6. The Great New England Hurricane of 1938
The hurricane which struck New England in September 1938 first crossed Long Island before crossing the Sound and making a second landfall on the Connecticut coastline, earning it the nickname of the Long Island Express. As the storm crossed the Atlantic after forming near Africa it appeared to be bound for the coast of Florida, which was still recovering from the Labor Day hurricane three years earlier. Instead, weather conditions in the Appalachians and near Bermuda created a trough which caused the storm to make an abrupt right turn while just off Florida’s coast, and accelerated to the north. Due to the inaccurate methods of forecasting prevalent in the United States at the time, New England was ill-prepared for the storm, which caused the equivalent of over five billion dollars in damage as it crossed over the region in a single night before entering Canada.
The hurricane was a deadly storm as well, causing fatalities from the storm surge, high winds, tornadoes it spawned, and flash flooding. Over a third of the forests of New England was destroyed by the storm. Harvard University’s forestry program was reduced as a result of the storm, which destroyed the forest the school managed. The storm created new inlets and bays on Long Island, including Shinnecock Inlet. In Rhode Island, hundreds of beach front homes were swept to sea. A house in Charlestown was carried across the street on which it stood, and remained in its new location until 2011. Katharine Hepburn’s home in Old Saybrook, where she was in residence, was inundated by the storm, and she lost more than 90% of her belongings as a result, though she was able to escape to safety. Up to 800 people on Long Island and in New England were not so fortunate, losing their lives as a result of the hurricane.