1938 New England hurricane

The 1938 New England hurricane, also called the Long Island Express, raced north at 60 to 70 mph and made landfall on Long Island and in Connecticut on the afternoon of September 21, 1938, as a Category 3 hurricane.¹ NHC's best track puts the Long Island landfall at 2000 UTC with 105-knot (121 mph) winds and a central pressure of 941 mb, and the Connecticut landfall an hour later at 100 knots (115 mph).²

Storm tides reached 14 to 18 feet along most of the Connecticut coast and 18 to 25 feet from New London east to Cape Cod.³ A 12 to 15 foot surge destroyed most coastal homes around Narragansett Bay, and downtown Providence was flooded by a storm tide of nearly 20 feet.³ Blue Hill Observatory in Massachusetts measured a 186 mph gust, and Providence had a 125 mph gust.³ Fallen power lines started fires that burned parts of New London and Mystic, Connecticut.³ Rain of 10 to 17 inches, counting a storm in the days before, flooded the Connecticut River Valley, and the river at Hartford rose 19.4 feet above flood stage.³

Across southern New England, 8,900 homes, cottages and buildings were destroyed, more than 15,000 were damaged, and 564 people died.³ NHC lists 600 deaths and $308 million in damage in the United States.¹