1935-1939

1935

I'm not sure what the worst storm to strike the US is. By death toll? Galveston, 1900. By cost? Katrina. But the hurricane I'd least want to be in, the most ferocious hurricane to strike the US, must be the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, which made landfall with 185 mph winds on the Florida Keys. At those wind speeds - it's like being in a tornado, except the tornado is exceedingly large and you're in it for hours. It must have been hell. The storm destroyed the local railroad and killed many people who were working on what later became US Route 1. The storm was the third most intense Atlantic hurricane ever (behind Gilbert and Wilma) and the most intense landfalling US hurricane ever.

A bit of comic relief: the Yankee hurricane, which like the people from damn Yankee land came to south Florida from the northeast in November. Wiki sez the damages reached nearly a trillion dollars, which I doubt somehow.

1936

This was one of those seasons that produces a fair amount of storms (sixteen) but not many are strong. The most severe was probably a Cat-3 that grazed the Outer Banks and passed quite close to the northeast US coast, but little is known about it. It was quite damaging to the Outer Banks but few people lived there then or now.

1937

The extratropical remnants of one hurricane (still with hurricane force winds) hit Nova Scotia. Other than that nothing else really happened.

1938

The New England hurricane, or Long Island Express, was the worst hurricane of the 20th century for that area of the country. The storm was a Cat-5 at its peak and recurved around the Bahamas, but instead of going northeast and safely out to sea, the storm zoomed north (it's the fastest hurricane on record) and struck Long Island, Connecticut, and Rhode Island with a massive storm surge and Cat-3 winds. It was a sudden storm - the day started nice and the storm hit in the afternoon. There was no warning of the storm. Several hundred people died and some communities were abandoned. 13 feet of water flooded downtown Providence.

1939

Not much in this season. This was probably the worst storm of the season for the US. It did cause some damage in Florida and Alabama from flooding.