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Downtown Providence was under water during the great Hurricane of 1938, which hit Sept. 21. The area pictured is now known as Kennedy Plaza. At right is the old Union Station. Trolley cars are flooded and abandoned near where the Fleet Skating Center is now located. Multimedia: Journal managing editor for visuals Michael Delaney narrates a look back at the impact of the Hurricane of '38 on our area

PROVIDENCE -- Hurricane season isn't over yet, and according to David Vallee, we'll likely see more storms in the next month and a half. But whether they move up to coast to New England -- "that is really a prediction that you can only make on a day by day to week by week basis," he said.

Vallee is the hydrologist in charge with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast River Forecast Center. And he's spent a good chunk of his career studying hurricanes, one of nature's most impressive creations.

Although we understand how hurricanes form, he said, we're at the mercy of the temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean -- warmer water means hurricanes are more likely -- and the jet stream -- the very same wind system that's responsible for our nasty winter storms is also responsible for our fall hurricanes.

During a press conference today at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence aimed at raising hurricane preparedness awareness, Vallee said he expects two or three more storms to form before the end of the season, which ends Nov. 30, but could extend beyond that date.

As summer comes to an end, he explained, we're about to get our first blast of polar air. But warm, moist air is still coming our way from the tropics.

"That contrast, between the warm tropical heat and the first polar air mass of the fall season, helps to intensify the jet streams," Vallee said.

"If (the air mass) is positioned over the Great Lakes or over the upper Mississippi Valley, it's in a position that could conceivably capture a hurricane that's in the Bahamas and cause it to accelerate rapidly into New England."

And rapid movers they are. While hurricanes in the Gulf region typically move along at 10 to 15 mph, Vallee said, storms that get caught up in the jet stream -- which can have winds traveling 100 to 150 mph -- approach New England at speeds upwards of 60 mph.

That's what happened during the Hurricane of 1938, when a clear, sunny day turned into the most destructive and deadliest disaster in the state's history and water levels surged. At today's press conference, markers indicated that water levels reached higher than 6 feet during the '38 hurricane.

"They're very hard to predict," Vallee said of New England hurricanes. "And they're very rapid movers. And we have little time to prepare."

That's just more incentive to check out these hurricane preparedness resources on the Web:

Rhode Island emergency resources

The National Hurricane Center

Track tropical storms in your backyard and around the world

Federal flood insurance programs

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

 Tags  providence

Comments

douglas said:

today was the day 70 years ago september 21, 1938

Link | September 21, 2008 8:12 PM
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