Hurricane and Storm Risk in Westhampton Beach, New York

A Barrier-Beach Village Incorporated in 1928

Westhampton Beach incorporated as a village in 1928, within the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County, on Long Island's South Shore. That is a distinct incorporation date from the neighboring South Fork villages, Southampton Village in 1894 and Sagaponack in 2005, and it puts Westhampton Beach's founding squarely in the decade before the storm that would go on to define its history. The village is served by its own police, ambulance, and fire departments, and by the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District. Long Island Rail Road provides service via the Montauk Branch, and the village is reachable by Sunrise Highway (NY 27) and Montauk Highway (CR 80).

The village's total area is only 3.0 square miles, 2.9 square miles of land and 0.1 square miles of water, a notably small and narrow footprint that reflects its position on a barrier beach. The 2020 census recorded a population of 2,150, up from 1,902 in 2000. That 2000 census also recorded a median household income of $58,438, a median family income of $74,412, and roughly 9 percent of the population living below the poverty line; those are dated figures from a quarter-century ago and should not be read as current 2026 numbers. A narrow barrier-beach footprint, exposed on the open Atlantic side, is the physical fact that connects the village's incorporation, its storm history, and its ongoing erosion problem.

September 21, 1938: The Long Island Express

On September 21, 1938, the hurricane known as the Long Island Express struck Long Island's South Shore with little warning, since storm forecasting and communication in 1938 could not deliver the kind of advance notice coastal residents now expect from the National Hurricane Center. In Westhampton Beach specifically, the storm devastated the community, destroyed nearly all of the summer homes standing on the barrier beach, and caused twenty-nine deaths. That is a specific, documented toll for this village, not a regional estimate borrowed from Long Island as a whole.

This page presents the 1938 hurricane as fully resolved history: the storm happened, the barrier beach's summer housing stock was nearly wiped out, and the twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach are part of the settled historical record. It is not an ongoing dispute or an open question, and nothing about presenting that history is intended to suggest the same storm is recurring or imminent. It is, instead, the single most important piece of context for understanding why this particular barrier-beach village takes storm exposure as seriously as it does, and why the erosion and relocation history described below followed the path it did.

Because the 1938 storm predates the modern era of hurricane forecasting, satellite tracking, and evacuation planning, it is also a useful reminder of how much the tools available to coastal residents have changed. Today, NOAA and the National Hurricane Center track every named Atlantic storm well before landfall, and Suffolk County and the Town of Southampton maintain evacuation zones and shelter plans that did not exist in any organized form in 1938. Buyers evaluating a barrier-beach property here should use those modern resources directly rather than relying on any single historical event, however significant, to size current risk.

Beach Erosion Since the 1960s and the Mid-1990s House Relocation

Separate from the 1938 hurricane, Westhampton Beach has faced its own chronic erosion problem, one that became a critical issue beginning in the 1960s and has continued as an ongoing engineering reality ever since. Unlike the 1938 storm, this is not a single resolved event; it is a persistent condition that has shaped decades of shoreline management decisions in the village.

That erosion crisis produced one of the more striking responses found anywhere on Long Island's barrier beaches: in the mid-1990s, fifteen historic houses were physically relocated inland to save them from the eroding shoreline. Moving fifteen structures rather than losing them to the encroaching Atlantic is a concrete measure of how severe the erosion had become by that point, and it sets Westhampton Beach's erosion history apart from other Hamptons-area communities in degree, not just in kind.

The November 1992 Nor'easter and Renewed Army Corps Intervention

A nor'easter in November 1992 destroyed more than eighty homes in Westhampton Beach, a toll that prompted renewed intervention from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along this stretch of shoreline. That 1992 storm was not a hurricane, it was a nor'easter, but its damage total on this barrier beach was severe enough to draw the same kind of federal engineering response that hurricane damage typically prompts elsewhere.

The eighty-plus homes lost in November 1992 and the mid-1990s relocation of fifteen historic houses are connected parts of the same story: a barrier beach under sustained erosion pressure, met with both federal engineering intervention and, in the case of the historic houses, direct physical relocation. No specific dollar figure for the 1992 nor'easter's damage or for the cost of the house-relocation project was confirmed in the research behind this page, and none is invented here.

Hurricane Sandy, 2012: Additional Restoration Work

Hurricane Sandy made landfall in the region in 2012 and required additional restoration work along the Westhampton Beach shoreline, on top of the erosion-control and rebuilding work already underway from the 1960s-onward erosion crisis and the November 1992 nor'easter. Sandy's impact here should be read as one more chapter in an already long-running erosion story, not as a new or isolated event.

No confirmed, itemized dollar figure specific to Sandy's damage in Westhampton Beach was found in the research behind this page, beyond the fact that additional restoration work was required. Buyers who want storm-by-storm detail on Sandy's track and intensity near Long Island's South Shore should consult NOAA and the National Hurricane Center's historical storm archives directly rather than a secondhand summary.

Three Historic Properties on the National Register

Three sites in Westhampton Beach are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office. Their survival and continued listing is a useful marker of the village's layered history, sitting alongside, not in place of, the 1938 hurricane, the 1992 nor'easter, and the ongoing erosion story described above.

What We Could Not Find

This research did not turn up an exact current, 2026 home-price figure, property-tax rate, or flood-insurance premium specific to Westhampton Beach, and none is invented on this page. It also did not turn up any specific named local businesses, restaurants, or current Main Street retail listings, and none of those are invented here either. Any cost-related content on this page should be read as illustrative background rather than a current market figure, and any specific number a buyer needs should come from a professional working the market today, not from this page.

Likewise, no specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter's damage or for the mid-1990s house-relocation project's cost was confirmed, despite both being well-documented events in terms of what happened. That gap is a statement about the limits of this research pass, not a claim that no such figures exist anywhere.

Where to Verify Storm Risk and Evacuation Zones Directly

For historical storm tracks, including both the 1938 Long Island Express and Hurricane Sandy, start with NOAA and the National Hurricane Center's public storm archives, which maintain the verified, storm-by-storm record for the Atlantic basin. For current flood-zone status on a specific Westhampton Beach property, FEMA's Flood Map Service Center is the source of record. For evacuation zones, shelter locations, and current emergency planning, contact the Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management and the Town of Southampton's emergency management office directly, since Westhampton Beach is its own incorporated village within the town and zone boundaries and shelter designations can change over time.

A licensed New York insurance agent experienced with barrier-beach and oceanfront property is the right resource for current flood- and wind-insurance costs on a specific address. This page does not estimate a premium for Westhampton Beach, because no current, market-specific figure was confirmed in research, and a village with this particular erosion and storm history is exactly the kind of place where an actual quote matters more than an estimate.

What Is Confirmed, What Is Not, and What to Verify Directly

What is confirmed here: Westhampton Beach incorporated as a village in 1928 within the Town of Southampton, on a barrier-beach footprint of 3.0 square miles; the September 21, 1938 Long Island Express hurricane devastated the community, destroyed nearly all summer homes on the barrier beach, and caused twenty-nine deaths in Westhampton Beach specifically; beach erosion became a chronic, critical issue beginning in the 1960s; a November 1992 nor'easter destroyed more than eighty homes and prompted renewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers intervention; fifteen historic houses were relocated inland in the mid-1990s to escape the eroding shoreline; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 required additional shoreline restoration work; and three sites, the Crowther House, the Foster-Meeker House, and the U.S. Post Office, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 2020 census population was 2,150, up from 1,902 in 2000.

What we could not find, and will not invent: any exact current 2026 home-price, property-tax-rate, or flood-insurance figure specific to Westhampton Beach; any specific dollar figure for the November 1992 nor'easter's damage or the mid-1990s house-relocation project's cost; and any specific named local businesses or current retail listings. This page also does not reuse Montauk's lighthouse, Carl Fisher, or Camp Hero material; East Hampton Village and Amagansett's 1648 founding, Devon Colony, or 1942 saboteur-landing material; or Southampton Village, Bridgehampton, and Sagaponack's 1640-era founding and three-governance-structures material, all of which belong to other, independently reported markets on this site. Confirm historical storm tracks with NOAA and the National Hurricane Center, current flood-zone status with FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, evacuation zones and shelter information with the Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management and the Town of Southampton, and current insurance costs with a licensed New York agent before making any purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, insurance, or financial advice.