Great New England Hurricane of 1938: 680 Dead, No Warning
Nobody saw it coming — literally. The Weather Bureau had been tracking the storm but didn't issue warnings to New England because forecasters expected it to curve out to sea. Instead it screamed north at 70 mph, covering the last 500 miles in under eight hours. Waves reached 40 feet. Entire beach communities on Long Island and Rhode Island were simply erased. Between 500 and 700 people died. The disaster directly triggered the creation of the modern U.S. hurricane warning system.
September 21, 1938
88 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on September 21
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