The Federal Writers' Project ( FWP ) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers and to develop a history and overview of the United States, by state, cities and other jurisdictions. It was launched in 1935 during the Great Depression . It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It was one of a group of New Deal arts programs known collectively as Federal Project Number One or Federal One.
83-458: FWP may refer to: Federal Writers' Project Fort Wayne Pistons , a basketball team Freshwater Place , Melbourne, Australia Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks First World problem "F.W.P." (Fuck White People), a song by AJJ from Candy Cigarettes & Cap Guns Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
166-582: A tropical storm less than a day after tropical cyclogenesis . It was inferred to have reached hurricane intensity over the central Atlantic by September 15, though ship observations became increasingly sparse as the cyclone tracked farther away from land. The first definitive indication of a tropical cyclone at sea was a report from the Brazilian ship SS Alegrete which documented a barometric pressure of 958 mbar ( hPa ; 28.29 inHg ) within hurricane-force winds on September 17. Based on this observation,
249-413: A Category 3 hurricane on September 21, with estimated sustained winds of 115–120 mph. After moving inland, it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and dissipated over Ontario on September 23. The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project analyzed the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season in 2012, and Weather Bureau forecaster Ivan Ray Tannehill noted that the knowledge of the storm's existence at
332-535: A Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale , before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Long Island on Wednesday, September 21. It is estimated that the hurricane killed 682 people, damaged or destroyed more than 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at $ 306 million ($ 4.7 billion in 2024). Also, numerous others estimate the real damage between $ 347 million and almost $ 410 million. Damaged trees and buildings were still seen in
415-475: A backup forest at Great Mountain in northwestern Connecticut which was spared from the totality of the damages, and they were able to keep their forestry program running, which maintains operation today. Harvard's program, however, was reduced as a result. The western side of the hurricane caused sustained tropical storm-force winds, high waves, and storm surge along the Jersey Shore and destroyed much of
498-663: A documentary about FWP, Soul of a People: Writing America's Story , premiered on the Smithsonian Channel . It was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities .The film includes interviews with American authors Studs Terkel and Stetson Kennedy , and American historian Douglas Brinkley . A companion book was published by Wiley & Sons as Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America . The Slave Narrative Collection
581-545: A high-pressure area to the east, and that it would be forced to ride up a trough of low pressure into New England. A noon meeting was called and Pierce presented his conclusion, but he was overruled by "celebrated" chief forecaster Charles Mitchell and his senior staff. In Boston, meteorologist E.B. Rideout told his WEEI radio listeners – to the skepticism of his peers – that the hurricane would hit New England. At 2:00 pm, hurricane-force gusts were occurring on Long Island's South Shore and near hurricane-force gusts on
664-704: A large section of barrier island separating Shinnecock Bay from the Atlantic. The storm toppled the landmark steeple of the Old Whaler's Church , which was the tallest building in Sag Harbor . The steeple has not been rebuilt. Wading River suffered substantial damage. The storm blew down the movie theater on Front Street in Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island. The fishing industry was destroyed, as
747-686: A peak gust of 186 mph (299 km/h), which is the strongest hurricane-related surface wind gust ever recorded in the United States. A 50 ft (15 m) wave, the tallest of the storm, was recorded at Gloucester . A Boston Braves game against the Chicago Cubs was called during the storm. The storm filled in a former waterway between Winthrop 's Point Shirley neighborhood and Boston's Deer Island with sand and other natural earth minerals, creating an additional common border between Winthrop and Boston transforming Deer Island at
830-428: A strong influx of cooler air from Canada into the eastern United States and thus forming a sharp cold front over the region; this frontal boundary resulted in a channel of moist, tropical air being steered northwards into New England. At 18:00 UTC (2 p.m. EST) on September 19, the tropical cyclone strengthened further into a Category 5-equivalent hurricane with sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h) while north of
913-437: A time. The Staten Island Ferry boat Knickerbocker got stuck in the terminal with 200 passengers aboard. Bridges and tunnels into Manhattan were closed until the following afternoon. 95% of Nassau County lost power, where floods brought traffic to a halt. During the hurricane, starting before it hit and continuing after, a citywide trucker strike occurred across both NYC and New Jersey , this led to some complications to
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#1732772147749996-520: A trestle on the Cog Railway . In Maine , buildings and trees were damaged and power outages occurred. Storm surge was minimal, and winds remained below hurricane strength. The storm did not claim any lives in Maine. The western periphery of the hurricane brought heavy rain and gusty winds to Delaware and southeastern Maryland. Damage, if any, is believed to have been minimal. As the hurricane
1079-461: Is 3 feet (1 m) above the SLOSH model of a 100-year storm, and one estimate is that this water level "reflects a storm occurring roughly once every 400 years." A study of sand deposits also gives evidence that this was the strongest hurricane to hit Rhode Island in over 300 years. The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier was completed in 1966 because of the massive flooding from the 1938 storm, and from
1162-471: Is now a wildlife refuge with no human inhabitants. Concrete staircases and boardwalk bases destroyed by the hurricane can still be found when sand levels are low on some beaches. The boardwalk along Easton's Beach in Newport was completely destroyed by the storm. A few miles from Conanicut Island , Whale Rock Light was swept off its base and into the waves, killing lighthouse keeper Walter Eberle. His body
1245-484: Is the hurricane's lowest documented pressure. At 19:45 UTC (3:45 p.m. EST), the hurricane made landfall on Long Island over Bellport, New York with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (190 km/h) and a pressure of 941 mbar (941 hPa; 27.8 inHg), making it the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the New York City area. It was moving rapidly northward at 47 mph (76 km/h), enhancing
1328-672: The Federal Theatre Project , faced tremendous scrutiny from the committee. The Dies HUAC committee, like the McCarthy committee of the 1950s, "used inquisitorial scare tactics, innuendo, and unsupported accusations." Alsberg, Flanagan, and others who were accused of supporting the communist agenda could not "examine evidence against them, could not produce their own witnesses, could not cross-examine accusers." Accusations that communist activities were carried out openly, and that Soviets funded labor unions, which took control of
1411-511: The Montana State University Archives and Special Collections . A large digital archive called What America Ate has been created to house the digitized remains of the project. For most of its lifetime, FWP faced a barrage of criticism from American conservatives . When Massachusetts: A Guide to its Places and People , was published, it was lauded by government officials, including Governor Charles F. Hurley . But
1494-806: The Slave Narrative Collection , a set of interviews that culminated in more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Many of these narratives are available online from the above-named collection at the Library of Congress website. Folklorist Benjamin A. Botkin was instrumental in insuring the survival of these manuscripts. Among the many researchers and authors who have used this collection are Colson Whitehead , who drew from it for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad . Other programs that emerged from Alsberg's desire to create an inclusive "self-portrait of America" were
1577-539: The Turks and Caicos ; this figure remained unchanged in reanalysis and serves as the storm's peak strength, although the reanalysis project noted that "considerable uncertainty" remains regarding the magnitude of the storm's maximum intensity at sea. Concurrently, the hurricane began to interact with the cold front over the East Coast, causing the tropical cyclone to curve northward towards the northeastern United States;
1660-645: The University of North Carolina Press , and Southeast Regional Director of the Federal Writers' Project. In These Are Our Lives , the only book published by the Southern Life History project, Couch explained that their goal was to "get life histories which are readable and faithful representations of living persons, and which taken together, will give a fair picture of the structure and working of society." The Illinois Writers' Project,
1743-634: The FTP and the FWP. In the wake of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and consequent global economic disruption, several writers and politicians called for a new U.S. Federal Writers' Project. In May 2021, on the anniversary of the original project, Congressman Ted Lieu and Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez introduced legislation to create a new FWP, to be administered by the Department of Labor , that would hire unemployed and underemployed writers. Supporters of
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#17327721477491826-640: The FWP had published 321 works; hundreds more remained in various stages of publication. Some were published in the years leading up to 1943 under the renamed Writers' Program. Others were never completed. Over the lifetime of the FWP and the Writers' Program, 10,000 people were estimated to be employed. In the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock , funded by the Federal Theater Project, composer Marc Blitzstein incorporated some of opponents' efforts to prevent this production. In September 2009
1909-597: The FWP, as did such mainstream publishing companies such as Viking Press , Random House , and Alfred A. Knopf , each of which published some of the books. By 1939, HUAC's tactics seemed to work, and the newly elected Congress cut the WPA budget while increasing HUAC's funding. In January 1939, 6,000 people were laid off from Federal One. By July 1939, Congress voted to eliminate the Theatre Project, which had been criticized for communist influence. Federal sponsorship for
1992-639: The Federal Writers' Project (1999). A short-lived FWP project was called America Eats , a proposed book of the regional foodways of the United States. Writers in each state were tasked with gathering information about foods and food-related events unique to their area, and preparing essays about these. The country was divided into five regions: the Northeast, the South, the Middle West, the Far West, and
2075-401: The Federal Writers' Project ended in 1939. The program was permitted to continue under state sponsorship, with some federal employees, until 1943. In the last months of the FWP's operation, Henry Alsberg was fired. He continued to work past his firing date in order to meet contractual arrangements with the publishers of three upcoming American Guide books. By the time of his departure in 1939,
2158-534: The Life History and Folklore projects. These consisted of first-person narratives and interviews (collected and conducted by FWP workers), which represented people of various ethnicities, regions, and occupations. According to the Library of Congress website, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940 , the documents "chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at
2241-523: The Southwest. While materials, in various quantities, were gathered from all five regions, the book America Eats! was never completed and published. The United States entry into World War II in 1943 resulted in a loss of funding for the FWP and its projects. Materials from the America Eats project are held in various archives and libraries around the country, including at the Library of Congress and
2324-679: The affected areas as late as 1951. It remains the most powerful and deadliest hurricane to ever strike New York and New England in history, perhaps eclipsed in landfall intensity only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 . The storm developed into a tropical depression on September 9 off the coast of West Africa, but the United States Weather Bureau was unaware that a tropical cyclone existed until September 16 when ships reported strong winds and rough seas 350 miles northeast of San Juan ; by then, it
2407-519: The arts' projects, were found to be false. Author Richard Wright , a future Guggenheim scholar, was often under attack, with his writings pronounced as "vile". Among the many charges leveled by HUAC against the FWP and its workers, was that Richard Wright was not born in the United States. (He was born in Mississippi.) Alsberg wrote a long court brief and provided supporting documents to refute each charge. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt supported
2490-539: The beach by the Port Washington Yacht Club. Similar scenes occurred in other locations on the north shore. The J. P. Morgan estate in Glen Cove was heavily damaged. The wife of New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia was forced to wait out the storm on the second floor of their Northport cottage. Mitchel Field army airfield was buffeted by winds of nearly 100 mph (160 km/h) and
2573-542: The boardwalk in Atlantic City . The Brigantine Bridge was destroyed over Absecon Inlet between Atlantic City and Brigantine, New Jersey . The surge inundated several coastal communities; Wildwood was under 3 feet (1 m) of water at the height of the storm, and the boardwalk was destroyed in Bay Head and dozens of cottages washed into the ocean. Crops sustained wind damage. The maximum recorded wind gust
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2656-401: The coast of Connecticut. The Washington office issued an advisory saying that the storm was 75 mi (120 km) east-southeast of Atlantic City and would pass over Long Island and Connecticut. Re-analysis of the storm suggests that the hurricane was farther north and just 50 mi (80 km) from Fire Island, and that it was stronger and larger than the advisory stated. The majority of
2739-539: The cyclone to reach the ocean off North Carolina and then head harmlessly out to sea. At 9:00 am EDT on September 21, the Washington office issued northeast storm warnings north of Atlantic City and south of Block Island, Rhode Island , and southeast storm warnings from Block Island to Eastport, Maine . The advisory, however, underestimated the storm's intensity and said that it was farther south than it actually was. The office had yet to forward any information about
2822-753: The day after its publication, "conservatives attacked the book over its essays on the 1912 Lawrence textile strike and other labor issues. Such critics were even more scathing about the coverage of the Sacco and Vanzetti affair." Scholars called the questionable passages fair accounts; the controversy helped increase book sales. The most poisonous attacks against the FWP came from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and its chair, Congressman Martin Dies Jr. of Texas. Alsberg and Hallie Flanagan , his counterpart at
2905-463: The entire coastline of Rhode Island. Many homes and structures were destroyed along the coast, as well as many structures inland along the hurricane's path, and entire beach communities were obliterated on the coast. Napatree Point was completely swept away, a small cape that housed nearly 40 families between the Atlantic Ocean and Little Narragansett Bay just off of Watch Hill . Napatree
2988-448: The even higher 14.4-foot (4.4 m) storm surge that resulted from 1954's Hurricane Carol , in hopes of preventing extreme storm surges from ever again flooding downtown Providence. Eastern Connecticut was on the eastern side of the hurricane. Long Island acted as a buffer against large ocean surges, but the waters of Long Island Sound rose to great heights. Small shoreline towns to the east of New Haven experienced much destruction from
3071-620: The flood receded, the town's Main Street was a chasm in which sewer pipes could be seen. To the east, the surge left Falmouth and New Bedford under eight feet of water. Two-thirds of the boats sank in New Bedford harbor. Several homes were washed away on Atlantic Boulevard in Fall River , and their foundations can still be found on the beach today. The Blue Hill Observatory registered sustained winds of 121 mph (195 km/h) and
3154-495: The homes in Mystic . New London was first swept by the winds and storm surge, after which the waterfront business district caught fire and burned out of control for 10 hours. Stately homes along Ocean Beach were leveled by the storm surge. The permanently anchored 240-ton lightship at the head of New London Harbor was found on a sand bar two miles (3.2 km) away. Interior sections of the state experienced widespread flooding as
3237-517: The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (201 km/h), making it the equivalent of a high-end Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale . The hurricane continued to slowly strengthen and track westward at around 20 mph (32 km/h) about the southern periphery of a subtropical ridge centered over the Bermuda . On September 18, a strong extratropical cyclone developed just west of Chicago, generating
3320-411: The hurricane to the New York City office. At 10:00 am EDT, the bureau downgraded the hurricane to a tropical storm. The 11:30 am advisory mentioned gale-force winds but nothing about a tropical storm or hurricane. That day, 28 year-old rookie Charles Pierce was standing in for two veteran meteorologists. He concluded that the storm would be squeezed between a high-pressure area located to the west and
3403-561: The hurricane's torrential rains fell on soil already saturated from previous storms. The Connecticut River was forced out of its banks, inundating cities and towns from Hartford to Middletown . Ultimately the storm became the deadliest and costliest storm in Connecticut history. The eye of the storm followed the Connecticut River north into Massachusetts , where the winds and flooding killed 99 people. In Springfield,
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3486-469: The intensity of the winds east of the center; in addition, its forward motion displaced its center of circulation 17 mi (27 km) away from the point of minimum barometric pressure. Weather Bureau forecaster Charles Pierce argued that the hurricane became extratropical off of the Outer Banks , though Charles J. Neumann, Frances P. Ho, and the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project suggested that it
3569-416: The lack of technology in 1938, Long Island residents were not warned of the hurricane's arrival, leaving no time to prepare or evacuate. " The winds reached up to 150 mph (240 km/h), with waves surging to around 25–35 feet (7.6–10.7 m) high. Yale and Harvard both owned large forests managed by their forestry departments, but both forests were wiped out by the hurricane. However, Yale had
3652-584: The legislation included writers James Fallows , Ruth Dickey, and Jonathan Lethem . 1938 New England hurricane The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane ) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near the coast of Africa on September 9, becoming
3735-409: The lighthouse and sought shelter in what they thought was the sturdier light keeper's home. Light keeper George T. Gustavus was thrown free from the wreckage of the house and was saved by an island resident who held a branch into the water from the cliffs farther down the coast. Gustavus and Milton Chase, the owner of the island's power plant, reactivated the light during the storm by running a cable from
3818-428: The peninsula's southern tip into an island by name only. The storm entered Vermont as a Category 1 hurricane at approximately 6:00 pm EDT, reaching northern Vermont, Burlington , and Lake Champlain around 8:00 pm. Hurricane-force winds caused extensive damage to trees, buildings, and power lines. Over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of public roads were blocked, and it took months for crews to reopen some of
3901-413: The plant to the light and installing a light bulb, marking the first time that it was illuminated with electricity. The original parchment of the 1764 Charter of Brown University was washed clean of its text when its vault was flooded in a Providence bank. Newport recorded the highest water level of the storm at 11.5 feet (4 m) above mean sea level, according to a NOAA study. This storm level
3984-467: The presence of the subtropical ridge to the east and the stationary nature of the frontal boundary prevented the storm from continuing to curve out to sea. As the hurricane accelerated northward, it gradually weakened. On the morning of September 21, it passed roughly 75 mi (121 km) east of Cape Hatteras . At 12:00 UTC (8 a.m. EST) that day, the storm was estimated to have a barometric pressure of 940 mbar (940 hPa; 28 inHg); this
4067-472: The project cost about $ 27,000,000 – 0.002% of all WPA appropriations. The American Guide Series , the most well-known of FWP's publications, consisted of guides to the then 48 states, the Alaska Territory, Puerto Rico , and Washington, D.C. The books were written and compiled by writers from individual states and territories, and edited by Alsberg and his staff in Washington, D.C. The format
4150-579: The project provided jobs to unemployed librarians, clerks, researchers, editors, and historians. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 , FWP was established July 27, 1935, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . Henry Alsberg , a lawyer, journalist, playwright, theatrical producer, and human-rights activist, directed the program from 1935 to 1939. In 1939, Alsberg was fired, federal funding
4233-426: The pseudonym Jeremiah Digges, received critical acclaim. In each state, a Writers' Project non-relief staff of editors was formed, along with a much larger group of field workers drawn from local unemployment rolls. The people hired came from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from former newspaper workers to white-collar and blue-collar workers without writing or editing experience. Notable FWP projects included
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#17327721477494316-647: The publication of The Negro in Virginia (1940). Notably, it included photographs by Robert McNeill , now remembered as a groundbreaking African-American photographer. African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston was employed by the Florida Writers' Project. Years after her death, her unpublished works from this time were compiled in Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings by Zora Neale Hurston from
4399-512: The relief effort. However, the unions made critical exceptions for relief supplies. Moving food supplies to relief depots, ballots for the New York primary before the hurricane hit while people were evacuating, and manning 1,000 relief sanitation trucks deployed by Mayor La Guardia with supplies after the hurricane had hit. In Manhasset Bay , almost 400 boats were ripped from their moorings and smashed or sunk, with more than 100 washing up on
4482-615: The remnants continued to weaken before they dissipated over southeastern Ontario on September 23. The 1938 hurricane surprised the United States Weather Bureau in that it did not take the typical track as it approached the area of the southeastern Bahamas . Normally, tropical cyclones approach the eastern Bahamas then slowly recurve north and northeast off the United States East Coast and move out to sea. The Jacksonville, Florida , office of
4565-714: The river rose six to 10 feet (3 m) above flood stage, causing significant damage. Up to 6 in (150 mm) of rain fell across western Massachusetts, which combined with over 4 in (100 mm) that had fallen a few days earlier to produce widespread flooding. Flash flooding on the Chicopee River washed away the Chicopee Falls Bridge, while the Connecticut River flooded most of the Willimansett section. Residents of Ware were stranded for days and relied on air-dropped food and medicine. After
4648-891: The roads. In Montpelier , 120 miles (190 km) from the nearest coast, salt spray was seen on windows. A train was derailed in Castleton . The storm killed five people in Vermont. Sugar maple groves were damaged. It is the only system on record to have entered the state as a tropical cyclone. Even though the storm center tracked further west, through Vermont, New Hampshire received considerable damage. As in Vermont, very high winds brought down numerous trees and electric lines, but rainfall totals in New Hampshire were significantly less than those in other states. Only 1 inch (25 mm) of rain fell in Concord . Damage at Peterborough
4731-504: The series. Some full-length books are available online at the Internet Archive. The FWP also published another series, Life In America , and numerous individual titles. Many FWP books were bestsellers, including New England Hurricane: A Factual, Pictorial Record , a rapidly produced volume about the devastation wreaked by the 1938 New England hurricane . Others, such as Cape Cod Pilot , written by author Josef Berger using
4814-411: The storm damage was from storm surge and wind. Damage was estimated at $ 308 million (equivalent to $ 6.67 billion in 2023), making it among the most costly hurricanes to strike the U.S. mainland. It is estimated that, if an identical hurricane had struck in 2005, it would have caused $ 39.2 billion in damage due to changes in population and infrastructure. Approximately 600 people died in
4897-537: The storm on Long Island, New York , and in Connecticut and Rhode Island . An additional 708 people were reported injured. In total, 4,500 cottages, farms, and other homes were reported destroyed and 25,000 homes were damaged. Other damages included 26,000 automobiles destroyed and 20,000 electrical poles toppled. The hurricane also devastated the forests of the Northeast, knocking down an estimated two billion trees in New York and New England. Freshwater flooding
4980-571: The storm surge. So extensive was the storm surge and overwash on eastern Long Island, that rescue works had to use utility maps to figure out were roads and homes had been. Ten new inlets were created on eastern Long Island. The surge rearranged the sand at the Cedar Point Lighthouse so that the island became connected to what is now Cedar Point County Park . The surging water created the Shinnecock Inlet by carving out
5063-423: The time remained tenuous until September 17 when the cyclone had already increased to a hurricane. Based on land and marine observations, the reanalysis project concluded that the 1938 hurricane began as a tropical depression just off the coast of West Africa at 12:00 UTC (8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) on September 9, becoming the sixth tropical cyclone of the season. The depression gradually strengthened, becoming
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#17327721477495146-656: The title FWP . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FWP&oldid=1176314022 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Federal Writers%27 Project FWP employed thousands of people and produced hundreds of publications, including state guides, city guides, local histories, oral histories, ethnographies , and children's books. In addition to writers,
5229-578: The turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire , pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison , Nelson Algren , May Swenson , and many others." Among several projects within these first-person narratives was the Southern Life History Project created by William Couch , head of
5312-789: The water and winds, and the 1938 hurricane holds the record for the worst natural disaster in Connecticut's 350-year history. The mean low-water storm tide was 14.1 ft (4.3 m) at Stamford, 12.8 ft (3.9 m) at Bridgeport, and 10.58 ft (3.22 m) at New London, which remains a record high. In the shoreline towns of Madison , Clinton , Westbrook , and Old Saybrook , buildings were found as wreckage across coastal roads. Actress Katharine Hepburn waded to safety from her Old Saybrook beach home, narrowly escaping death. She stated in her 1991 book that 95% of her personal belongings were either lost or destroyed, including her first Oscar for her appearance in Morning Glory , which
5395-563: The waters rose 7 ft (2.1 m) in a half-hour. In New York City and Long Island, schools were dismissed early. Extensive street flooding occurred because debris blocked drains. The East River flowed three blocks and flooded a Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) plant at 133rd Street, causing power to fail in Manhattan north of 59th Street and in the Bronx for several minutes to a few hours. Railroad and ferry services were suspended for
5478-603: The weather bureau issued a warning on September 19 that a hurricane might hit Florida. Residents and authorities made extensive preparations, as they had endured the Labor Day Hurricane three years earlier. When the storm turned north, the office issued warnings for the Carolina coast and transferred authority to the bureau's headquarters in Washington. Both the Jacksonville and Washington, DC offices expected
5561-399: Was 70 mph (110 km/h) at Sandy Hook . The metropolitan area escaped the worst of the wind and storm surge because it was hit by the storm's weaker western side. Winds were recorded at 60 mph (97 km/h) at Central Park , Battery Park recorded sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) with gusts to 80 mph (130 km/h), and a gust of 90 mph (140 km/h)
5644-461: Was already a well-developed hurricane and had tracked westward toward the southeastern Bahamas . It reached hurricane strength on September 15 and continued to strengthen to a peak intensity of 160 mph (260 km/h) near the southeastern Bahamas four days later, making it a Category 5-equivalent hurricane. The storm was propelled northward, rapidly paralleling the East Coast before making landfalls on Long Island, New York and Connecticut as
5727-541: Was blown into Mackerel Cove. Mobs looted stores in downtown Providence, often before the flood waters had fully subsided and due in part to the economic difficulties of the Great Depression . The tide was higher than usual because of the autumnal equinox and full moon, and the hurricane produced storm tides of 14 to 18 feet (5 m) along most of the Connecticut coast, with 18 to 25-foot (8 m) tides from New London, Connecticut east to Cape Cod —including
5810-495: Was cut, and the project fell under state sponsorship led by John D. Newsom. FWP ended completely in 1943 after the US entered World War II and funds were diverted to the war effort. An estimated 10,000 people found employment in the FWP. The project was intended not only to provide work relief for unemployed writers, but also to create a unique "self-portrait of America" through publication of histories and guidebooks. From 1935 to 1943,
5893-538: Was established to deal with the extreme fire hazard that the fallen timber had created. In many locations, roads from the fallen tree removal were visible decades later, and some became trails still used today. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad from New Haven to Providence was particularly hard hit, as countless bridges along the Shore Line were destroyed or flooded, severing rail connections to badly affected towns such as Westerly, Rhode Island . Due to
5976-619: Was featured in the HBO documentary, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives . The film includes actors Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson performing dramatic readings of selected transcripts. The 1999 film Cradle Will Rock , by Tim Robbins , while depicting the events of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), dramatizes the attacks against Federal One by HUAC. Its efforts resulted in closing both
6059-458: Was generally uniform: each guide included detailed histories of the state or territory, with descriptions of every city and town, automobile travel routes, photographs, maps, and chapters on natural resources, culture, and geography. The inclusion of essays about the various cultures of people living in the states, including immigrants and African Americans, was unprecedented. City books, such as The New York City Guide , were also published as part of
6142-640: Was half of the apple crop. The storm surge was especially violent along the Rhode Island coastline, sweeping hundreds of summer cottages out to sea. As the surge drove northward through Narragansett Bay , it was restricted by the Bay's funnel shape and rose to 15.8 ft (4.8 m) above normal spring tides, resulting in more than 13 feet (4.0 m) of water in some areas of downtown Providence . Several motorists were drowned in their automobiles. In Jamestown , seven children were killed when their school bus
6225-624: Was later found intact. In Old Lyme , beach cottages were flattened or swept away. The NYNH&H passenger train Bostonian became stuck in debris at Stonington . Two passengers drowned while attempting to escape before the crew was able to clear the debris and get the train moving. Along the Stonington shorefront, buildings were swept off their foundations and found two miles (3.2 km) inland. Rescuers found live fish and crabs in kitchen drawers and cabinets while searching for survivors in
6308-414: Was minimal, however, as the quick passage of the storm decreased local rainfall totals, with only a few small areas receiving over 10 inches (250 mm). Over 35% of New England's total forest area was affected. In all, over 2.7 billion board feet of trees fell because of the storm, although 1.6 billion board feet of the trees were salvaged. The Northeastern Timber Salvage Administration (NETSA)
6391-418: Was never found. The Prudence Island Light suffered a direct blow from the storm surge, which measured 17 feet 5 inches (5.31 m) at Sandy Point. The masonry tower was slightly damaged, but the adjoining light keeper's home was utterly destroyed and washed out to sea. The light keeper's wife and son were both killed, as well as the former light keeper and a couple who left their summer cottages near
6474-506: Was one of the few racially integrated project sites. Among its directors was Jacob Scher . The Chicago project employed Arna Bontemps , an established voice of the Harlem Renaissance , and helped to launch the literary careers of African-American writers such as Richard Wright , Margaret Walker , Katherine Dunham , and Frank Yerby . The Virginia Negro Studies Project employed 16 African-American writers and culminated in
6557-685: Was recorded 500 ft (150 m) above ground at the Daily News Building . Winds were estimated at 120 mph (190 km/h) on top of the Empire State Building . The highest winds were from the north to northwest on the back side of the storm. The storm surge was 8.5 ft (2.6 m) at the Battery and the Mean Low Water storm tide was 16.75 ft (5.11 m) at Willets Point . In New York Harbor,
6640-584: Was recorded at Port Jefferson . About 50 people perished in the storm's wake. The Dune Road area of Westhampton Beach was obliterated, resulting in 29 deaths. There were 21 other deaths through the rest of the east end of Long Island. The storm surge temporarily turned Montauk into an island as it flooded across the South Fork at Napeague and obliterated the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road . Many other smaller roads were wiped away in
6723-575: Was tropical but in the process of extratropical transition at landfall. Afterwards, it quickly tracked across Long Island and Long Island Sound before making a second and final landfall near New Haven, Connecticut as a slightly weaker hurricane with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h), making it one of only three recorded tropical cyclones to hit Connecticut as major hurricanes since 1900. The storm rapidly weakened, completing extratropical transition over Vermont by 00:00 UTC on September 22 (September 21, 8:00 p.m. EST). Following this transition,
6806-478: Was under knee-deep water. In Williston Park , residents of 50 homes needed to be rescued by rowboat when heavy rain the previous few days combined with the rain from the hurricane to overflow a pond. The orientation of Eastern Long Island facing due south, made it extremely exposed to the storm surge and intense winds. The estimated peak storm tide in parts of eastern Long Island was 20 ft (6.1 m). A mean low water storm tide of 8 ft (2.4 m)
6889-496: Was worse, however; total damage there was stated to be $ 500,000 (1938 dollars, $ 6.5 million in 2005), which included the destruction of 10 bridges. Much of the lower downtown burned because floodwaters prevented firefighters from reaching and extinguishing the blaze. Other communities also suffered considerable damage to forest resources. In New Hampshire, 13 people perished. At Mt. Washington , winds gusted to 163 miles per hour (262 km/h) and knocked down part of
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