Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938

On September 21, 1938, southern New England prepared for a glorious late-summer day. Summer had been hot, muggy and stormy, but this day promised a wonderful respite of lowered humidity, brilliant sun and flat sea. Until, that is, a freak Category 5 hurricane (poorly forecast and under-reported) that was supposed to head harmlessly out to sea after missing Florida instead took a fast track up the Atlantic coast, savaged Central Long Island and barreled right into Narragansett Bay, whipping away scores of summer homes, beach clubs, restaurants and other aspects of the leisurely life, and leaving several hundred Rhode Islanders dead or missing. As late as mid-afternoon the glorious day was still in full swing; but by suppertime any pretense of normality or historical permanence had been swept away. The pleasure of a well-heeled summer life was "gone with the wind" -- and water that wound up a dozen miles and more inland, flattening everything in its course.The late R.A. Scotti has given us a very enlightening and fast-paced account of what happened that day, to numerous breakdowns in government forecasting and local news media to what families were forced to improvise to keep themselves, their servants and children out of the maelstrom and fighting for life. She wrote this book vividly and well, with lovely touches like white-capped bay water that was "foamy as ale poured out too fast.” The large cast takes in all kinds of folks threatened by the hurricane (which, in that era, did not yet bear names) -- from actress Katherine Hepburn, who got her first hole-in-one playing golf under the influence of a freshening wind; to affluent summer vacationers ready to return to the Eastern cities, to local farmers and recent immigrants and schoolkids.On the other hand, I stumbled across a couple of easily correctible mistakes that should never have seen the final edition. There never was a car called the "Cadillac La Salle" -- Cadillac and La Salle were two luxury car lines out of General Motors; La Salle ceased production in 1940 while Cadillac, of course, is still with us. It is likely that the affluent family mentioned owned a La Salle automobile. Also, the author mentions use of nuclear devices to quell hurricanes -- but it never happened. It was a bad idea ca. 1960 when a government program called "Project Plowshares" (use of atomic energy for peace) floated such thinking but fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.I cannot personally take author Scotti to task (she died in 2010), but bloopers like that -- and you'll see other misstatements of fact unearthed by other reviewers here -- took some of the joy out of this engagingly written account. The author had just as much use of the Internet as I did and getting to the truth of these errors took only a few minutes. Hence four stars, not five.

Powerful hurricanes are infrequent visitors to New England, but `The Long Island Express' not only paid a visit---it dropped in unannounced on September 21, 1938 just as many summer residents were on the beach and closing up their ocean-front cottages, among them actress Katharine Hepburn and her mother.The Weather Bureau gave no cause for alarm, at least not after the hurricane skirted Florida and headed north. The meteorologists in Washington D.C. assumed that the storm would dissipate in the cold waters of the Atlantic, as had happened to all north-bound hurricanes since the Great September Gale devastated New England in 1815.According to the author, no one could have been prepared for the 1938 storm's speed and ferocity. Sweeping northward from Cape Hatteras, building tremendous momentum as it advanced, the hurricane raced over six hundred miles in only twelve hours. Only the captain of the 'Carinthia,' a small 20,000 ton luxury cruiser that weathered the ferocious brawl 150 miles north of Florida might have given warning. He did radio to shore that his barometer had dropped "almost an inch to 27.85 in less than an hour. It was one of the lowest readings ever recorded in the North Atlantic."Author Scotti interviewed many survivors of this ferocious storm, and includes the story of Katharine Hepburn who had to escape her seaside house through a dining room window and then battle her way to higher ground:"When the Hepburns reached high ground, they looked back. [Their house] which had endured tide and wind since the 1870's, pirouetted slowly and sailed away."Many folks were not as fortunate as the Hepburns. The storm surge was so sudden and so high many houses were completely inundated before their inhabitants could escape. One survivor saw a submerged house leap twenty-five feet into the air and explode. Another watched as a school bus containing his children was overtaken by the onrushing water. Others climbed to the top floors of their homes, then clung desperately to pieces of their roof as their houses washed away beneath them.It is estimated that 682 people died and another 1,754 were seriously wounded by the 'Long Island Express.' Scotti focuses on a few representative stories, and relates tantalizing fragments of many others.If you would like to read a first-hand account of the 'Long Island Express,' September 21, 1938 was also the day that Everett S. Allen, recent college graduate and future author of "A Wind to Shake the World," began his first `real' job as a reporter for the New Bedford `Standard Times.' His book is one of the finest accounts of this vastly underreported hurricane.

While visiting RI I found this book and love reading the history about the beautiful area. The book is well written and brings alive the day all over again and the stories of what they endured. It was hard to put down. Interesting.

Made great reading and very informative

The thing that startled me the most about the personal accounts of enduring the 1938 hurricane was that it was completely a surprise - no warnings were sent as in those days there did not exist the high tech warning systems we have today. Yes, the hurricane had been tracked from Florida; but was thought to have gone out to sea as it traveled north, as most hurricanes do. Most ships on the southern east coast had heeded the warnings coming from Florida, and had gotten well out of the way - again, there was no ship that could signal the change of direction the storm took. I grew up in Massachusetts and heard the old timers talk about the '38 hurricane.....but, it never really seemed as dangerous as what I read, likely, because I lived inland west of Boston. This is a compelling story of human tragedy & survival. The descriptions of the sudden storm conditions that people were faced with were almost too frightening to seem real. Again, because in these days we have advance notice and only foolish people stay any where near a coast with a hurricane approaching. The author does a wonderful job with interweaving the account of actress Katherine Hepburn (on the CT coast) and everyday people on the RI coast to point out the indiscriminate path of destruction and fight for survival.....the privileged and not privileged both faced the fight of their lives.If you like history, and especially that of New England - you'll find this very interesting. Well written.