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Katharine Hepburn amid the remains of her home in Old Saybrook after the Hurricane of 38.Shoreline Times

Strandway on Sep. 21, 1938 in South Boston shows tremendous of 100-mile-an-hour hurricane which struck New England causing at least seven deaths and property damage estimated in the millions. (AP Photo) ( Boston Hurricane 1938 )

Surf pounds away at a sidewalk in Milford during the storm.

The tide tore away the railroad tracks in New Haven.

Barometer from Chester - 1938 Hurricane

A utility pole falls across Route 5 as a car tries to make its way by.

Middletown Ave. in Hamden.

Yachts were parked on Main Street in Stony Creek as casually as if they were cars on the morning after the storm.

This scene in Madison was emblematic of the damage in front yards throughout the state.

This car on Cherry Street in Milford was one of several hundred damaged in the storm.

Old Sayrook - Hurricane of 1938.

The Congregational Church in Madison was one of the few churches throughout the state to escape serious harm.

Hurricane of 1938 -Boat washed ashore in Essex, CT.

Grovebeach, Clinton - Hurricane of 1938

Katharine Hepburn amid the remains of her home in Old Saybrook after the Hurricane of 38.Shoreline Times

OLd Lyme - Hurricane of 1938.

This house on Plum Beach in Saybrook was on an angle typical of houses along the shoreline.

Katharine Hepburn amid the remains of her home in Old Saybrook after the Hurricane of 38.Shoreline Times

Katharine Hepburn amid the remains of her home in Old Saybrook after the Hurricane of 38.Shoreline Times

Tidal waves crushed and dented houses in Stony Creek.

The tide in Westbrook came far enough inland to damage property far away from Stannard Beach, which is in the distand background in this photo.

A house in West Haven is badly damaged.

Old Saybrook - Hurricane of 1938.

Destruction at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Bassett Street in New Haven.

Old Saybrook - Hurricane of 1938.

Dozens of cottages along Hawk's Nest Beach in Old Lyme were destroyed.

Old Saybrook - Hurricane of 1938.

Old Saybrook - Hurricane of 1938.

Houses along the beach in Clinton were gutted.

The Madison Club in Madison and surrounding houses were badly damaged.

Wreckage along the waterfront in New London.

Boats and piers at New London, Conn., are a mess of broken wreckage after the hurricanes. Fire at the height of the storm added to the terror and destroyed a quarter of a square mile of the business district, Sept. 12, 1938. Sights like this were common all along the coast, as new New England faced a cleanup job which took weeks. (AP Photo) ( Hurricane Wreckage )

Of more than 500 cottages on Misquamicut Beach just over the state line in Westerly, RI., five remained standing after the hurricane.

Two 175-foot Menhaden trawlers' bows were well over the piers in New London, with their sterns scraping bottom.

The fishing boat "Nellie" on the tracks of the New Haven, Hartford Railroad.

A photo taken by photographers at The Day of New London shows a fire that broke out in the wake of the storm.

A photo from The Day of New London shows a host of downed trees on Chapel Street in the city's Pequot section.

Huge trees like this one, in an unidentified location, fell into historic houses throughout the state.

The storm wreaked havoc on the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown, blowing the steeple off of the campus chapel.

Hundreds of homes in East Hartford when the Connecticut River flooded.

Houses were toppled along Crescent Beach in Niantic.

Carriages and homes indiscriminately mixed at Watch Hill in Westerly, R.I., where many residents narrowly avoided drowning.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

The debris in the foreground is all that remained of a cigarette factory in Fort Neck, where it was hard to tell what had been a ship and what had been a building.

Volunteers help an elderly couple in Middletown in the wake of the storm.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938

Part of the wreckage at Swift Beach near Wareham, Mass.

A hurricane barrier is under construction in Providence, R.I. in September of 1963, 25 years after the Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Flood waters rage in Providence, R.I. at the height of the storm.

A photo taken from the newly built Middletown-Portland bridge over the Connecticut River shows flooding around Strong & Hale Lumber Co.

Hurricane of 1938.

Tobacco growers in the Connecticut River Valley suffered huge losses as the hurricane tore down the sheds used for the drying of tobacco. The sheds pictured here are in Somers.

A tree on the grounds of the Felecian Convent in Enfield was snapped by the force of the hurricane.

Workers repair a gaping hole in the road in Stafford left by the hurricane.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

All the road that was left of the New Haven Railroad freight station in Windsor Locks.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

Hurricane of 1938.

The business section in Hartford (left) was heavily flooded, as was East Hartford (right.)

Flooding in the Connecticut River wreaked havoc on Middletown, Portland and Cromwell.

Wreckage in New London.

Rampant flooding in Hartford.

Hurricane of 1938.

The tide drove the fishing boat "Nellie" onto the train tracks in New Haven.

The ship "Marsala" in the New London harbor. The ship started a massive fire when its long beak stuck into a building.

The waterfront near the New London train station was in shambles after the storm.

Flood waters were at their crest in the 1938 New England hurricane when this photo was made on Sep. 21, in Providence, R.I. Dockhouses float or stand inundated near the railroad bridge over the Seekonk River. A tog lies wrecked in the bridge's crib work. People and property were swept into the river by winds with gusts up to 186 miles an hour, and carried away. At loast 600 were left dead in New England when the storm passed on after several hours of mad fury. (AP Photo) ( Flood Waters )

Scattered over the landscape as if some giant wand had spilled a box of matches is this Westhampton, N.Y. summer residence. The hurricane winds which struck on Sep. 21, 1938 in Long Island . The Rowboat, center right absurdly deposited in someone's yard. (AP Photo) ( Long Island Hurricane 1938 )

Houses along Shennecossett Beach in Groton before the school.