Hurricanes: Their Nature and Impacts on Society - Climate Science ...

22 HURRICANES: THEIR NATURE AND IMPACT ON SOCIETY
New Engl<strong>and</strong> 1938
A rapidly moving storm tore across New Engl<strong>and</strong> on 21 September 1938 (Pierce
1939). The storm, called by some "The Long Isl<strong>and</strong> Express" due to its forward
speed of 60-70 mph, made l<strong>and</strong>fall over Long Isl<strong>and</strong>, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, <strong>and</strong> Rhode Isl<strong>and</strong> (Coch <strong>and</strong> Wolff 1990; Pierce 1939). The
storm was the most severe to strike the area in at least 100 years, although major
hurricanes had made l<strong>and</strong>fall in New Engl<strong>and</strong> in 1635, 1788, 1815, <strong>and</strong> 1869
(Foster <strong>and</strong> Boose 1992; 1995). Debate exists over whether it was a Category 2
or 3 storm. One wind gust was reported at Blue Hill, Massachusetts (outside
Boston) at 186 mph (K. Emanuel 1997, personal communication). More than
600 people were killed <strong>and</strong> thous<strong>and</strong>s were injured. Extensive forest damage
occurred as far north as northern New Hampshire <strong>and</strong> Vermont (Foster 1988).
At the time the storm "held the all-time record for storm property damage in the
United States, <strong>and</strong> probably the world as well" (Dunn <strong>and</strong> Miller 1964). The
storm's size was also large, with its radius of sustained hurricane-force winds
over the ocean at l<strong>and</strong>fall as great as 106 miles on its eastern side (170
kilometers; Boose, Foster <strong>and</strong> Fluet 1994). Results from that paper also estimate
that hurricane winds in gusts extended towards to the right of the track of the
storm to 144 miles (230 kilometers) over both the l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> water. A 1990 study
argued that "a recurrence of a Category 2 storm such as this 1938 hurricane, on
the now highly urbanized Long Isl<strong>and</strong> shoreline would lead to greater property
damage than Hugo caused in South Carolina [>$7 billion]". Furthermore, a
Category 3 or 4 hurricane "will result in far greater damage than has ever been
experienced on Long Isl<strong>and</strong>" (Coch <strong>and</strong> Wolff 1990).
Hazel 1954
Hazel moved inl<strong>and</strong> over North Carolina <strong>and</strong> South Carolina on 15 October
1954 as a Category 4 hurricane after taking an erratic path through the
Caribbean <strong>and</strong> along the southeast US Atlantic coast. "Normally hurricanes
dissipate or at least lose considerable intensity when they move inl<strong>and</strong>.
Hurricane Hazel did neither" (Dunn <strong>and</strong> Miller 1964). Hazel joined with
another storm system to devastate inl<strong>and</strong> communities from Virginia to
Ontario, Canada. Washington, DC experienced its strongest winds ever
recorded. In total, Hazel resulted in more than 90 deaths in the US <strong>and</strong> damage
amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
One interesting consequence of Hazel's impact was to provide impetus for
increased federal support of hurricane research. According to Robert Simpson,
director of the National Hurricane Research Laboratory from 1956 to 1958,
Hazel <strong>and</strong> a number of other severe US East Coast hurricanes (Carol, Hazel,
Edna, Diane, <strong>and</strong> lone, which resulted in damages of close to $10 billion (1990
$) (Hebert, Jarrell <strong>and</strong> Mayfield 1993) in 1954 <strong>and</strong> 1955, motivated Congress to
increase funding for hurricane research.