The ruin caused by the hurricane took years to quantify. There are losses of life, property, economy, and ecology all on a devastating scale. Related to the landfall of a hurricane, is the damage brought on by storm surge and to inland flooding, the latter impacting an area long after a storm departs.

The Great Hurricane of 1938 caused 682 deaths, and seriously injured over 1700 people (Scotti, 2004). Serious damage occurred to more than 200,000 buildings (Morang, 1999), and thousands of boats either destroyed at sea or after heaved on shore (MEMA, 2008). Nearly every railroad line and junction through southern New England was crippled, not the least of the problems was the large Coast Guard ship Tulip brought on shore and laid across the tracks (New Haven, 1938). A recent study also compared the damage to a whole litany of EF-1 to EF-3 tornadoes striking every state in New England (Muir-Wood et al, 2004).

The inundation was severe as well, setting high surge marks and high water marks at just about all respective rivers, bays, and inlets (Tannehill, 1938). The surge was experienced from NJ (8.2 feet at Sandy Hook), through to NY (6.4 feet at the Battery), all the way over in severest form to the shores of MA and RI. Storm surge can get amplified through channeling landscapes and seabed shelf layouts, and the 1938 Hurricane was able to bring 12-14 feet of water (with actual waves overtop) to downtown Providence, (Spaulding et al, 2007). Some places had water moving in at levels 25 feet higher than average (Tannehill, 1938). 70 years and many storms later, the inland deluge from the hurricane is still the flooding to beat on rivers like the Chicopee River in Massachusetts, the Walloomsac River in Vermont, and the Connecticut River at East Hartford (AHPS, 2008).

The estimated insured losses, at the time declared to be around 400-600 million dollars, earned the storm the title: "America's Costliest Disaster"-- greater at the time than the Galveston hurricane of 1900, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and the Chicago fire of 1871 (Pierce, 1939). Comparing past storms to present day normals of inflation, home construction, etc. is often a difficult one. Some estimates rank the Great Hurricane of 1938 as the 6th most damaging of all storms in US history (Pielke et al, 2005), though it can be as high as #3 on the list, because of the difficulties of adjusting for inflation before the 1929 stock market crash, and the incomparable differences with improving building codes (Curry, 2007). Nevertheless, for it's location and hurricane Category, this storm is the top performer and destroyer.

Perhaps the best way to respect the conquest of the 1938 hurricane across New England, would be to surmise what would be the result if it struck again. This way the realness of loss in today's present times may be better understood. A recent simulation of a recurrence of the 1938 hurricane to New England would yield a more than 35 billion-dollar devastation, with total economic losses approaching double that (AIR, 2006). The storm's impressive forward speed a large reason why severe damage is wrought throughout New England, whereas a much slower gulf-coast storm would perhaps more severely devastate a smaller area.

Other things this storm did will never be comparable to future storms: ecological losses, permanent coastal alterations, and generational forest changes. The hurricane was able to bring salt-laden sea-water up through to ponds and lakes, parking it there long after it's rapid 1-day journey, and the resulting salinity was noted for killing off some fresh-water species of those areas (Rogick, 1941). All manner of birds from other lands were blown in, far from their original habitats (Cruickshank, 1939). The hurricane's momentous surge and rip-tides created new inlets near Falmouth and Mashpee, MA (Howes et al, 2004). It also was responsible for establishing the Shinnecock Inlet (Morang, 1999), and messing with other channels, spits, sandbars, and inlets from there all the way over to New Jersey (Donnelly et al, 2004). The hurricane destroyed as much as 70% or more of the standing canopy of New England forests, and decades later they are left unsatisfactorily replenished by a different make-up of trees (Weishampel et al, 2007).

Necessary improvements and safeguards inspired by the storm to protect people from future similar events will no doubt attempt to lessen the impact of a future event, if only at the shoreline and riverbanks. The Great Hurricane of 1938 has represented a benchmark for storm surge barriers and levees alike (Spaulding et al, 2007). Still, the explosion in population, property values, and personal wealth, from the shoreline straight to the Canadian border make these protections all the more necessary to mitigate some future devastation at the hands of a similar storm.