Final

New London

In 1646 New London, CT was established. It was named after London, England. New London was originally a whaling town that is why there are whales throughout the whole town. It is located just under an hour away from the state capital. And less than 25 from Rode Island. Located on the corner of The Thames River and Long Island sound is one of the biggest cities in the state. Something that makes New London different from other cities is this town has been rebuilt, not always from the ground up, but still rebuilt a lot in the town’s history.

One of the first times New London was built was because it was burned down by a man named Benedict Arnold, who was British, and betrayed the Americans. New London holds one of the few famous forts in countries history, Fort Trumbull. He burned the fort down along with the city. He killed many people and destroyed the city. It took a few years but the rebuilt the town and the fort.

The next big disaster that had a huge impact on the town was the hurricane of 1938. This hurricane is considered the state’s worst natural disaster of the 20^th century. It happened on September 21^st.  Residents of the town didn’t know the hurricane was coming because of inaccurate weather forecasts. It ripped through the town and took out many homes, buildings, and caused a huge number of deaths. What is now known as Ocean Beach was once beach front property. Many homes were there and after the hurricane none remained. There are many pictures of the town before and after, and it is amazing to see what the town did to rebuild itself. Boats, big ferry sized and even bigger ones, crashed up through the docks and were land driven. It was a terrible disaster.

Since this hurricane, two more big ones have occurred; Hurricane Irene and the following year, Hurricane Sandy. Irene arrived in 2011, knocking out power in the town for almost a week. It destroyed houses and other buildings. Not as bad as the 1938 hurricane though. And in 2012 Hurricane Sandy came through. It tore up beaches and some buildings. One of the saddest parts of the town that was destroyed was row of beaches that were all one beach but separated into four. Now a year later, it is still not fixed yet and back to its original form.

The town has now taken a lot more cautions since these two hurricanes to be more prepared for future ones. The town is good when it comes to losing power. And houses near the beaches are boarded up more carefully. There is really nothing the town hasn’t gone through that it come back from. Years later this town will still be running and always rebuild itself after anything that happens to it.