BOSTON—Hurricanes may strike the Northeast far less frequently than they do Florida and Gulf Coast states, but they can leave considerable destruction when they do hit New England and the Middle Atlantic states.

Peter Dailey, assistant vp and director of atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide Corp. in Boston, noted that a repeat of what is known as the Long Island Express hurricane of 1938—killing about 600 people and causing $400 million in damage to parts of Long Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—would cause about $33 billion in insured damage if it happened today.

During an interview at the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.'s annual conference in Boston last month, Mr. Dailey said reliable records about hurricanes, which go back about a century, show that hurricanes of all categories make landfall in the Northeast every five to 10 years, with New England having to cope with a hurricane about once every decade.

“The risk is significant; and just because there hasn't been one in the past 10 years does not mean the risk has gone away,” Mr. Dailey said. “More importantly, the fact that time elapsed since a hurricane landfall in the Northeast, it's sort of human nature to discount the risk.”

According to a history of New England hurricanes on the website of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Long Island Express, which is also called the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, was the most destructive New England storm dating back to 1635, when a hurricane left more than 40 people dead between Boston and Plymouth.

Hurricane Carol, which struck in 1954, killed 68 and caused an estimated $461 million in damage, according to the state public safety office. Hurricane Edna followed less than two weeks later, killing 29 and adding $40 million to the hurricane damage for the year.

The last major hurricane to strike New England was Hurricane Bob in August 1991. The storm killed 18 people and caused $2.5 billion in damage, $1 billion of which was in southern New England.

The names Carol, Edna and Bob have been dropped from the list of names bestowed on hurricanes because of the destruction the storms caused.