Looking back at RI’s strongest hurricane 85 years later

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Thursday marks the 85th anniversary of the Great Hurricane of 1938, which devastated Southern New England and Long Island with more than 800 deaths.

The storm remains the strongest and deadliest hurricane in New England’s recorded history.

This map shows the maximum storm-surge height during the '38 Hurricane. Contour interval is 0.3m, with height ranging from 1.8 to 5.1m. The storm center moved along the path shown by the arrow. While the eye of the storm hit Long Island and Connecticut, the surge in the bay was devastating. (Photo via NWS Boston.) — This map shows the maximum storm-surge height during the ’38 Hurricane. Contour interval is 0.3m, with height ranging from 1.8 to 5.1m. The storm center moved along the path shown by the arrow. While the eye of the storm hit Long Island and Connecticut, the surge in the bay was devastating. (Photo via NWS Boston)

Today’s technology estimates that the hurricane hit Long Island and then Connecticut as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 121 mph. The strongest gust, however, reached an estimated 186 mph in Milton, Mass. Providence sustained winds of 100 mph.

“People couldn’t get out,” Historian Jim Garman told 12 News. “There were no escape routes then, as there is now. A 12-foot wall of water came up Narragansett Bay, and hit very low-lying land and houses.”

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Garman has spoken to many who survived the storm with some amazing stories and pictures to keep the history of this catastrophic hurricane alive. One story that has stuck with him over the years is of a family that rode out the storm by floating on their roof.

“The roof broke off from the house and floated down Common Fence Point,” Garman recounted. “It first went towards Fall River, then it turned, when the wind turned it went under the Mt. Hope Bridge, and the three members of the family were picked up, the Boudreau family.”

A view of Conimicut, Rhode Island, from the air. (Photo from the Boston Public Library’s Leslie Jones collection via NWS Boston)
Sunken ferry in Providence, R.I. (Photo from the Boston Public Library’s Leslie Jones collection via NWS Boston)
These marks on the walls of the historical Old Market House in Market Square record the city’s two catastrophes. On Sept 23 1815 the water rose to 11 feet and nine and one-quarter inches above mean high tide. On Sept. 21 1938 it rose to 13 feet and nine inches. (Photo from the Providence Journal, via NWS Boston)
Blocking the entire width of Warren’s Main Street was this large oyster boat. A giant wave moved it more than 100 yards from the nearest water. (Photo from the Providence Journal, via NWS Boston)
Providence Journal, September 23rd, 1938. (Photo courtesy of Nick Panico via NWS Boston)
(Photo courtesy Portsmouth Historical Society)
(Photo courtesy Portsmouth Historical Society)
(Photo courtesy Portsmouth Historical Society)
Boats and piers at New London, Conn., are a mess of broken wreckage after the Great New England Hurricane, Sept. 21, 1938. Fire at the height of the storm added to the terror and destroyed a quarter of a square mile of the business district. Sights like this were common all along the coast, as new New England faced a cleanup job which took weeks. (AP Photo/MBR)
Strandway on Sep. 21, 1938 in South Boston shows tremendous of 100-mile-an-hour hurricane which struck New England causing at least seven deaths and property damage estimated in the millions. (AP Photo)
Narragansett Bay took the worst hit, with downtown Providence getting submerged under a storm tide of nearly 20 feet. The seawall at Narragansett Pier appears to have saved many seaside homes. (Photo from NOAA via NWS Boston)

With the lack of media coverage, along with a general disbelief that the store would hit our area, people in the eventual path of the storm had no idea what was coming.