Sudden Sea: Uncovering the Devastation of the Great Hurricane of 1938

Careful Consumer: Living in the area that was ground zero for the hurricane of 38 I was quite taken with the stories contained in this book. My house was the only one on Quononchontaug that survived the storm. Being there through Hurricane Sandy gave me some appreciation for what these people went through, albeit not anywhere near the same magnitude.

United States on Aug 13, 2023

Sandra Bacon, DNP, RN: I’m familiar with recent life changing storms such as Katrina, Sandy, and Irene. I was not aware of the intensity of the 1938 Hurricane. The loss of life and destruction informed and improved Morse RN day forecasting. It was amazing to hear stories from survivors and the lessons learned

United States on Jul 05, 2023

El Kabong: On September 21, 1938, southern New England prepared for a glorious late-summer day. Summer had been hot, muggy and stormy, but this day promised a wonderful respite of lowered humidity, brilliant sun and flat sea. Until, that is, a freak Category 5 hurricane (poorly forecast and under-reported) that was supposed to head harmlessly out to sea after missing Florida instead took a fast track up the Atlantic coast, savaged Central Long Island and barreled right into Narragansett Bay, whipping away scores of summer homes, beach clubs, restaurants and other aspects of the leisurely life, and leaving several hundred Rhode Islanders dead or missing. As late as mid-afternoon the glorious day was still in full swing; but by suppertime any pretense of normality or historical permanence had been swept away. The pleasure of a well-heeled summer life was "gone with the wind" -- and water that wound up a dozen miles and more inland, flattening everything in its course.

The late R.A. Scotti has given us a very enlightening and fast-paced account of what happened that day, to numerous breakdowns in government forecasting and local news media to what families were forced to improvise to...

United States on Jan 25, 2019

ealovitt: Powerful hurricanes are infrequent visitors to New England, but `The Long Island Express' not only paid a visit---it dropped in unannounced on September 21, 1938 just as many summer residents were on the beach and closing up their ocean-front cottages, among them actress Katharine Hepburn and her mother.

The Weather Bureau gave no cause for alarm, at least not after the hurricane skirted Florida and headed north. The meteorologists in Washington D.C. assumed that the storm would dissipate in the cold waters of the Atlantic, as had happened to all north-bound hurricanes since the Great September Gale devastated New England in 1815.
According to the author, no one could have been prepared for the 1938 storm's speed and ferocity. Sweeping northward from Cape Hatteras, building tremendous momentum as it advanced, the hurricane raced over six hundred miles in only twelve hours. Only the captain of the 'Carinthia,' a small 20,000 ton luxury cruiser that weathered the ferocious brawl 150 miles north of Florida might have given warning. He did radio to shore that his barometer had dropped "almost an inch to 27.85 in less than an hour. It was one of the lowest readings ever...

United States on Jan 14, 2004