Love the pictures, but the accompanying text contain numerous weather record errors, especially about the wind speeds. Sustained winds were much higher than 87 mph. For correct figures, see the National Weather Service archive about the storm at this link: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/hurricane/hurricane1938.shtml There you'll see sustained winds of 121 at Blue Hill with a peak gust of 186. Providence saw sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts up to 121.

And it wasn't a "tidal wave" that hit Rhode Island -- those come from undersea earthquakes. It was "storm surges" also known as "storm tides" that caused such destructive flooding in places like downtown Providence, which got hit with a 20-foot tide. Again, see the National Weather Service records.

I was ten then and as a bold but ignorant member of Brookline's Little Rascals, we had no idea that the wind could kill us all. We used the wind for our amusement. We climed some birch tree in the back yard. They were snugged close to the neighbor's fence, a 12 foot-high wooden fence. We had to climb it to grab on to the birch trees, which were swaying back and forth. Good thing that birch trees are flexible. All three young moonbats were enjoying the ride when we saw a lady in an apron approaching. It was my mother. "Get down," she said. We did quickly. Ma was in her best, angry mood but on the way down, the fence we had climbed up on, crashed but we had made it down in time. Whew. I then asked my mother if I could go over to the playing field just outside our house (Tech field, Brookline, now called Crafts-Downs field) to feel the strength of the wind on my body. Was I strange then? Apparently. Ma, of course, refused. So I was forced only to look out the window. When I did, I saw that the giant oak next to our three-story house had lost one of its massive branches. I remember seeing it dancing on the ground from the force of the wind as if it were being manipulated by a giant, invisible puppeter. That's my childhood memory of the 1938 blizzard.

I was 7 when hurricane Carol hit, I was living with my grandparents on saranac St in Dorchester. I can remember standing in the back hall watching the trees getting whipped by the wind when the roof of a three decker just lifted off and sailes away. The day after the strorm I walked around the block and found the roof way laying in the street as if it had just been placed there.

Carol was a bad storm but nothing like the hurricane of '38. One of the PBS stations in Rhode Island did a 2 hour documentery on that storm based on eye witness accounts, you could still hear the fear in their voices after 50 years.

I look at those pictures and admire each and every person depicted.