The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 - 85 Years Ago - September 21, 1938

I loved this story so much. It's hard to believe how fast this storm moved and the destruction it caused. The photos are amazing.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4028d00ea6b44fd8890ba6592c15a544

I read about this storm when I was visiting friends on Fire Island. I think the storm surge went right over the island.  

Interesting hurricane lore:

In the 1960s I worked for an old-time waterman in New Jersey.  He remembered in great detail that storm and related some local effects to me.  Among the memories I have of his experience was that the storms at that time were not named.  And oddly, even though the word hurricane existed at the time, he always referred to it as a Nor'easter, not a hurricane, even during the 60s.

mrmaplewood said:

Interesting hurricane lore:

In the 1960s I worked for an old-time waterman in New Jersey.  He remembered in great detail that storm and related some local effects to me.  Among the memories I have of his experience was that the storms at that time were not named.  And oddly, even though the word hurricane existed at the time, he always referred to it as a Nor'easter, not a hurricane, even during the 60s.

My husband asked me, "What was its name?" I said, "They didn't have names at that time." I was surprised he didn't know that.

Long about 25 years ago, PBS did a documentary about it.  Guy at the weather service saw the barometer reading and figured the instrument was broken. So he didn't issue warnings. Providence, R.I. was under water.

Houses and people. (I believe it was on Cape Cod) were washed into the ocean.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Long about 25 years ago, PBS did a documentary about it.  Guy at the weather service saw the barometer reading and figured the instrument was broken. So he didn't issue warnings. Providence, R.I. was under water.

Houses and people. (I believe it was on Cape Cod) were washed into the ocean.

Wow! The link I posted talked about loss of life, homes, property and trees. It said 1 billion trees were lost! That's unfathomable to me. 

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Long about 25 years ago, PBS did a documentary about it.  Guy at the weather service saw the barometer reading and figured the instrument was broken. So he didn't issue warnings. Providence, R.I. was under water.

Houses and people. (I believe it was on Cape Cod) were washed into the ocean.

I’d think it would be criminal for a weather service that so many rely on didn’t have backup of some sort!!!

1947, a fire began on coastal Maine that spread about 100 miles inland. That was followed by several fires that destroyed 17,00 acres of land. Mansions on Bar Harbor were destroyed, along with acres of commercial timberland. 

Side note, if you drive on Rt 1 from Bar Harbor to the Canada border, you will see markers for townships.  (Township 81. Township 23 and so forth.)

My friend's grandparents lost their farm from one of the fires and could not afford to rebuild. The family kept the land and we camped on it a couple of times. The foundation of the house still remains.

My mother was a teenager living in Orange, NJ at that time. I wish I had known to ask her about it when she was still living. I suppose that it wasn't quite so memorable here as on Long Island and Connecticut, so I wonder if/how it impacted her and her family.