A look back at the worst hurricanes in Connecticut history
From June to November, Connecticut residents experience hurricane season, but some years are worse than others.
Earlier this summer, tropical storm Elsa hit Connecticut andcaused power outages in thousands of homes across the state. However, last year's tropical storm Isaias heavily affected state residents. Hitting early August, Isaias damaged power lines, utility poles and trees. Tropical storm Isaias caused over 750,000 power outages in the state, with some residentsnot having powerfor a week.
As tropical storm Henri strengthens to a hurricane, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer some tips to get ready for a storm: gathering emergency supplies, getting gas for your car and preparing in case of an evacuation.
"Just in case, you need a hurricane plan in place, especially if you live in a flood prone area that you may have to evacuate," Dan Kottlowski, Senior Meteorologist at AccuWeather, told Hearst Connecticut Media in a previous interview. "Don’t wait until the last minute."
The most damaging storms turn into hurricanes with winds of more than 74 mphlike the hurricane of September 1938, considered by weather experts to be the worst storm to ever hit New England. The day it landed, the Associated Press reported that a “tropical hurricane” was heading
towards the Northeast, but this was before the advance of forecasting technology. When the hurricane struck the coast, it took nearly everyone by surprise.
"The 1938 [hurricane] was one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit New England," said Kottlowski. "It was a fast-moving hurricane and caught a lot of people off guard. When the storm started accelerating, it caused a huge storm surge that we've never seen in modern history in New England.”
Most of the destruction was caused by water and the worst damage was right along the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island.Almost 700 people died and more than 60,000 people lost their homes, according
to news reports.
In 1954, Hurricane Carol hit the state, killing 72 people and causing an estimated
$460 million in damages in today's dollars.Tropical storm Diane ravaged the coast of New England a
year later, unleashing some of the most devastating floods the region has seen and killing dozens of people.
Many in Connecticut still remember the day Hurricane Gloria made landfall in Southwestern Connecticut on September 27, 1985. Its winds and rains destroyed hundreds of homes from Westport to Milford. News reports spoke of at least eight people killed and thousands homeless.
Hurricanes Irene and Sandy rank among the deadliest and costliest
storms in recent memory. Irene, which struck in late August 2011,will long be remembered for its widespread damage from the Caribbean to Canada. Multiple states along the East Coast declared states of emergency and hundreds of thousands of people had to evacuate or lost their homes in the aftermath of the hurricane.In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy inundated many Connecticut coastal towns and was responsible for more than 110 deaths throughoutthe U.S.