August 25, 2011
The Great New England Hurricane of 1938
A building in the northern reaches of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, that was destroyed in the 1938 hurricane (credit: NOAA Photo Library/Donated by Susan Medyn, Tiverton, Rhode Island)
A storm formed in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on September 4, 1938, and headed west. After 12 days, before it could reach the Bahamas, it turned northward, skimming the East Coast of the United States and picking up energy from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. On September 21, it crashed into Long Island and continued its way north at a speed of 60 miles per hour, with the eye of the storm passing over New Haven, Connecticut. It didn’t dissipate until it reached Canada.
The winds were strong enough that modern scientists place the storm in Category 3 of the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The Blue Hill Observatory outside Boston measured sustained winds of 121 miles per hour and gusts as strong as 186 miles per hour. The winds blew down power lines, trees and crops and blew roofs off houses. Some downed power lines set off fires in Connecticut.
But it was the storm surge that caused the most damage. The storm came ashore at the time of the high tide, which added to the surge of water being pushed ahead by the hurricane. The water rose 14 to 18 feet along much of the Connecticut coast, and 18 to 25 feet from New London, Connecticut to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Seaside homes all along Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island were submerged under 12 to 15 feet of water, and Providence, Rhode Island was inundated with 20 feet. Whole communities were swept out to sea.
One of the homes that washed away was Katharine Hepburn‘s beach house in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Hepburn would later recall:
It was something devastating—and unreal—like the beginning of the world—or the end of it—and I slogged or sloshed, crawled through ditches and hung on to keep going somehow—got drenched and bruised and scratched—completely bedraggled—finally got to where there was a working phone and called Dad. The minute he heard my voice he said, ‘how’s your mother?’—And I said—I mean I shouted—the storm was screaming so—’She’s all right. All right, Dad! But listen, the house—it’s gone—blown away into the sea!’ And he said, ‘I don’t suppose you had the brains enough to through a match into it before it went, did you? It’s insured against fire, but not against blowing away!—and how are you?’
The hurricane, one of the most destructive to ever hit New England, was followed by massive river flooding as the water dumped by the storm—10 to 17 inches fell on the Connecticut River basin—returned to the sea. By the time the devastation was over, 564 people were dead and more than 1,700 injured, 8,900 homes were completely gone as were 2,600 boats. Trees and buildings damaged by the storm could still be seen by the 1950s.
In the days and weeks following the storm, the federal government sent thousands of men from the Works Progress Administration to assist with the search for survivors and the huge effort to clear away the destruction, as can be seen in this newsreel from the time:
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Wow… Being on the west coast I have never heard about this event… Looks like a pretty gnarly storm. I didn’t realize hurricanes came that far north.
This will happen again and hundreds will die because people don’t pay attention to warnings and think they can wait out the storm. I live in the south near the coast and know how awful these things are. Anyone in an area where a hurricane is headed needs to get out! Nothing you own is worth your life!!!!
My maternal grandmother, parents, and other family members told “us kids” of “The Hurricane Of ’38″ as they called it. Massive destruction, surge of water up the CT. River in Springfield, MA. where they all lived then. Flooding, loss, destruction. I recall years later that Gram was always nervous when hurricanes were forecast for New England.
My mother and grandmother used to talk about this storm when we vacationed in Stonington, CT each summer when I was growing up. My great grandmother had a house on Lord’s Point and was not at home when the hurricane hit. The storm washed her house and kitty cat out to sea :-( When they rebuilt the house she insisted it be built on 15-foot stilts. We used to love vacationing there and the house is still standing on the stilts after all these years. I hope Irene veers out to see or dissipates before it can cause too much damage.
[...] Not that long ago, people got little to no warning about hurricanes. They couldn’t know when the winds would kick up, when the surge of water would arrive, what kind of destruction a storm might bring. But now we have satellites orbiting overhead, powerful computers that can forecast a track days in advance and plenty of scientists to make sense of a wealth of data. We may not be invulnerable, but we can, at least, limit the amount of destruction and loss of life. (If anyone asks, “what good is science?” here’s a great example.) [...]
[...] The Smithsonian Magazine blog site has great footage showing the devastation left by the Hurricane in 1938 at http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2011/08/the-great-new-england-hurricane-of-1938/. [...]
[...] The Great New England Hurricane of 1938: A storm formed in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on September 4, 1938, and headed west. After 12 days, before it could reach the Bahamas, it turned northward, skimming the East Coast of the United States and picking up energy from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. On September 21, it crashed into Long Island and continued its way north at a speed of 60 miles per hour, with the eye of the storm passing over New Haven, Connecticut. It didn’t dissipate until it reached Canada. The winds were strong enough that modern scientists place the storm in Category 3 of the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The Blue Hill Observatory outside Boston measured sustained winds of 121 miles per hour and gusts as strong as 186 miles per hour. The winds blew down power lines, trees and crops and blew roofs off houses. Some downed power lines set off fires in Connecticut. But it was the storm surge that caused the most damage. The storm came ashore at the time of the high tide, which added to the surge of water being pushed ahead by the hurricane. The water rose 14 to 18 feet along much of the Connecticut coast, and 18 to 25 feet from New London, Connecticut to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Seaside homes all along Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island were submerged under 12 to 15 feet of water, and Providence, Rhode Island was inundated with 20 feet. Whole communities were swept out to sea…. – Smithsonian Blog, 8-25-11 [...]
All that I can say at this time is: “WOW”… I witnessed some of this in 1938 (Tiverton).
Perhaps the WPA and the CCC might be a good thing to consider in these times of unemployment. Not only get some public projects done, but get young people – male and female – off the streets and out of trouble.