Hundreds of people were killed and one out of every three trees in New England destroyed when the “Hurricane of ’38” came roaring ashore on Sept. 21, 1938.It was the costliest hurricane in New Hampshire history, claiming 13 lives in the Granite State and hundreds of others across the region. That system remains the only one on record to enter Vermont as a tropical cyclone. In 2013 Roger Levesque, who was 89 years old at the time, told sister station WMUR-TV there was no warning about the storm’s severity.”A big tree, it must’ve been at least 200 years old, was right down to the ground,” he said. “It was close to the house but landed on the lawn. I could see the roots sticking out.”The storm toppled more than 2 billion trees in the region. Experts have warned that it was not a matter of if, but when a storm like that will hit New England again. Estimates in 1938 put New Hampshire’s damage at $28 million, one of the costliest storms to date.”They estimate that if the ’38 storm happened today, given the population density and the infrastructure, damages could exceed $45 billion,” state climatologist Mary Stampone told WMUR-TV in 2013.
Hundreds of people were killed and one out of every three trees in New England destroyed when the “Hurricane of ’38” came roaring ashore on Sept. 21, 1938.
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It was the costliest hurricane in New Hampshire history, claiming 13 lives in the Granite State and hundreds of others across the region. That system remains the only one on record to enter Vermont as a tropical cyclone.
In 2013 Roger Levesque, who was 89 years old at the time, told sister station WMUR-TV there was no warning about the storm’s severity.
“A big tree, it must’ve been at least 200 years old, was right down to the ground,” he said. “It was close to the house but landed on the lawn. I could see the roots sticking out.”
The storm toppled more than 2 billion trees in the region.
Experts have warned that it was not a matter of if, but when a storm like that will hit New England again. Estimates in 1938 put New Hampshire’s damage at $28 million, one of the costliest storms to date.
“They estimate that if the ’38 storm happened today, given the population density and the infrastructure, damages could exceed $45 billion,” state climatologist Mary Stampone told WMUR-TV in 2013.
