The 1938 hurricane was so devastating partly because nobody had any inkling that it was bearing down on them. On Thursday, November 17, from 7 – 8:30 at the Arnold Arboretum, journalist and natural historian Stephen Long will show why that happened and place this storm within a historical context of New England hurricanes before and since.

Until now, the hurricane’s damage to the region’s forests and the people who relied on them has gone largely unexamined. Long’s talk will focus on these forests and the people of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont who were faced with acre after acre of blown down trees. Throughout this talk, eyewitness accounts and archival photos will illuminate this most destructive weather event to ever hit New England. Long’s book, Thirty-Eight: The Hurricane that Transformed New England, will be available for purchase and signing. Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.