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| Southbridge, Mass., after the storm. |
Initially, no one was overly concerned about a northbound Atlantic storm in September 1938, because it was expected to blow itself out at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. But on Sept. 21 of that year, forecasters learned how wrong they had been. That's when all hell broke loose.
As the PBS series American Experience reports on its web site, what later became known as the Great New England Hurricane of '38 "suddenly began an unexpected sprint north along the coast, surprising even the Coast Guard. No one had ever seen a storm like this; radar had not yet been invented."
The hurricane "ripped into the New England shore with enough fury to set off seismographs in Sitka, Alaska. Traveling at a shocking 60 miles per hour -- three times faster than most tropical storms -- it was astonishingly swift and powerful, with peak wind gusts up to 186 mph. The storm without a name turned into one of the most devastating storms recorded in North America. Over 600 people were killed, most by drowning. Another hundred were never found. Property damage was estimated at $400 million -- over 8,000 homes were destroyed, 6,000 boats wrecked or damaged." Rhode Island was especially hard hit, and suffered the most casualties.
The winds recorded that day dwarfed the land wind speeds in storms Irene and Sandy. "The hurricane was the death knell for many mills and factories that had barely survived the Great Depression," according to The Associated Press. "It stripped 4 million bushels of apples from orchards, killed livestock and felled millions of trees . . . . Bridges and dams were destroyed, and rail travel was halted for weeks."
As the PBS series American Experience reports on its web site, what later became known as the Great New England Hurricane of '38 "suddenly began an unexpected sprint north along the coast, surprising even the Coast Guard. No one had ever seen a storm like this; radar had not yet been invented."
The hurricane "ripped into the New England shore with enough fury to set off seismographs in Sitka, Alaska. Traveling at a shocking 60 miles per hour -- three times faster than most tropical storms -- it was astonishingly swift and powerful, with peak wind gusts up to 186 mph. The storm without a name turned into one of the most devastating storms recorded in North America. Over 600 people were killed, most by drowning. Another hundred were never found. Property damage was estimated at $400 million -- over 8,000 homes were destroyed, 6,000 boats wrecked or damaged." Rhode Island was especially hard hit, and suffered the most casualties.
The winds recorded that day dwarfed the land wind speeds in storms Irene and Sandy. "The hurricane was the death knell for many mills and factories that had barely survived the Great Depression," according to The Associated Press. "It stripped 4 million bushels of apples from orchards, killed livestock and felled millions of trees . . . . Bridges and dams were destroyed, and rail travel was halted for weeks."
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| Cranston, R.I., following the Hurricane of '38 |
