A History of the Gale: Rhode Island’s Brushes with Mother Nature’s Fury

There is an old adage in New England - if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. When it comes to hurricanes, this adage is particularly poignant. Hurricanes tend to strike swiftly in this region; a morning can be bright and sunny but the afternoon can hold an awesomely powerful tempest.

Rhode Island has records of ‘gales’ (the name given to powerful tropical systems before the current name of ‘hurricane’) that hammered the coast dating from the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries. The Gales of 1821, 1858, 1869, 1894, and 1896 were considered powerful acts of God, but none of these would compare to the Great New England Hurricane of 1938.

The storm made landfall in New England when the nation was more concerned with Hitler rising to take over Czechoslovakia than an offshore storm. New England’s early warning system usually came when the Carolinas were hit first, but the gale did not make significant contact with the Carolinas, or any other areas of the eastern seaboard.

The forecast itself actually called for light rain on September 21, 1938, and when the rains came that morning, no one thought much of it. The most unfortunate thing was that the storm hit during a full equinox moon, at perhaps the highest tide of the year.

The coastline from Long Island to Cape Cod was completely decimated. Buildings were strewn about like toys in the wake of a child’s temper tantrum. It is considered both the costliest and deadliest storm to have ever struck New England in modern times. By today’s standards, it is considered a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale (the standard scale by which all tropical systems are measured), which is extremely powerful, particularly for the New England region. Rhode Island was uniquely unfortunate because it experienced the right-front quadrant of the storm, which is the area where the maximum effects of the hurricane are felt in terms of storm surge and wind.

The storm surge in Narragansett Bay rose to nearly 14 feet, flooding Providence and drowning dozens of people in their cars during rush hour traffic. The flooding lasted all day, allowing desperate looters hit hardest by the Great Depression to raid unprotected department stores and businesses by raft and boat.

The storm attacked, and humiliated, one of the most densely populated areas in the richest country in the world. It took 600 men from the Works Progress Administration weeks to clean up the felled trees and houses and to repair the downed power lines. More than 19,000 families applied for emergency assistance, and an estimated $40 billion dollars in damage was tallied by today’s standard of wealth. The total devastation exceeded that of the Chicago fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. In all, 317 Rhode Islanders lost their lives in the storm, and the only coastal region in Rhode Island to not report any deaths within their city limits was Cranston.

Rhode Island was later impacted by another hurricane: the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944. While the eye of this Category 3 storm passed over Watch Hill on September 15^th of that year, the devastation was minimized by two factors. The first being a more advanced warning system, and the second being that the storm struck at low tide. This caused the storm surge to be minimized to 9.2 feet as compared to the ’38 Hurricane, which struck at an unusually high tide.

The next storm of consequence to cross into New England territory was Hurricane Carol in 1954. While the summer of ’54 had been unusually cool for the northeast, it was the calm before the storm. On August 31^st of that year, Hurricane Carol, a Category 3 storm at the time, slammed into Rhode Island, causing 30 foot waves at the height of high tide.

The 50-mile-wide eye of Carol passed over eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island. Downtown Providence was once again engulfed by the waters of Narragansett Bay; the storm surge surpassing that of the ’38 Hurricane at 14.4 feet. The Edgewood Yacht Club in Cranston was completely engulfed by the sea. 68 people died in the wake of the storm. To add insult to injury, Hurricane Edna cruised along Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard a mere week after Carol’s departure, causing even more damage and loss of 21 lives, although not effecting Rhode Island directly except by way of more storm surge.

In 1960, Hurricane Donna made landfall in the same place as the ’44 Hurricane, and is considered the eighth costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Hurricane Belle in 1976 caused more than $100 million in damage, but proper preparation minimized the injury to Rhode Island.

Considered the ‘storm of the century’ by many meteorologists at the time due to its size and ferocity, Hurricane Gloria ran aground at Milford, Connecticut, luckily during low tide on September 27^th, 1986. Although significantly weakened, it caused a 6’ storm surge, 8 deaths, and $900 million in property damage.

The last major storm to affect Rhode Island was a Category 2 storm named Hurricane Bob, on August 19, 1991. The storm surge was recorded at 11.5 feet, but thankfully the hurricane barrier in Providence held. Peak wind gusts reached 125 miles per hour, but no deaths were reported in Rhode Island. The major damage in Cranston was once again limited to the Edgewood Yacht Club, as well as the Port Edgewood and Pawtuxet Cove Marinas. Since then, Rhode Island has enjoyed relative peace from the wrath of tropical systems.

We can glean a pattern from the previous century: as time marches on, no matter how powerful the hurricanes are, they result in fewer and fewer deaths. While the damage may vary, the lesson to be learned is that of preparedness. Early warning systems have saved the lives of countless people. Barriers hold, and evacuations are heeded. The lives lost during the Great Hurricane of 1938 would have been minimized had proper warning procedures been in place. 

The other fact to be aware of is that tides matter. When a hurricane strikes at low tide, the storm surge is kept at a minimum. When it strikes at high tide, however, one must take great caution in terms of how close they are to the shore. Waves can crash inland with little warning in these circumstances. The lessons that past hurricanes have taught us is that it is much better to be over prepared than under prepared.

Article originally ran on Coventry Patch.