A Wind to Shake the World

by Everett S. Allen

Everett S. Allen joined the staff of the New Bedford Standard-Times in September 1938. He was assigned to the waterfront. The following day the storm of the century blew in. This is his account, the first and still the best account of the devastating hurricane of 1938. Allen has gathered first-hand accounts of survivors from South Jersey, Boston, Rhode Island, and especially Long Island and Cape Cod where the blow hit hardest (top winds were clocked at 186 mph). His vivid description of the mellow September day that turned yellow and then sea-green with 40-foot waves is more heartfelt than all the disaster movies ever made. -Kirkus Reviews

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History

312 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1976

Reviews

[Wayland Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

On Tuesday, September 20, 1938, Everett Allen started work at a local paper, the New Bedford Standard Times, and was assigned to the waterfront. He wondered what he would write about. On the 21, the worst hurricane on record hit Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The destruction, damage, and loss of life were staggering. Weather prediction at the time wasn't advanced enough to give warning, and people closing up summer homes and beach cottages were caught by the winds and rising water, alongside locals, some of who should have known better.

It's a compelling story, but not presented well. Allen's writing style hasn't aged well, and this is a collection of anecdotes. Some of it is interesting, some of it has too much detail about some odd choices. Did we need a paragraph on idiots playing golf as the storm started? Several pages on the destruction of a yacht club and the parties that had been held there?

I lived in that area at one time. I even delivered that paper the author wrote for. And I still found this boring. I can't imagine how anyone not from there would find it interesting. Some of the stories needed some translation. The water coming up to a grocery store was probably impressive, but if you don't know that street, it doesn't really mean anything.

I really can't recommend this book.

[Monty Orrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrative construction for this book is pretty simple and effective. The author Everett Allen establishes that his first full day on the job as a journalist was in New Bedford, Massachusetts on the day of the famous New England Hurricane of 1938. That is chapter one, anticipating the disaster.

The rest of the book is one first person account after another moving from Long Island up to New Bedford. Many accounts are paraphrased and made third person by the author, but they are no less harrowing. In the annals of New England hurricanes, 1938 is the mother of them all. Ten times as many people lost their lives (almost 800) as the next most deadly. The storm was not accurately predicted. None of the affected communities were warned ahead of time.

The writing is brisk and not as hyperbolic as you might expect. It’s also very personal and tells many individual’s stories and last hours in a respectful, unsensational way.

The last chapter and the author’s reporting in New Bedford is a solid ending as it reflects an extraordinary event seen through the eyes of a very young person, which Everett Allen was at the time.

The book was first published in 1978, several decades prior to climate change developments and the new severity of hurricanes. Is anyone surprised that after entire beach fronts in Long Island, Rhode Island and Connecticut were wiped clean of homes and their owners in 1938 that these same areas have rebuilt with homes even more opulent and similarly exposed to the Atlantic Ocean? It would seem we are doomed to repeat history; that another disaster, perhaps as great as the 1938 Hurricane, is inevitable. Though we have the advantage of satellite weather prediction, Mother Nature will still have her way.

—Monty Orrick, April 2025

[Anna Engel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, the prose is entirely too overwrought and the author wears his rose-colored glasses like they're a permanent part of his wardrobe. I could also do without the name dropping because those names ultimately don't tell the story. The page design decisions made the book hard to read because there would be huge walls of quoted material, but you'd forget where it began. Okay, enough with the bad.

Once I got past the first few chapters, though, and into the eye of the storm, as it were, the book was fascinating and hard to put down. The personal stories were compelling and the destruction was horrifying. It's hard to imagine how much water inundated New England, and I say that having experienced four devastating nor'easters last winter.

We tend to forget that radar wasn't widely spread and tvs essentially didn't exist. Almost no one knew that a hurricane of this magnitude was headed toward land. Overall, it's an incredible story of loss, human compassion, and the New England spirit.

[Ruth York · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up. This book wasn't so much an hour-by-hour account of the 1938 hurricane that hit the northeast as a series of stories about the experiences of various individuals. This is about those on Long Island and Cape Cod, and in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The writing wasn't particularly to my liking. And at times there were tidbits of information that didn't pertain to the hurricane. I suppose they were added for backstory. But overall, it was a look into what people in the areas hit lived through. Or not. The loss of life was extremely high.

[Peggy Malaspina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about hurricanes in hurricane season is probably not a great idea. This book, given to me by a friend, captures the sheer horror, surprise, power and randomness of destruction and loss of life of the 1938 hurricane that devastated parts of the North East with a sense of story telling as well as historical fact. It moved me because of its personal relationship to our Rhode Island home. But it was a better read than I ever expected it to be.

[Rick Krenmayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An account of the benchmark weather event that changed the south coast of New England and Long Island forever. The story of the classic hurricane that your grandparents told you about growing up lives on in this book.

A must read for any local who grew up in these parts of the Northeast. It’s a day who’s freakishness and horror has no other match in our local recorded history. However, an event like it will happen again at some point in the future between now and the end of time.

[Greta Ernst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating. My mother lived through this event and spoke of it with awe and fear. I never understood the depths of the tragedy until I read this book. It’s a well written account, done in a journalistic fashion. Well worth reading if you came from this area or enjoy history in general.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Hurricane of 1938 books this year and this is one of my favorites. It spends a good amount of time on each state and does a really nice job of highlighting the human impact without going overboard. I suspect the author going through the hurricane as a member of the community and a journalist helped.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's writing tends to be slightly off-putting at times - he tried too hard, perhaps? For the most part, the individual accounts are engrossing, especially those which haven't been included in more recent publications on this event.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still probably the best descriptions of the 1938 Hurricane, can be a title draggy occasionally but still a great read.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard my entire life about the 1938 Hurricane. I had family members who arrived on the scene in Providence, Rhode Island, the day after the hurricane and personally witnessed the devastation.

So this book for me was fascinating and very worthwhile, bringing additional background to whatever I already had heard. Written by Everett Allen, who began his first day as a reporter for the New Bedford Standard-Times on the very day of the hurricane, Sept 21, 1938. Wow, what a day to start your job?! And what a story to cover on your first day?! Using interviews, diaries and letters, first person remembrances and other newspaper stories, the harrowing day and its aftermath are presented.

Technology did not exist at the time to provide for warnings as the storm developed at sea. Remember, no satellite, no radar, and no aircraft flying into hurricanes! Also, the communications were much less developed to provide any warnings.

When the hurricane hit New England on Sept 21, 1938, (called the Long Island Express Hurricane of 1938), it sustained winds of 121 mph. Peak wind gusts were 186 mph. It generated 17 feet storm surge above normal in Rhode Island and waves as high as 50 feet came ashore in Massachusetts. 100 people were killed around the Long Island region. At least 600 people were killed in New England. Damage in today's dollars would be about $5 billion. The storm moved so quickly up the East Coast into New England, moving between 60 and 70 mph.

[J.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the National Weather Service has been known to issue an inaccurate short range forecast (Hello, weather bureau? I just shoveled 6 inches of partly cloudy out of my driveway), there has been considerable improvement in forecasting since the advent of weather satellites and supercomputers.
In the days before all this newfangled technology the only way to find out about severe storms at sea was to have a ship blunder into one, much to the chagrin of its crew. This book is about the 1938 hurricane, which is the only way to refer to it since names weren’t used back then, which struck Long Island and moved into New England causing loss of life along with incredible damage. A tremendous storm surge of water generated by the unusually fast speed of the hurricane combined with landfall at high tide struck unwarned coastal communities.
The author interviewed eyewitnesses who had many harrowing stories to tell, like surviving by floating inland on a dislodged roof half a mile. Lives along with coastlines were irrevocably changed that day and this book documents both loss and survival.
A very good read for those interested in weather or who would like to know more about the awesome forces of nature.

[Elfkin477 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there were too many similar descriptions of ill happenings on boats, I enjoyed reading about the personal stories that happened during one of New England's worst storms. Unfortunately, the transitions between these personal stories were fairly weak, and it lead to confusion in several places when the reader was left unaware that the next paragraph did not connect in any meaningful way to the one before.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the 1938 Hurricane which struck the Eastern Seaboard, with special emphasis on Connecticut and Long Island. Good read.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book about the hurricane of '38. Lots of detail though- too much for some people maybe. Karen