The Great Hurricane: 1938

New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Beverly Hall (Author photograph). [10], 230 pages. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. The author introduces readers to one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history--the 1938 Hurricane that struck the coast of New England at 186 miles per hour causing devastation throughout the region--and the personal stories of survivors of the catastrophe. Cherie Burns is author of Diving for Starfish--The Jeweler, The Actress, The Heiress and One of the World's Most Alluring Pieces of Jewelry, published by St. Martin's Press in 2018. Her previous books are the biography, Searching for Beauty—The Life of Millicent Rogers, the American Heiress Who Taught the World About Style published by St. Martin's Griffin Press in October of 2012, The Great Hurricane: 1938, published by Grove/Atlantic (2005) and Stepmotherhood—How to Survive Without Feeling Frustrated, Left Out or Wicked (Times Books). Cherie Burns's books are based on relentless reporting combined with a worldly empathy for her subjects. Pursuing the narrative of the Great Hurricane, she interviewed survivors in nursing homes and sifted through accounts that younger residents recalled from their parents. Burns has been a feature journalist since 1975. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, People, Glamour, New York, Sports Illustrated, Constitution and other publications. She now lives primarily in Taos, New Mexico and has spent summer in Nantucket since 1981. On September 21, 1938, one of the most destructive and powerful hurricanes in recorded history struck Long Island and Southern New England. The storm developed near the Cape Verde Islands on September 9, tracking across the Atlantic and up the Eastern Seaboard. The storm hit Long Island and Southern Connecticut on September 21, moving at a forward speed of 47 mph! Sustained hurricane force winds were felt across central and eastern Long Island and southeastern Connecticut. The hurricane produced a destructive storm surge flooding coastal communities as well as producing three to seven inches of rainfall. Derived from a Kirkus review: Recollections of tragedy and trauma from a 1938 storm of singular ferocity that took the northeastern U.S. totally by surprise. Imagine the worst tropical storm you've ever been in, seen on TV,or heard about. Now imagine the same hurricane with no weather satellite pictures, no television, no cell phones, no rescue helicopters, no localized severe-weather radio warnings and no Interstate highways to funnel out evacuees even if there had been. The author diligently mines and layers anecdotes to build a picture of Long Island and New England seacoast communities in a balmy late September, trying to wring just a few more vacation days away from the still palpable drag of the Great Depression and the even more threatening clouds of war in Europe. With little more than the vague "gale warnings" most locals associated with a typical nor'easter, it hit: a great elongated eye clawing north at an unparalleled 60 miles per hour over open ocean, with winds gusting to more than 180 m.p.h. Pounding waves associated with a storm surge averaging higher than 20 feet would register on a seismograph 5,000 miles away in Alaska. The fact that 700 or more lives were lost is appalling enough, but the role played by lack of information is almost incomprehensible today. Fragile telephone systems became the first line of infrastructure blasted away. So as the eye of what would later be known simply as the Great Hurricane of 1938 (naming conventions were yet to come) advanced on the coastlines of Connecticut and Rhode Island, no one there even knew that it had devastated most of eastern Long Island two hours before. Weddings, picnics, even some fishing trips would proceed without hesitation, yet shoppers would later drown in downtown Providence. Bizarre tales of survival and doom: a plum for beach-chair readers who like to raise surrounding eyebrows.