![]() Hurricanes that make landfall further to the west will cause greater damage because more of the right, or east, side of the storm will be over highly populated areas. The different landfall points would result in dramatically different industry losses and damages because hurricanes are “right handed” in the northern hemisphere, with the strongest winds occurring from a few miles to 50 miles to the right of the storm center. Such a storm could make landfall anywhere along the Long Island, Rhode Island or Massachusetts coastlines. Given this history, it’s reasonable to assume the 1938 storm is a 100-year type event for the region and has an estimated one percent annual probability of occurring. The report notes that according to historical records, several major hurricanes impacted the Northeast before 1900. This type of storm could also result in losses well above many insurers’ PMLs.” “It will only take a Category 3 hurricane with the right track to cause industry losses far exceeding anything we’ve seen to date. “In the Northeast, it’s not a question of the intensity but of the storm track,” said Karen Clark, president and CEO of Karen Clark & Company. Karen Clark & Company’s report estimates that were the 1938 storm to occur today insured losses would exceed $35 billion and that a similar storm, but tracking further to the west, would result in insured losses exceeding $100 billion. Similar Storm Now Could Result in Insured Losses Exceeding $35B ![]() The hurricane felled millions of trees, in some locations destroying entire forests, downing power lines and causing outages over most of the region. In addition, thousands of homes and other buildings were destroyed, with 63,000 left homeless, and 3,000 ships sunk or damaged. As a result, nearly 700 people were killed and an equal number injured. (Source: NOAA Photo Library)īecause forecasters believed hurricanes never hit the Northeast, no warnings were issued. Island Park, R.I., in the aftermath of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. ![]() ![]() Newsreel footage of the 1938 hurricane can be seen here.Significant wind damages were experienced throughout the region, and many coastal towns were completely wiped out by storm surge heights exceeding 10 feet in many areas. In all, 10 people clung to that bit of floor as it hurdled across the sound to land in Connecticut, where the family then stepped back on to land and back into their lives. “We were on the water with the waves crashing over us, and part of the house still attached, one of the walls still attached to this piece of floor, and it almost acted as a sail.” “Next thing I knew, we were floating,” Moore recalled. Finally, the waves overwhelmed their own house, lifting it off its foundation. The Miraculous RideĪs the family moved first to the second floor and finally to the third floor to stay above the storm surge, they watched as house after house succumbed. As the ocean waves began surging into the house, Catherine Moore recalls her father bracing against the front door literally trying to hold back the ocean. As the storm grew stronger, the family tried to evacuate their beachfront home, but could not. Perhaps the most astounding story of the storm comes from the Moore family of Westerly. In Westerly, R.I., 100 people died ecause of the storm. Parts of downtown Providence were under 14 feet of water, with people sheltering on the second and third floors of buildings. And in Vermont, the storm caused a train derailment and uprooted maple trees and apple orchards. Up into New Hampshire, Peterborough went up in flames and part of the Cog Railway on Mt. In New London, high waters pushed a five-masted ship, Marsala, into a warehouse and then started a fire that demolished a quarter-mile section of the city’s business district.Īs the storm passed the Milton Observatory in Massachusetts, 186 m.p.h. The hurricane of 1938 crossed over the tip of Long Island, then slammed into New London, Conn., and raced up the Connecticut River Valley at 50 miles per hour. 1938 HurricaneĮstimates vary, but at least 400 people perished that day and maybe as many as 800. But his superiors overruled him, and the forecast for the day called for good weather. One man at the National Weather Bureau predicted the storm would, in fact, follow the devastating track of the hurricanes of 16. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Houses destroyed by the hurricane of 1938.
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