The “Long Island Express” was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869. The storm formed near the coast of Africa in September of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, becoming a Category 5 hurricane later making landfall, September 21st on Long Island, as a Category 3 hurricane. The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 200 and 600 people, damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at $306,000,000. Even though its eye was 75 miles east of New York City, the storm knocked out power above 59th Street in Manhattan and in all of the Bronx, and felled at least 100 trees in Central Park. In just six hours, it moved from North Carolina to New England before weakening.
