February 24th, 2008
Review – Sudden Sea
In 1938, the most powerful hurricane to ever strike the Northeast of the US hit Long Island and New England. The hurricane was completely unpredicted and the death toll reflects that fact. There were 682 dead and 1,754 injured. Every state in New England other than Maine had deaths but no state suffered like Rhode Island with 433 killed. Barrier beaches on Long Island and Rhode Island were swept clean of houses with the only survivors being those who had fled at the first sign of the storm or those who rode the roof of a broken building to the mainland.
R.A. Scotti has captured the feel for the day by letting us meet some of the people who experienced the hurricane and hearing about that day from them. She starts by introducing us to some of the children who live on the island of Jamestown, Rhode Island and some of the residents of Napatree, a barrier beach right in the path of the hurricane. The author then shifts our focus, bringing us into a discussion of the incredibly powerful hurricane and the men whose job it is to track it. And as their failures come into focus, as the hurricane is lost by the Weather Service but is still aimed at Long Island, the author brings us back to the people who will be the first to experience this beast.
This is the best part of the book. Her descriptions of how the hurricane changed the geography of the places it struck, how it changed the economy of the area, and mostly how it effected the people are all well captured. By showing us through the eyes of a few witnesses, the author gives us more than just a glimpse into that terrible day. The horror of the storm is shown through the deaths of so many adults and children. Scotti’s writing is good – journalistic – if not poetic. The pictures are well chosen to help tell the story. The pictures and maps of Napatree, for example, before and after the storm shows a beach crowded with homes turned into a vacant sand dune. The maps show a barrier beach moved, breached, and destroyed.
The end result is a well written book that tells an interesting story without piling on too much detail. At about 250 pages, the book is long enough to tell the story but not so long as to fill the book with more that the story required. If you are interested in the history of weather or the history of Long Island or southern New England, then I can easily recommend this book.
Tags: books, review, hurricane, great hurricane of 1938, Sudden Sea
