In September 1938, New England was hit by a devastating hurricane. There was no warning. No one was prepared. After the storm, cities were flooded with up to 20 feet of water, the streets were covered in downed trees, along with roofs blown off of houses, and church steeples that had 
snapped off in the wind, Hundreds of lives were lost. 

In 2013, Chris Wisniewski interviewed over 65 people who lived through the great hurricane. Their personal accounts, along with more than 60 photographs taken in the days following the storm are included in her book, The Hurricane of 1938: Memories of the Storm of the Century. 

In the years since, she has continued to broaden her research of the 1938 Hurricane, which is still considered the most powerful hurricane to hit New England since the 1600s. The storm was made even more devastating by a tidal surge that occurred later that day. It ravaged coastal communities from southern Connecticut to Cape Cod with 17 to 25 foot tides, washing away entire seaside communities, including at Ocean Beach, Conn. and at Napatree Point in Westerly, 
Rhode Island. Several reliable sources estimate that 564 people were killed in the storm. At least ten percent of them were in Westerly. 

Come hear stories of the 1938 Hurricane, and learn how the storm shaped New England, and particularly the coast of Rhode Island, in ways we still can see today. 
 

Chris Wisniewski is an author and Personal Historian based in Wellfleet, Mass. She is the owner of Saving Stories, a business that helps individuals, families, and businesses preserve their history.