In September of 1938, I was beginning my junior year at Trinity College. I lived off campus in an apartment on Washington Street, about a block away from campus. Washington Street, like the college campus, had many elms and other trees on it. Because there was no warning that a hurricane was coming, most people assumed we were just having another rainstorm.

It was only when the trees began to fall, completely uprooted from the ground, that I, like most people, became alarmed.

In those days, trolley cars ran on both Broad Street and Washington Street. I was startled to discover that so many trees were down across the trolley tracks. Of course, the overhead wires were all down. Some of the stalled trolleys had trees down both in front of them and immediately behind them.

C. Duncan Yetman ’40
Trumbull, Connecticut

Classes didn’t start until a few days after the storm—I missed it. However, there were downed trees on the campus, and I thought it would be sensible to gather some wood for our dormitory fireplace. So, I borrowed a woodsman’s ax from the maintenance department and I chopped away. We had many delightful evenings— schoolmates, buss sessions, and roasted potatoes.

Paul J. Bilka ’40
Excelsior, Minnesota

In September ’38 I was at the start of my junior year. In the afternoon it began to rain pretty hard, and the wind began to pick up. Classmate Bob Flanders had a ’33 Ford, and we started out in it to see what was going on. We drove around, and the wind and rain strengthened. A tree would fall ahead of us, but we would go around it and continue on. We went up Broad Street and saw slates scaling off roofs. Signs were swinging and some came down. Still, we weren’t too concerned and took our time getting back to campus.

Lester Tibbals ’40
Princeton, New Jersey

Thursday, September 22: Strong wind continued to raise havoc. Because of the flooding, downed trees, no electricity, and no busses or trains running, there was no way to get out of town. So I waited a couple of days ‘til I could.

Friday, September 23: More rain, and ravaging flood damage was still heavy. We built a fire in the fireplace and cozied up close most of the day. What else could we do?

Saturday, September 24: Walk in more rain. Trinity football game cancelled due to hurricane conditions.

John T. Carpenter ’41
Shelburne, Vermont

I was a senior living in the Sigma Nu fraternity house at 78 Vernon Street. Trees were suddenly toppled and broke my window by my desk on the second floor where I was writing—a branch came into the room! The electric wires were crackling and flashing on the ground, so we could not go outside for some time.

The next day, most every Trinity student was asked to do relief work. Some went in motorboats to rescue families. I was in a group that sorted clothing for needy families at the Hartford High School gym.

Henry H. Hayden ’39
Claremont, California

John Fiske ’85 is a writer who became interested in the Portland, Connecticut, quarry when he learned that Trinity’s brownstone came from there. His interest in the Hurricane of ’38 is a spinoff from research he did on the quarry. The idea for his first novel, The Library Book, came from a marble quarry in Vermont.