Hurricane of 1938

(WPRI) - The forecast for that September day in 1938 called for cloudy skies and rain.

"We didn't know much about hurricanes in those days. But, we did by the time it was over. When I went to work it was calm as anything, then we saw it get black, black."

New England's fate began two weeks earlier when French forecasters reported strong winds off the coast of Africa. These winds became a tropical storm almost immediately as they passed to the south of the Cape Verde Islands.

A week later, reports surfaced of a hurricane northeast of Puerto Rico. Forecasters in Florida were on alert. A couple of days later, the storm, which was also called the Long Island Express, turned north passing east of Cape Hatteras. It then cut a path across Long Island at an incredible speed of 60 miles-per-hour and exposed Rhode Island to the worst side of the storm

In addition to high winds and pounding surf, Southern New England fell victim to the strong storm surge - the most dangerous part of the hurricane.

The storm only last a few hours as it raced northward, but the results were devastating.

"We didn't get warnings. We didn't know what was happening."

When it was over, the Hurricane of '38 left close to 600 people dead and 24,000 homes damaged or destroyed. If ou calculate the damage by today's standards, it would be $16 billion.