Friday, Sept. 21, marks the 80th anniversary of the Hurricane of ’38, also known as the Great American Hurricane, the Long Island Express, and the Yankee Clipper. Without warning, the storm made landfall on Long Island as a Category 3 hurricane, churned up the coast to New England, and before it was done, some 682 people died, including 16 in the Woods Hole and Bourne area, one on the Vineyard, and millions of dollars of damage was incurred.
On the Vineyard, the damage to Menemsha was the most devastating. In his book “A Wind to Shake the World,” Everett S. Allen quotes Carl Reed, who “saw three huge waves sweep across the creek, carrying everything before them.” But the storm impacted the rest of the Island as well.
Linsey Lee, Martha’s Vineyard Museum Oral History Center director, recorded interviews with many Islanders who experienced the storm. As a 14-year-old boy, Jimmy Morgan of Menemsha recalled the seas coming up around his house, and his father carrying his grandmother to safety. He heard his father say, “Everything I’ve worked for is going.”
Conrad Neumann said that the night of the storm, his grandfather read a story to the children, “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” The next day they drove to Menemsha, and Neumann saw something that made a lasting impression on him as a 5-year-old: He saw a grown man, whose boat had been demolished by the storm, cry.
The only fatality on the Island occured when a tidal wave washed a summer home on Stonewall Beach into Quitsa Pond, and Josephine Clark, a maid who worked for the Thielen family, was drowned.
In Edgartown, Everett S. Allen wrote, “Water rose halfway to the eaves of the Edgartown Yacht Club; within, the piano was afloat.” And Milton Jeffers of Edgartown told Lee that there was a small tidal wave in town, “and there was rowboats in the street clear up almost to the Edgartown Bank corner where the tide had come up, and it just devastated the waterfront.”
Betty Honey of Vineyard Haven said the wind was singing like a tornado, and that they had to tie some of their doors shut, while others had to nail their doors shut. She remembers that the steamship Naushon arrived after an awful trip from Nantucket, but broke the hawsers and the chains at the dock, and then was forced to anchor in the harbor in order to save the dock. Elsewhere in Vineyard Haven, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, the roof was blown off the Cooper House, an 18th century house that was located at the present site of Cumberland Farms.
Honey also said that the bridge crossing the opening of Lake Tashmoo, connecting to Katharine Cornell’s house, was washed away, and that one of her staff had to swim across the opening and walk to town at 9 o’clock at night. Meanwhile water and sand were filling up the house, and they barricaded the walls with mattresses. Police arrived just in time to save Cornell, her 82-year-old houseguest, and “her barking dogs.”
What if it were to happen again?
The havoc wreaked on the Island by the Hurricane of ’38 raises the question, What would happen if a hurricane of a similar force, or even greater, were to occur today? In the words of Liz Durkee, conservation agent for the Oak Bluffs conservation commission, “It would be catastrophic in every way.”
One difference between now and 80 years ago is that the Hurricane of ’38 came without a warning. Weather forecasting was in its infancy, and only a junior forecaster named Charlie Pierce of the U.S. Weather Bureau accurately predicted the hurricane, but he was overruled by superiors. Today the science of weather forecasting has made great strides, but the potential for destruction is exponentially higher, given the proliferation of homes on the Vineyard, especially high-end homes on the coastline.
While it’s difficult to assign an exact dollar figure to the cost of a Category 3 hurricane on the Vineyard, NOAA cited a report that said it might cost New England about $70 billion.
The wind velocity of a Category 3 hurricane ranges from 111 to 129 miles per hour. Since 1938, only hurricanes Carol and Edna, which hit New England in 1954 within weeks of each other, have been Category 3s. But with global warming and weather trends becoming more and more extreme, the chance of a reoccurrence becomes more likely.
Durkee said in a Category 3 storm, the loss of coastal homes and erosion of beaches could be devastating. “Think about what happened with the flooding on Beach Road and at Five Corners last winter,” said Durkee, “and that was just some nor’easters. Imagine what a Category 3 hurricane would do.”
According to inundation maps prepared by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, depending upon which direction the hurricane approaches the Island and the timing of the tides, in a worst-case scenario, south-facing barrier beaches would be totally inundated, the waterfront in Vineyard Haven and Edgartown would be submerged, Menemsha and Lobsterville Beach would be under water, and land surrounding Oak Bluffs Harbor would be flooded, possibly reaching parts of the Campground. There would be no access to the hospital. And even if the ferries were working, it’s possible that they would be inaccessible, thus cutting off vital supply lines from the mainland.
Those would be some of the immediate effects of the storm, but according to Durkee, the long-term impact on the Island economy could be equally devastating.
“The economy would suffer,” said Durkee. “The loss of coastal homes, and the possibility that people wouldn’t rebuild, would result in a loss of tax revenue to the towns.” This at a time when money would be dearly needed to rebuild infrastructure after the storm.
Russ Hartenstein, the emergency management director in West Tisbury, said if a major hurricane were to hit the Island, “If you can, leave! Infrastructure could be out for a month,” he said, “so go visit relatives, go on vacation, just leave.”
But Gary Robinson, chairman of the Dukes County emergency management group, said that even though it’s likely we’ll have plenty of warning for a major hurricane, evacuating people will still be a problem. “If the hurricane hits at the height of the tourist season, we’re in big trouble. The problem is we have an Island evacuating to an island,” said Robinson, referring to the fact that the Cape, separated from the rest of the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal, is essentially an island, and huge bottlenecks could occur at the two bridges.
“Even with a few days’ notice, we wouldn’t be able to get all the cars off the Island,” Robinson said, “and buses might not be able to accommodate the walk-offs. Martha’s Vineyard is one of the hardest places in the country to make emergency plans for.”
For those not able to evacuate, they will need to shelter in place. Robinson believes that every Island resident should have enough supplies to be able to subsist for at least 72 hours, but he also fears that many people today are not as resilient or resourceful as the folks back in 1938. For those on the Island who are displaced, there will be a shelter in place at the Oak Bluffs School that can accommodate between 130 and 150 people.
Rick Reinhardsen, head of the Salvation Army on Martha’s Vineyard, explained that there is actually a multitiered safety net in the event of a major storm. There’s MEMA, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, and FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which can help out on a statewide and federal basis.
Locally, the Salvation Army is in charge of food and hydration services for shelters, and works with local vendors like Cronig’s and Cash and Carry to provide food if they fall short; the Medical Reserve Corp. provides trained medical professionals, the Disaster Animal Response Team (DART) came about after Hurricane Katrina and assists with stray animals, and the Red Cross provides such things as housing and cots.
“In addition,” Reinhardt says, “if the Steamship Authority is unable to operate, Ralph Packer has pledged to ferry food and supplies to the Island with his tugs, at no charge.”
Reinhardt confesses that the prospect of a major hurricane is enough to keep him up at night. “But,” he said, “there’s lots of good teamwork on the part of all the Island groups, and I’m confident they’ll respond should anything happen to us.”