New England hurricane 2

The footage of the aftermath of the New England hurricane was made sometime between late October and late November. Although Ross had a speaking engagement on December 3 in Boston,¹ he must have gone there on a separate trip, as he had sent a letter from his New York hotel as late as December 2 (see Permission requested). This would have left him no time to cover the storm’s damage as extensively as he did.

On the afternoon of September 21, 1938, what was later called the New England hurricane hit the New Jersey coastline and New York City and made landfall on Long Island, NY, particularly the towns of Bellport, on its east coast, and Port Jefferson, on its west coast, as well as in Bridgeport and New Haven, CT, while wind waves from the sea coming ahead of the storm heavily damaged New England’s south coast at Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, particularly the towns of New London and Stonington, CT, Westerly, RI, and New Bedford and Fairhaven, MA; floods caused by the storm’s torrents added to the wreckage. Any of these locations may be shown in this reel.