The barrier design was established through cooperation with the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Beach Erosion Board affiliated with the Texas Research Foundation of Texas A&M University. The basis for the design storm was the transformation of the September 1944 hurricane. This storm, when it was off the Cape Hatteras, N.C. coast, had the greatest energy of any known hurricane along the Atlantic coast. The 1944 storm was transposed so that it would be entirely over water between Cape Hatteras and the New England coast, resulting in a central pressure of 27.8 in. mercury near the mouth of Narragansett Bay, Buzzards Bay, and Long Island Sound. The transposed storm was moved northerly with a forward speed of about 40 knots along a track passing over New England 49 nautical miles west of Montauk Point, Long Island, creating sustained winds of 90 mph at the mouth of Long Island Sound and 55 mph from the southwest quadrant at the Stamford location in western Long Island Sound. Within Long Island Sound, at Stamford, a tide surge associated with this storm was computed to be 10.4 ft. This surge was added to the mean spring high water elevation of 4.4 Ft-NGVD, resulting in a 14.8 Ft-NGVD stillwater elevation. It was further determined that wave heights associated with this storm would be on the order of about 2.0 ft at time of peak surge resulting in a top of barrier elevation of 17.0 Ft-NGVD. A 14.8 Ft-NGVD design stillwater elevation is slightly greater than a 500-year tide level.