The deadliest hurricane to ever hit the Northeast coast in the US was the 38 hurricane 70 years ago.
Here are some facts on the Great Hurricane of 1938, which is also known as the "Long Island Express." The hurricane struck Long Island, N.Y. and New England, 70 years ago today.
At that time, hurricanes had no names. In the 1940s, weather forecasters started naming storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie).
That was changed in 1953 when the National Weather Service started naming hurricanes after women.
That too was changed in 1979, when both male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico storms.
PEOPLE KILLED: 564
PEOPLE INJURED: 1,700
BUILDINGS: 8,900 destroyed, 15,000 damaged
BOATS: 2,600 destroyed, 3,300 damaged
TREES: An estimated 2 billion were destroyed. The soil was already saturated after four days of heavy rain.
WINDS: Sustained winds of 121 mph, with gusts up to 186 mph
SPEED: Hurricane was called the Long Island Express because its forward speed ranged between 60 and 70 mph up the coast
STORM SURGE: Storm tides of 14 to 18 feet across most of the Connecticut coast, with 18 to 25 foot tides from New London east to Cape Cod.
PEAK WAVE HEIGHT: 50 feet in Gloucester, Mass.
BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: The lowest pressure at the time of landfall occurred on the south side of Long Island, at Bellport, where a reading of 27.94 inches was recorded. Other low pressures included 28.00 inches in Middletown, Connecticut and 28.04 inches in Hartford,
THE EYE: Passed through New Haven. The hurricane then traveled up the Connecticut River Valley, crossed over upper New York state and eventually died in Canada. While the center of the hurricane passed through central Connecticut, most of the damaged was in the east from the strong counter clockwise winds.
HARDEST HIT: Southeastern, Conn., Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and outlying islands including Block and Martha's Vineyard.
Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island took the worst hit, where a storm surge of 12 to 15 feet destroyed most coastal homes, marinas and yacht clubs. Downtown Providence, Rhode Island was submerged under a storm tide of nearly 20 feet. Sections of Falmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts were submerged under as much as 8 feet of water. All three locations had very rapid tides increased within 1.5 hours of the highest water mark.
TIME HIT: At 3:30 p.m., Sept. 21 the hurricane was devastating Long Island beaches and crossing the Sound into Connecticut and Rhode Island. The center made landfall at the time of astronomical high tide.
TIME OVER: The furry of the hurricane lasted about 90 minutes because it was a very fast-moving storm. The aftermath, however, would last months, in some places years.
SOURCE: National Weather Service
