The 1938 Hurricane Along New England's Coast (Images of America) Paperback – Illustrated, April 14, 2008

Joseph Soares' The 1938 Hurricane Along New England Coast contains about 225 pictures and minimalist text of the September 21, New England Hurricane that swept along the New Jersey shore only to tear through New York's Oyster Bay and Long Island Sound, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts claiming 680 lives, $400 million in property damage, destroyed 4500 homes and damaged 15,000 more. 2605 boats were lost with another 3369 damaged and 26,000 cars were smashed. The storm destroyed a large percentage of the New England apple crop and was credited with changing the essence of New England. The introduction contains some statistics and gives a short description of the character and nature of the storm. The storm's impact comes alive in the photos.The book contains it seems mostly pictures of US Coast Guard Stations, and some building before and after. Some of the most impressive photos are before and after--this is where the book shines. Its thin with just four chapters covering Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and the final covers Massachussets and New Jersey. I found the pictures of the damaged boats most interesting but there were plenty of damaged homes, businesses, and the afore mentioned coastal stations. I think better organization would benefit the reader, there are enough before and after photos available that a short description of the damage to that state to introduce each chapter would have been helpful, a segment on changing shorelines, or perhaps how the rebuilds went but this book is simply about publishing photographs and the author acknowledges it. He does what he set out to do, not tell the tale in words but in pictures. Its a shame but understandable that on the scene photos during the storm are sparse--people were struggling to survive.This book is not a primer, but better as a supplement to either Everett Allen's 1976 A Wind to Shake the World, or R.A. Scotti's 2003 book Sudden Sea. It is a worthy supplement for either book which will tell the tale of when the wind rose and the sea leapt over the shores and homes.

Anyone that remembers the 1938 Hurricane will enjoy this book

Unbelievable but it is true (my mother lived through it). Great Book.

A MUST SEE!!!!!!

It was more than I expected. I was born in 1936 and was only 2 years old when the hurricane hit Marlborough, MA which was quite a distance from the ocean where the storm him along the Rhode Island and Mass. southern coastline. All steeples on the churches in Marlborough were blown down except for 2. The Baptist Churst had a spirer that was open on all sides and the winds just blew through them. The Frist Church Congregretional had its whie beautiful spirer blow directly onto the roof of the church and pushed the roof through the sanctuary into the parish hall along with the pews hanging down. The Immaculate Conception Church had its beautiful brick spirer blow down on to Judge McDonald's home next to it. the Judge and his wife and children were in the house. Also there were many many threes blown down expecially the stately elms. The shingles on the roof on our home was completely blown off. My mother had laundry on the clothes line in the back yard and when the winds started arouind 5 PM she attempted to go out the porch screen door facing south and could not open it. She said that the whole porch was plastered with leaves and one could not see out. So she went to the dining room on the north side of the house and opened a window and held my older brother out the window and he tried to catch the clothes as they were blow away. My mother ssid that I was holding onto her leg crying and she tried to shake me off so she could hold my borther better. She said that the power was off for about 4 weeks and we lived in the center of Marlborough. Please note all the recollections above where told me by my parents.

This book is a joke. It says it is about the New England coast. It is about the NORTHEAST coast, not New England. 3 pictures (not pages) of Massachusetts, 0 of Maine, 0 of New Hampshire, 26 pages of Connecticut, 22 of Rhode Island. And, the author decided to expand New England. New York (60 pages) and New Jersey (11 pages) are now included. Apparently this publisher does not employ any editors.

Powerful hurricanes are infrequent visitors to New England, but 'The Long Island Express' not only paid a visit---it dropped in unannounced on September 21, 1938 just as many summer residents were on the beach and closing up their ocean-front cottages."The 1938 Hurricane Along New England's Coast" is not a complete treatment of this natural disaster. Its author, Joseph P. Soares "acquired a large picture collection of the aftermath of the 1938 hurricane on Coast Guard facilities in New England" and that's what informs the content of this book. Except for a brief introduction, there is no extended narrative, but each of the photographs is coupled with a short description or story. For example, a photograph labeled "Along the Shore, Stonington" is followed by the paragraph:"Volunteer workers aiding those along the Stonington shore came across a large packing case on the beach. They opened it and found, to their amazement, a woman inside. She was exhausted and suffering from exposure..."Note: the photograph doesn't show the woman in the packing case, but a boat that was stranded on shore. Many of the photographs in this book have only a weak connection with the accompanying text.If you haven't yet read a book about this devastating hurricane and its aftermath, start with Everett S. Allen's A Wind To Shake The World (Allen Reprints). Another treatment worth reading is Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938 by R.A. Scotti. I'd go with Allen's book first, because he was an eye-witness, a journalist, and a marvelous writer.