{
  "slug": "middlesex-shore-hurricane-1938",
  "title": "The Middlesex shore and the hurricane of 1938",
  "towns": [
    "Old Saybrook",
    "Westbrook",
    "Clinton"
  ],
  "counties": [
    "Middlesex"
  ],
  "dateRange": "1938",
  "topic": "Storms & changing landscapes",
  "summary": "Wind, coastal inundation and the storm’s imprint on the lower Connecticut River shore.",
  "history": [
    {
      "heading": "September 21, 1938",
      "text": "The hurricane crossed Long Island and southern New England on September 21, 1938. The National Weather Service describes a rapidly moving Category 3 storm. Its destructive reach extended across the region, so a photograph from another Connecticut town should not automatically be treated as evidence of conditions on the Middlesex shore.",
      "source_ids": [
        "nws"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "A coast exposed to wind and water",
      "text": "The contemporary Monthly Weather Review records the combination of high water and hurricane winds along Connecticut’s coast, with damaged buildings and vessels driven ashore. Old Saybrook, Westbrook and Clinton belong to that shoreline setting. Local photographs need their original town and caption preserved to show where particular damage occurred.",
      "source_ids": [
        "noaa"
      ]
    },
    {
      "heading": "A documented place: Saybrook Breakwater",
      "text": "At Saybrook Breakwater Light, the storm swept away a bridge, platform, rowboat and kerosene tank, yet the keeper maintained the light. This documented station anchors the regional disaster in a particular Middlesex place. Source links preserve access to the accounts; photographs with unresolved reuse rights remain unrepublished.",
      "source_ids": [
        "light"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "timeline": [
    {
      "date": "September 21, 1938",
      "event": "The fast-moving hurricane strikes Long Island and southern New England.",
      "source_ids": [
        "nws"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "September 21, 1938",
      "event": "Saybrook Breakwater Light loses structures and equipment; the light remains burning.",
      "source_ids": [
        "light"
      ]
    },
    {
      "date": "September 1938",
      "event": "The Monthly Weather Review documents coastal destruction.",
      "source_ids": [
        "noaa"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "noaa",
      "title": "NOAA — Monthly Weather Review, September 1938",
      "url": "https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/mwr_pdf/1938.pdf"
    },
    {
      "id": "nws",
      "title": "National Weather Service — September 21 weather history",
      "url": "https://www.weather.gov/abr/This_Day_in_Weather_History_Sep_21"
    },
    {
      "id": "light",
      "title": "U.S. Coast Guard — Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse",
      "url": "https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/Lighthouses-Light-Stations/Article/1988661/saybrook-breakwater-lighthouse/"
    }
  ],
  "images": []
}