In September, 1938 an upper air disturbance took shape high above the sands of the Sahara Desert, producing a tropical depression that gathered steam crossing the Atlantic Ocean before slamming into Long Island, New York. Weather experts had expected the storm to head back out to sea, as every big coastal storm had done for the prior 100 years. But these winds had other plans. The hurricane veered inland and north, killing nearly 700 people along the way. As it powered straight up the Connecticut River, its dangerous eastern flank passed directly over the Keene Area.
This is the story of what the experience was like in the Monadnock Region, during and after the storm, told through the recollections of people who lived here.
The Reflections project, launched in the fall of 2007, is a collaborative oral history undertaking involving Cheshire Television, the Historical Society of Cheshire County, the Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce University, the Keene Public Library, the Keene Sentinel and Keene State College.
The producer of Reflections films is the Keene Public Library, 60 Winter Street, Keene NH.