comparison to areas of the Gulf, Florida, and southeastern Atlantic coastlines. Significant storms prior to the 1938 hurricane included:
- The Great September Gale of 1815 (the term hurricane was not yet common in the American vernacular), which hit New York City directly as a Category 3 hurricane, caused extensive damage and created an inlet that separated the Long Island resort towns of the Rockaways and Long Beach into two separate barrier islands.
- The 1821 Norfolk and Long Island Hurricane, a Category 4 storm which made four separate landfalls in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and southern New England. The storm created the highest recorded storm surge in Manhattan of nearly 13 feet and severely impacted the farming regions of Long Island and southern New England.
- The 1869 Saxby Gale affected areas in Northern New England, decimating the Maine coastline and the Canadian Outer Banks. It was the last major hurricane to affect New England until the 1938 storm.
- The 1893 "New York Hurricane", a Category 2 storm, directly hit the city itself, causing a great storm surge that pummeled the coastline, completely removing the Long Island resort town of Hog Island (New York).
The years spanning 1893 to 1938 saw much demographic change in the Northeast as large influxes of European immigrants settled in cities and towns throughout New York and New England, many of whom knew little, if anything, about hurricanes. Most people at the time associated hurricanes with the warmer tropical regions off the
Gulf Coast and southern North Atlantic waters off the Florida coastline, and not the colder Atlantic waters off New York and New England. The only tropical storms to affect the area in recent years had been weak remnant storms.
Noreasters, powerful low-pressure storms common in the Northeast during fall and winter, were a more common weather phenomena. Although Noreasters can produce winds that are similar to those in hurricanes, they do not produce what proved to be the 1938 storm's greatest killer and what caught most people off guard: storm surge. By 1938, most of the earlier storms were hardly remembered.
Meteorological history
The storm formed as a
Cape Verde-type hurricane in the eastern
Atlantic Ocean. It reached Category 5 status east of the
Bahamas around
September 20 before turning northward.
This storm was extremely unusual in that its forward speed approached 70 mph (110
km/h). The unusual rapid movement allowed the hurricane to travel far to the north before it had a chance to weaken over cooler waters and earned it the nickname "Long Island Express."
Initially, the hurricane was forecast by the U.S.
National Weather Service to curve out into the Atlantic Ocean. However, a young research forecaster with the U.S. Weather Bureau doubted this prediction, concluding that the storm would track due north. Because the official forecasts expected mere overcast conditions, residents were unaware of the impending storm. Defying these projections, the cyclone made landfall in
Suffolk County on
Long Island,
New York on
September 21,
1938 as a strong Category 3 hurricane on the present-day
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale with a central pressure of 946
mbar (
hPa). It then traveled across
Long Island Sound into
Connecticut,
Rhode Island,
Massachusetts,
New Hampshire,
Vermont, and finally into
Canada while still moving at an unusually high speed.
The hurricane hit Long Island around 3:30 p.m., which was just a few hours before astronomical
high tide. At this time the eye was about across and the hurricane was about wide.
Impact
The majority of the storm damage was from
storm surge and wind. Damage is estimated at $6 billion (2004
USD), making it among the most costly hurricanes to strike the U.S. mainland. It is estimated that if an identical hurricane struck today it would cause $39.2 billion (2005 USD) in damage.
Approximately 600 people died in the storm in New England, most in
Rhode Island, and up to 100 people elsewhere in the path of the storm. An additional 708 people were reported injured.
In total, 4,500 cottages, farms, and other homes were reported destroyed. An additional 25,000 homes were damaged. Other damages included 26,000 automobiles destroyed, and 20,000 electrical poles toppled. The hurricane also devastated the forests of the Northeast, knocking down an estimated 2 billion trees in New York and New England.
Freshwater flooding was minimal, however, as the quick passage of the storm decreased local rainfall totals, with only a few small areas receiving over 10 inches (250 mm) of rain.
New York
New York City caught the western edge of the hurricane. Winds up to 75 mph blew throughout Manhattan causing the East River to flow three blocks inland. Power was lost throughout the entire city. Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau Counties, located on the western end of Long Island, were hammered with stronger hurricane force winds in excess of 100 mph but survived the worst wrath of the storm surge due to being on the storm's weaker west side.
Eastern Long Island suffered the worst wrath of the storm. The Dune Road area of
Westhampton Beach, was obliterated resulting in 29 deaths. A cinema at Westhampton was also lifted out to sea: around 20 people at a matinee, and the theater — projectionist and all — landed two miles (3 km) into the
Atlantic and drowned. There were 21 other deaths through the rest of the east end of Long Island. The storm surge temporarily turned
Montauk into an island as it flooded across the South Fork at
Napeague and obliterated the tracks of the
Long Island Rail Road.
The surge rearranged the sand at the Cedar Point Lighthouse so that the island became connected to what is now
Cedar Point County Park. The surging water created the present-day
Shinnecock Inlet by carving out a large section of barrier island separating Shinnecock Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The storm toppled the landmark steeple of the tallest building in
Sag Harbor the
Old Whaler's Church. The steeple has not been rebuilt.
Wading River suffered substantial damage.
In Greenport, on the North Fork of Long Island, the storm blew down the movie theatre located on Front Street.
Rhode Island
The storm surge hit
Westerly, Rhode Island at 3:50 p.m. EDT, resulting in 100 deaths there alone.
The tide was even higher than usual because of the
Autumnal Equinox and
full moon. The hurricane produced storm tides of 14 to across most of the Long Island and Connecticut coast, with 18- to tides from
New London east to
Cape Cod. The storm surge was especially violent along the Rhode Island shore, sweeping hundreds of summer cottages out to sea. As the surge drove northward through
Narragansett Bay, it was restricted by the Bay's funnel shape and rose to nearly 16 feet (15.8) feet above normal spring tides, resulting in more than of water in some areas of downtown
Providence. Several motorists were drowned in their autos.
Many homes and structures along the coast were destroyed as well as many structures inland along the hurricane's path. Entire beach communities on the coast of Rhode Island were obliterated. Napatree Point, a small cape that housed nearly 40 families between the
Atlantic Ocean and
Little Narragansett Bay just off of
Watch Hill, Rhode Island, was completely swept away. Today, Napatree is wildlife refuge with no human inhabitants. The only structures lying directly on the coast that survived the storm were the immense stone mansions in
Newport, mostly because the largest mansions were along the
Cliff Walk, high above the waves, though several, including
The Breakers and
Carey Mansion (known at that time as Seaview Terrace) still bear scars from the high winds of the storm.
One of the more tragic stories related to the storm was that of the seven children who died after driver
Norman Caswell abandoned their school bus while trying to cross a narrow causeway known as Mackerel Cove in
Jamestown, Rhode Island. Halfway through the cove, the bus stalled; the children evacuated and formed a human chain, believing they would be safer. The chain broke and the children were washed away, later to be found at various locations along Narragansett Bay. The only survivors were Caswell and Clayton Chellis (whose sister perished and brother chose to ride home with friends instead, saving his life). Caswell was blamed by many in the town for the children's deaths and never drove the bus again.
A few miles from Conanicus Island, keeper Walter Eberly lost his life when
Whale Rock lighthouse was swept off its base and into the raging waves. His body was never found.
Connecticut
Eastern Connecticut was in the eastern side of the hurricane. Long Island acted as a buffer against large ocean surges, but the waters of Long Island Sound rose to unimaginable heights. Small shoreline towns to the east of New Haven had nearly complete destruction from the water and winds. To this day, the 1938 hurricane holds the record for the worst natural disaster in Connecticut's 350-year history.
In the beach towns of
Clinton,
Westbrook, and
Old Saybrook, buildings were found as wreckage across coastal roads. Actress
Katharine Hepburn waded to safety from her
Old Saybrook beach home, narrowly escaping death. She stated in her 1991 book that 95% of her personal belongings were either lost or destroyed, including her 1932
Oscar which was later found intact. In
Old Lyme, beach cottages were flattened or swept away. Along the Stonington shorefront, buildings were swept off their foundations and found two miles (3 km) inland. Rescuers later searching for survivors in the homes in
Mystic found live fish and crabs in kitchen drawers and cabinets.
New London was first swept by the winds and storm surge; then the waterfront business district caught fire and burned out of control for 10 hours. Stately homes along
Ocean Beach were leveled by the storm surge. The permanently anchored 240-ton lightship at the head of New London Harbor was found on a sand bar two miles (3 km) away.
Interior sections of the state experienced widespread flooding as the hurricane's torrential rains fell on soil already saturated from previous storms. The
Connecticut River was forced out of its banks, inundating cities and towns from
Hartford, to
Middletown.
Massachusetts
The eye of the storm followed the Connecticut River north into Massachusetts, where the winds and flooding killed 99 people. In Springfield, the river rose to 6 to above flood stage, causing significant damage. Up to six inches (152 mm) of rain fell across western Massachusetts, which combined with over four inches (102 mm) that had fallen a few days earlier produced widespread flooding. Residents of
Ware were stranded for days and relied on air-dropped food and medicine. After the flood receded, the town's Main Street was a chasm in which sewer pipes could be seen.
To the east, the surge left Falmouth and New Bedford under eight feet of water. Two-thirds of all the boats in New Bedford harbor sank. The
Blue Hills Observatory registered sustained winds of 121 mph (195 km/h) and a peak gust of 186 mph (299 km/h).
The
New Haven Railroad from New Haven to Providence was particularly hard hit, as countless bridges along the
Shore Line were destroyed or flooded, severing rail connections to badly affected cities (such as Westerly) in the process.
New Hampshire
In
New Hampshire, there was less damage than in other states. Only one inch (25 mm) of rain fell in
Concord. But
Peterborough was worse; total damage there was stated to be $500,000 (1938 USD, $6.5 million 2005 USD) and swept away 10 bridges. In all of New Hampshire, 13 people met their deaths.
Canada
The
extratropical remnants of the hurricane tracked into southern
Ontario. The system produced heavy rains and brought gusty winds but overall damage was minimal. Numerous trees were downed throughout the region due to the storm.
Post 1938 Hurricanes
In contrast to the long span of releatively mild hurricane activity that preceded the 1938 hurricane, storm activity afterwards would prove to be much more frequent. In the ensuing years following the '38 storm the northeastern United States would get hit with a number hurricanes most notably the
Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944,
Hurricane Carol,
Hurricane Edna, and
Hurricane Hazel in 1954, the flooding remnants of
Hurricane Connie,
Hurricane Diane,
Hurricane Ione in 1955,
Hurricane Donna in 1960 and more recently
Hurricane Gloria in 1985, and
Hurricane Bob in 1991.
See also
