By KELLY SULLIVAN

HOPKINTON – A soft breeze drifted through the small towns of New England on the morning of Sept. 21, 1938. The sun smiled down brightly, deceiving the population. In just a matter of hours, the shoreline and the landscape would be unrecognizable. Hundreds of people who got out of bed that morning as if it would be just another autumn day, would be dead or missing. And history would write a major chapter in tragedy.

Almost two weeks prior, a hurricane began to form in the Cape Verde Islands and was soon moving toward the West Indies. A weather warning was issued to the people of southern Florida, who began to prepare for the threat. The storm, however, took a turn northward, passing Cape Hatteras at 7:00 a.m. on the 21st. In just twelve hours, the storm had traveled 600 miles and was picking up speed. Its destination, New England, was oblivious to the speeding catastrophe.

At about 3:00 p.m., the full force of the storm slammed into the coast. Stinging winds pushed mountains of water up out of the sea, creating waves nearly seventy feet high. The hundreds of beach houses along the shores of Watch Hill, Misquamicut, Charlestown and Napatree Point were reduced to foundations strewn with rubble. As trees were uprooted and blown across roadways, electrical power and telephone service was knocked out. Roads became flooded under several feet of water, and the bodies of the living and the dead floated downstream. Police departments, fire departments, Red Cross organizations, military units and dozens of other emergency groups tried to save lives and collect bodies in temporary morgues. The storm would go down in history as the most powerful natural event ever recorded.

“I always remembered my mother and father talking about the hurricane and it stuck in my mind,” said local author and historian Joseph P. Soares, who has just released his most recent book “The 1938 Hurricane Along New England’s Coast.” Published by Arcadia Publishing as part of its Images of America series, the book is a 127-page photo essay on the destruction caused by the storm. “I’ve always been interested in the subject,” Soares said, “and I’ve always wanted to do a project about it, but the inspiration really came when I obtained a large photo collection that had pictures from the hurricane.” Soares worked on putting the book together for about five years. It is his third published project, following two other photo essay books entitled “Washington County” and “Westerly.”

A former student of painting and sculpting at the Rhode Island School of Design, the 47-year-old New England native realized while still in high school that he was fascinated by the stories and mementos of the past. “I was a young boy when I started going to flea markets and yard sales, buying old postcards of Hope Valley and Hopkinton,” he said. “I can’t put my thumb on any one particular thing that got me interested in local history but since that time I have been collecting Rhode Island documents and photographs.”

Soares is currently working on his next book, which will center around the history of the old Nichols & Langworthy Machine Shop in Hope Valley. To date, he has obtained over 120 photographs for the project. “It takes a couple of years, if not more, to put a book together,” he said. “Collecting subject matter takes time.” The history of the machine shop holds a particular fascination for him, due to the unique devices the shop turned out. “If that mill didn’t burn down, Hope Valley would be the Detroit of New England,” he said.

“The 1938 Hurricane Along New England’s Coast”, as well as Soares’ other two publications, are available at area bookstores or by calling the publisher at 888-313-2665. Anyone who has photographs or documents concerning the Nichols & Langworthy shop, who may be willing to share them for use in Soares’ next project, may contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it