The Great Hurricane of 1938 remains one of Rhode Island’s most destructive and deadly natural disasters, forever altering the coastline and leaving behind a legacy that is still remembered nearly a century later.
On September 21, 1938, the storm arrived with very little warning, crashing into New England with sustained winds of more than 120 miles per hour and a massive storm surge that devastated coastal communities. At the time, weather forecasting capabilities were limited, and many Rhode Islanders were unprepared when the hurricane struck.
Along the Rhode Island shoreline, the storm surge proved particularly violent, sweeping dozens of summer cottages into the ocean. The funnel-shaped Narragansett Bay forced the surge higher, reaching 15.8 feet above normal tides for the season. This resulted in more than 13 feet of water in parts of downtown Providence. In Jamestown, tragedy struck when seven children lost their lives after their school bus was blown into Mackerel Cove. Looting soon followed in Providence, with mobs breaking into stores even before floodwaters had completely subsided, a reflection of the widespread economic hardship during the Great Depression.
Thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed along both the shoreline and the storm’s inland path. Entire beachside communities disappeared. Napatree Point in Watch Hill, where nearly 40 families once lived, was wiped away completely. Today, the area is a wildlife refuge with no human inhabitants, though remnants of concrete staircases and boardwalk foundations can still be uncovered when beach sand shifts. The hurricane also destroyed Newport’s Easton’s Beach boardwalk.
Maritime structures were not spared. Whale Rock Light, located a few miles off Conanicut Island, was torn from its base and swept into the sea, taking with it lighthouse keeper Walter Eberle, whose body was never found. On Prudence Island, the hurricane’s 17-foot-5-inch storm surge devastated the Prudence Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse tower itself survived, but the adjoining keeper’s home was completely destroyed. The keeper’s wife and son were killed, along with the former keeper and two others who had sought shelter inside. Keeper George T. Gustavus survived by clinging to wreckage and was pulled from the water by a local resident. With help from Milton Chase, the island’s power plant owner, Gustavus managed to restore the light during the storm, marking the first time it was powered by electricity.
Cultural losses were also severe. The original 1764 parchment charter of Brown University was destroyed when floodwaters entered a Providence bank vault, washing the text off.
In the decades following the disaster, the storm remained a driving force in reshaping how Rhode Island prepared for hurricanes. The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier, completed in 1966, was built in direct response to the catastrophic flooding of 1938 and the devastation caused again by Hurricane Carol in 1954.
ContributorSeptember 21, 20252 Mins read30 
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