The Great Hurricane: 1938

From 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.
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From Booklist
Burns investigates one of the deadliest natural disasters in New England's history. Although pipped at the post by R. A. Scotti's Sudden Storm: The Great Hurricane of 1938 (2003), Burns' rendition is solid and will engage the imaginations of those who wonder, as she posits, "What would I have done?" In September 1938, nothing in the sky seemed unduly threatening to the late-summer vacationers and fishermen of eastern Long Island and Rhode Island, and the weather service did nothing to disabuse them of that notion. Establishing background by recounting people's livelihoods in the Depression and their immediate activities on the day of the disaster, such as travel plans, a wedding ceremony, or work at the Providence Journal, Burns follows several survivors through the ordeal. The clouds gather, the winds increase, the tide rises, and the terrible realization comes that no escape is possible. Integrating data of the storm's force and the coastal topography that intensified its devastation, Burns perceptively distills the experience of a tragedy that swept away some 700 lives. Gilbert Taylor
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