Today is the anniversary of the Cat 3 hurricane that struck here in the Northeast and did major damage along the coast and many people drowned because of the storm surge. The most amazing fact of this storm is that it moved up the coast at speeds of 60-70 mph and in 24 hrs moved from off the coast of Florida up to hitting land in RI/CT!!
<A name=new></A>New England Hurricane 1938
The "Long Island Express" was first detected over the tropical Atlantic on September 13, although it may have formed a few days earlier. Moving generally west-northwestward, it passed to the north of Puerto Rico on the 18th and 19th, likely as a category 5 hurricane. It turned northward on September 20 and by the morning of the 21st it was 100 to 150 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. At that point, the hurricane accelerated to a forward motion of 60 to 70 mph, making landfall over Long Island and Connecticut that afternoon as a Category 3 hurricane. The storm became extratropical after landfall and dissipated over southeastern Canada on September 22.
Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts measured sustained winds of 121 mph with gusts to 183 mph (likely influenced by terrain). A U.S. Coast Guard station on Long Island measured a minimum pressure of 27.94 in. Storm surges of 10 to 12 ft inundated portions of the coast from Long Island and Connecticut eastward to southeastern Massachusetts, with the most notable surges in Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay. Heavy rains before and during the hurricane produced river flooding, most notably along the Connecticut River.
Total estimated damage from the 1938 Hurricane:
<UL>
<LI>700 deaths, 708 injured
<LI>4,500 homes, cottages, farms destroyed; 15,000 damaged
<LI>26,000 destroyed automobiles
<LI>20,000 miles of electrical power and telephone lines downed
<LI>1,700 livestock and up to 750,000 chickens killed
<LI>$2,610,000 worth of fishing boats, equipment, docks, and shore plants damaged or destroyed
<LI>Half the entire apple crop destroyed at a cost of $2 million </LI>[/list]
Edited by: masta 
