The Great Hurricane, 1938
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4.5 • 22 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Before there was the Perfect Storm, there was the Great Hurricane of 1938. A riveting and wonderfully written account.” —Nathaniel Philbrick
On the night of September 21, 1938, news on the radio was full of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. There was no mention of any severe weather. By the time oceanfront residents noticed an ominous color in the sky, it was too late to escape. In an age before warning systems and the ubiquity of television, this unprecedented storm caught the Northeast off guard, obliterated coastal communities on Long Island and in New England, and killed nearly seven hundred people.
The Great Hurricane, 1938 is a spellbinding hour-by-hour reconstruction of one of the most destructive and powerful storms ever to hit the United States. With riveting detail, Burns weaves together countless personal stories of loved ones lost and lives changed forever—from those of the Moore family, washed to sea on a raft formerly their attic floor, to Katharine Hepburn, holed up in her Connecticut mansion, watching her car take to the air like a bit of paper.
“A very good book.” —The Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Traveling at the unheard of speed of 60 mph and with a span of 1,000 miles, the Great Hurricane of 1938 ravaged Long Island and coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island, killing 700 and literally wiping some communities off the map. As the storm occurred before the advent of hurricane tracking technology, its size was not anticipated, and unaccustomed to such a violent hurricane, some residents eagerly awaited its arrival as an entertainment. In sometimes overheated prose, Burns frequently compares the deadly storm to a cat enraged and ready to pounce as she chronicles everyday lives ripped apart by GH38's power. Burns's liberal use of detailed personal accounts gives the text a gripping intimacy, grace and nuance: of one woman Burns writes, "she told everybody to take off their shoes, in case they were going to have to swim. The sight of the girls' shoes set neatly in a row made Catherine want to weep." Burns at times piles on so many first-person tales that the scope of the storm's impact is somewhat muted. Still, from start to finish, this powerful story of nature's fury and human survival pulls the reader in and doesn't let go.
