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I was just a kid during the '38 blow and will never forget the noise and damage. I also lived through about 6 others over the years, and boat survival is more a matter of luck than anything else. JMHO.
-----Original Message-----
From: MassBaySailors@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MassBaySailors@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bill Scanlon
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 7:18 PM
To: MassBaySailors@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MassBaySailors] 1938 Hurricane - September 21, 1938
I grew up in CT and remember the stories my grandparents use to tell of the Great Hurricane of 1938. One of my grandfathers gave me a book about the storm that had many amazing pictures in it. The links below show some amazing sites as well.Although of course anything can happen, I'd rather be in Winthrop (rather than CT, R.I or SE. Mass and Cape Cod. When most any Hurricane hits southern N.E. Boston has the land mass blocking of Long Island and then the CT, R.I. and S.E. Mass and Cape Cod. Just imagine what it would take for Boston to get a direct hit of any category Hurricane. The Hurricane would have to run right over/through the CC Canal, and then turn left NW, to retain most of its intensity or it would have to pass Cape Cod, P-Town and then make a 90o left turn for 36 miles, possible but not probable.At Blue Hills Observatory so! uth of Boston, winds of 121-mph with gusts to 186-mph were recorded. The Blue Hill measurements were taken at an elevation of 700 feet - significantly higher than the standard 33-foot elevation for wind measurements. However, Blue Hill, Massachusetts is more than 100-miles inland from where the 38 Hurricane made landfall. It seems likely that peak wind gusts on eastern Long Island, and along the Rhode Island coast were close to 150-mph. The true value of the peak winds in the 38 hurricane may never been known.So from above, although we would not get flooded at WYC we (our marina) would still most likely be totally destroyed along with significant damage to our building.WINDS: 120-mph (moving at 50-mph).
PRESSURE: 27.94 inches/946 mb.
STORM - SURGE: 12 - 16 feet above Mean Tide ?THE IMPACTThe 1938 hurricane produced winds of unimaginable fury across eastern Long Island, eastern Connecticut, and southern Rhode Island. The power of the wind carried away roofs, church steeples, factory buildings, and thousands of smaller structures. On Long Island, several 300-foot steel and concrete-bolted RCA radio towers were twisted into unrecognizable shapes by the wind. In Stonington, Connecticut, the entire top floor of the three-story, 500,000 square-foot brick Schneider factory blew away. Many who experienced the 38 storm along the immediate coastline, reported the sound of the wind reached an incredible high pitch - almost a scream. The air became intensely humid. The sight and sounds of the storm even inspired a book - A Wind To Shake The World, by Everett S. Allen.The extreme storm surge of the 1938 hurricane was beyond anything coastal residents in New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had ever experienced or written about. There was no historical comparison. Several survivors along the coast of Rhode Island, stated that at the height of the hurricane, they saw a 40-foot fog bank rolling toward the beach, when the bank got closer, they realized it wasn't fog - it was water (Whipple - 1940). Along the open ocean facing coastal roads in Rhode Island and Long Island - the damage was horrific. Whole beach communities were swept away - some without a trace.
State has no real way to halt hurricane havoc Abram Katz , Register Science Editor
This disaster will happen and nothing manmade could even soften the blow, experts say.
New Orleans can bolster its levees and build stronger pumps, but Connecticut has no practical way to blunt hurricane damage. And though the shoreline lies behind the bulwarks of Long Island and the cool water of the Sound, Connecticut is vulnerable to catastrophic damage from a powerful tropical storm, meteorologists said.
A 15-foot battlement along the shore would minimize waves and storm surge, but fierce objections, the exorbitant cost and environmental laws make the project a near impossibility, experts said.
"We don’t live in a bowl like New Orleans. But Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi ... that picture could be easily duplicated on the Connecticut shore," said Mel Goldstein, professor emeritus of meteorology at Western Connecticut State University and a WTNH-Channel 8 meteorologist.
Bill ScanlonUSCG Master 50 GT Inland Waters
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Lic. # 10929261984 Catalina 30"Ruby"Std. Rig Hull# 3688Winthrop (Mass.) Yacht ClubNavigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse
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