Hurricane history: The mid-May event of 1951

 

By Jane Feehan

A look back at a 1951 pre-season hurricane may be of interest during these times of "worst ever" and "first time" weather assessments.

A “lusty pre-season hurricane” materialized in the Bahamas mid-May 1951 that slammed the northern fringe of that island chain with 90 mph winds. The heaviest winds struck Walker Cay Club off the Abacos, about 160 miles northeast of Miami.

Little, if any, damage was reported but a rocket range construction crew was driven away from a site on Grand Bahama Island by 75 mph winds. The construction team was building an observation post for the guided missile long range proving ground base at Cape Canaveral.

The cyclone was unofficially referred to as “Able” using the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet. It moved northeast, skirting the North Carolina coast. No other hurricanes made landfall along the U.S. coastline that year. 

Hurricane damage 1926
Florida State Archives

Back then hurricane season started June 15 when the U.S. Weather Bureau began tracking tropical cyclones. 

The date for hurricane season to start was changed in 1965 to June 1.

Hurricanes were not officially named until 1953 when the National Hurricane Center began organizing and keeping lists of names. Today, lists of names for hurricanes are maintained and updated by a committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

For Florida hurricane history, use search box (most intense or hurricane history)

Copyright © 2020, 2022. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

_________

Sources:
Palm Beach Post, May 19, 1951
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history_printer.shtml#new

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml


Tags: hurricane history, 1926 hurricane, Great hurricane of 1926

Second deadliest U.S. hurricane hit South Florida 1928

Flagler Boulevard under water 1928
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

The Hurricane of 1928 or Okeechobee hurricane is ranked as the second deadliest in U.S. history, topped only by the 1900 Galveston hurricane, which killed about 8,000.

The 1928 storm spun off the African coast near Cape Verde in early September. It gathered strength crossing the Atlantic, then slammed into Guadaloupe, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas, killing 900. During the early evening hours of September 16, the 130-mile-wide storm barreled into the Florida coast between Jupiter and Boca Raton.

Coffins Belle Glade 1928
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

A storm surge 10-20 feet hit Palm Beach as the hurricane tramped westward into the farming region of Lake Okeechobee. Winds were estimated at 145 mph. Some say gusts measured up to 160 mph. A barometer in West Palm Beach plunged to 27.43, the lowest ever recorded to that time. A category 4 storm, it pushed water out of Lake Okeechobee into an area 75 miles long and six feet deep. The six-foot mud dike bordering the lake succumbed easily to the storm’s wrath.

The first day after the storm 50 people were estimated dead. (Population of South Florida then was about 50,000.) The official record eventually grew to more than 1,800 but many knew that number was inaccurate. In the blistering sun, the dead were buried quickly in mass graves. One of the mass graves was dug at Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street in West Palm Beach and now bears a State of Florida historical marker. Three fourths of the dead were non-white farm workers. (Well-known Fort Lauderdale builder Ed King, living at the lake, died as he tried to rescue two children.)

For years, farmers in the area continued to uncover human bones left by the 1928 hurricane – enough to justify a corrected death toll. In 2003 the official death number was raised to 2,500. Many say there were more who perished … all say the toll will never be known.

The mud dike was replaced by a 30-foot wall, the Hoover Dike (President Hoover visited). It hasn’t been tested by a category 4 or 5 hurricane and is in need of frequent maintenance. The storm caused $25 million in damage or $16 billion in today’s dollars. Hurricane Katrina’s damage was well over $100 billion.

Lantana 1928 hurricane
Florida State Archives

According to the National Hurricane Center’s publication, The Deadliest, Costliest, and most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones from 1851 to 2006, “sociologists estimate that people only remember the worst effects of a hurricane for about seven years.” An exception to that may be the Lake Okeechobee farmers who came across so many human remains for decades after the disaster.

______________________

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Sources:

National Hurricane Center:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/nws-nhc-6.pdf

THE DEADLIEST, COSTLIEST, AND MOST INTENSE UNITED STATES TROPICAL CYCLONES FROM 1851 TO 2010 (AND OTHER FREQUENTLY REQUESTED HURRICANE FACTS), 2007.

3. McIver, Stuart. Glimpses of South Florida History. Miami: Florida Flair Books, 1988.

Tags: Florida hurricane history, Florida history, Ed King, Lake Okeechobee

This hurricane remains the most intense to hit US; it's not Camille, Andrew or ...

Searching for bodies in
Upper Matecumbe Key, 1935
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

For many today, Hurricane Katrina established a reference point, a certain consciousness about extremes in weather. With all its notoriety, Katrina holds top place on the list of hurricanes recorded since 1851 in one National Hurricane Center category*: the costliest to hit the U.S. with recovery expenses surpassing $120 billion.

The most intense storm to make U.S. landfall is the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. With a pressure of 892 mbar, this storm's winds were recorded as high as 200 mph in pockets. A 2012 recalculation officially upped winds from 160 mph to 185 mph at landfall, close to those estimated of Hurricane Camille (900-909 mbar); winds were estimated because recording equipment was destroyed.  (Hurricane Dorian in 2019 hit the Bahamas with a low pressure of 913 mbar.)

Weather observers in Miami and Havana tracked a storm nearing Andros Island in the Bahamas on Sunday, September 1, 1935. Forecasters did not expect it to strengthen above 75 miles mph on a path between Cuba and Key West. Weather predicting was a primitive science then. 

The next day it developed into a vicious Category 5 and headed for the middle Keys, the Matecumbes, where hundreds of World War I vets were encamped in flimsy tents and shacks. They were building the Overseas Highway to Key West as part of a work program during the Depression. Because of the holiday, many laborers were already gone but about 200 remained. 

Warnings went out about 2:30 p.m. September 2, but there was little anyone could do except send a rescue train owned by the Florida East Coast railroad. The train, Engine 447, driven by a very brave J.J. Haycraft reached the camps at about 8 p.m., the height of the storm. Frightened men, women and children struggled to board in the dark.  Within minutes after all were safely inside, a wave reaching an estimated 18-20 feet swept over the train, knocking it off tracks and filling coaches with water. Most thought they were about to die.

Train overturned by 20-ft wave
State of Florida Archives

Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt on Engine 447 but 414 vets and residents living in the Matecumbes lost their lives that day. Some say the death toll was closer to 600. Writer Ernest Hemmingway, living in Key West at the time, was a member of the first rescue party; his description of the hurricane’s aftermath is graphic, sickening. 

A very small storm, the eye of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane was estimated to be eight miles in diameter with bands extending 30 miles across. Barometric pressure, the measure of intensity, was recorded at 26.35 inches or 892 millibars after it hit land. Hurricane Camille’s (1969) pressure was 26.84 inches or 909 millibars when it struck Mississippi. Katrina ranks just below Camille with a pressure of 27.17 or 920 millibars. 

Wilma in 2005 dropped to 882 mb, lowest recorded in the Atlantic Basin, but before reaching land its pressure rose giving it a Cat 3 status. Other storms may have had lower pressure scores but also while at sea before land fall.  

Also of interest: The 1935 storm, as did Hurricane Andrew in 1992, occurred in a year of below-average activity. Andrew’s official  pressure was 27.23 inches or 922 millibars.

The deadliest storm to hit the U.S. was the Galveston hurricane of 1900 that took about 8,000 lives.

* NHC categorizes deadliest, costliest and most intense (strongest). See report below.
Copyright © 2012, 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan. 

______ 

Sources:

NOAA. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Tropical Cyclones From 1851 TO 2010 (and other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts) at:  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/nws-nhc-6.pdf

Standiford, Les. The Last Train to Paradise. New York: Crown Publishers (2002)

Miami News, Sept. 3, 1935

Miami News, Sept. 4, 1935

Tags: Florida hurricanes, most intense hurricane, strongest hurricane, hurricane history, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Overseas Highway, category 5 hurricane, film researcher

Telling "Truth about Florida" and the land boom ... until the 1926 hurricane calamity

 

Aftermath: Miami garage damage Sept. 18, 1926
Florida State Archives/Nulton (1906-1999)

By Jane Feehan

Florida’s land boom made Northern bankers nervous during the early 1920s. Their banks were being drained of millions of dollars to fund Florida dreams. Bankers banded together to pay for ads in the New York Times and other newspapers warning about the dangers of speculation and likelihood of a bust.

Anxious to keep the money spigot open in 1925,  Florida Governor John W. Martin (1884-1958)  brought a group of respected businessmen to New York to downplay notions about speculation in a “Truth about Florida” meeting at the Waldorf Astoria with media and bankers.

Afterward, Florida businessmen established “Truth about Florida” committees to raise money to pay for advertisements in northern newspapers to counter bad publicity about the boom.

George E. Merrick (1886-1942), developer of Coral Gables, one of the first planned communities in the United States, announced in June, 1926 that his city would raise $1,000,000 “to get the message across to 110,000,000 people of the U.S.* that they should be informed of the real truth about Florida.”   He also suggested that the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce raise $1.5 million for the same cause. 

By the end of 1926, northern bankers ceased their ad campaign but the Truth about Florida committees could not claim success. Two hurricanes filled the Everglades with water, dampening dreams about development there and along the coast. The boom quickly receded like the seas before a dangerous tidal wave, taking with it the Truth about Florida campaign.

* Merrick also paid William Jennings Bryan $100, 000 to sell Coral Gables land. See:
https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/silver-tongued-orator-william-jennings.html

 Burnett, Gene M. Florida’s Past: People and events that shaped the state. Sarasota: Pineapple Press (1997), p. 160.

Miami News, Nov. 13, 1925

Miami News, June 9, 1926

Wikipedia.org

Tags: South Florida in the 1920s, Florida history, South Florida real estate boom, George E. Merrick, Gov. John W. Martin, Jane Feehan, film researcher

Fort Lauderdale and its last direct hurricane hit - the year may surprise you

Hurricane aftermath
Andrews Avenue 1947
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale gets hit by a hurricane every 2.85 years, according to Hurricane.com. With that frequency, it’s worth noting the last direct hit on this city from the Atlantic was in 1947. There has been significant damage from hurricanes over the years (Wilma 2005, Cleo 1964, Betsy 1965, see below)* but none since 1947 have taken a direct swipe at Fort Lauderdale from the east.

Before the September 1947 hurricane, South Florida had already experienced an unusually wet rainy season; it couldn’t take much more precipitation. And then came the September ‘cane.  

The storm probably developed over French West Africa before its track was picked up in the Atlantic on its way to the Bahamas and Fort Lauderdale (satellite tracking first available in 1967). On September 17, winds were measured at 155 mph at the Hillsboro Lighthouse. Damage was light compared to the 1926 storm but problems were generated by eight inches of water the storm left atop an already saturated water table. New River came over its banks and sat … and then a second hurricane hit.

Though milder, an October hurricane dropped another 11 inches of rain in three hours. Knee - to waist-deep water settled in downtown Fort Lauderdale, flooding businesses and homes. By air, South Florida appeared to be a lake stretching from the ocean west to Collier County.   Some said they could take a boat from Fort Lauderdale to Naples for six weeks. Farm lands were devastated, highways were closed. The water finally receded by Christmas that year.

Part of the legacy of the flooding of ’47 was the South Florida Water Management District created in 1948.  Some note that since it was established, there hasn’t been a major flood of the scope of the 1947 event. Nor has there been a direct hit on Fort Lauderdale (now overpopulated, overdeveloped) from a powerful hurricane with catastrophic storm surge. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. 

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* Wilma came from the west; Cleo and Betsy from the south. In 2017 the large Hurricane Irma hit Florida's southwest coast and moved north; its large wind field grazed Fort Lauderdale.

 _____

Flooded neighborhoods after Fort Lauderdale 1947 hurricane
State of Florida Archives

Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

Weidling, Philip J., Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/centennial/fl-100-anniversary-1940s-20110318,0,1548618.story

Tags: Hurricane history, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, last direct hurricane hit Fort Lauderdale, history of Fort Lauderdale

Hurricane history snapshot may hold surprises

Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy,
near Breezy Point, NY

By Jane Feehan

The North Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. Always cause for speculation by the media, government, and the public, hurricanes are the topic of discussion for six months a year. 

Many tend to contrast and compare seasons in their life time, but weather history (and climatological history) has a backdrop of many decades and centuries.

Official hurricane tracking, however, spans a comparatively short time though an early printed weather map showed a hurricane off the U.S. coast between Jacksonville and Savannah Sept. 28, 1874. 

Early reporting came via oral accounts of local conditions. Decades later, ship radios played a key role in transmitting storm conditions and information from sea. Aircraft reconnaisance began in the mid 1940s. The first satellite for hurricane observation was deployed for the 1967 season.

Statistics for damage costs go up each decade, in part because more people live on coastlines and construction costs may rise each decade, if not year.

1. Hurricane deaths: most then, as now, die of drowning.

Most deaths:
Great Hurricane, mid-October 1780 in the Lesser Antilles: 22,000
9,000 died in Martinique
4,000-5,000 in St. Eustatius
4,326- Barbados

Thousands off shore

Also before the 20th century (and there were several, but stats not official):
Cheniere Caminada Hurricane, 1893, also known as Great October Storm
770 died in Louisiana
An estimated 2,000 died in Mississippi

Most US deaths 20th century:
Galveston Hurricane, Aug 27, 1900: official number is “at least” 8,000 with some estimates at 12,000

Second Deadliest in US 20th century:
Hurricane of 1928 or Okeechobee hurricane

2,500 deaths - official count as of 2003. Unofficially, the number exceeds 3,000. Bones of human remains continue to be recovered in rural areas.

Three others-not US- most deaths attributed to:
Aug. 25, 1930-Dominican Republic - about 8,000 died

Oct. 2, 1963-Flora in Haiti and Cuba - about 7,000 deaths
Sept. 18, 1974-Fifi in Honduras - between 3,000 and 10,000 deaths 

2. Forecasting Errors. There are many variables in forecast accuracy but there seems to be a correlation in: 

Years dominated by hurricanes or tropical storms that move through the low latitude easterly trade winds typically hold the lowest number of forecast errors.

Years in which hurricanes or tropical storms move through the mid-latitude westerlies (as during El Nino years) hold the largest number of errors.

3. Worst decades for Florida hurricanes:

1940-49: 10 hurricanes

1920-29:   8

1960-69:   8

2000-09:   7
2010-19:   3 and several near misses and tropical storms. Irma in 2017, Cat 5 Michael in 2018. 

Hurricane Ian of 2022, a Cat 5, was the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida since the 1935 storm, with a 161 deaths. 

4. Number of hurricanes to strike mainland U.S. each decade. A report is not yet published for the post 2004 decade. "Most-ever" assessments of all Atlantic tropical storms when basin activity couldn't be widely observed and measured accurately until the satellite era are questionable. Since 2000, another metric--Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE)--is also reported. This metric was developed by William Gray and his associates at Colorado State University during the 1990s. 

U.S. hurricane strikes by decade:

         

Years since 2004
Below are highlights only, not complete analyses, of Atlantic hurricane season summaries produced by the National Hurricane Center and Statista. Numbers change at times depending on new data, thus a delay in complete reporting.

2005
There were 28 named storms, 15 hurricanes, seven major and four hit the US. Since reliable records began around the middle of the 20th century (1944) only one season had exceeded 20 named (no names then but classified) storms before 1944 and that was 1933.

2012 

Two destructive hurricanes hit the US: Sandy and Isaac.

 The season ranks "above nornal, but not exceptionally so."

2017
Three major hurricanes struck the US in 2017: Harvey, Irma and Maria

2018
Two hurricanes, Florence and Michael made U.S. landfall (and two of tropical-storm strength) in 2018. That year, the North Atlantic hurricane season saw 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. This is above the 1981-2010 average of 12.1 named storms, 6.4 hurricanes, and 2.7 major hurricanes. The number of named storms ranked as a tie for the tenth most on record. 

2020
The North Atlantic had 30 named storms, which broke the previous record of 28 in 2005. Of those 30 storms, 13 were hurricanes, six of which were major hurricanes that struck the U.S. Both these totals are the second highest on record behind 2005.

2021
Two major hurricanes hit the U.S. in 2021. Eight tropical cyclones, including the two major hurricanes, made landfall in the contiguous U.S. in 2021, down from eleven in 2020.

2022 
Three major hurricanes struck the U.S. mainland in 2022. The North Atlantic hurricane activity was near its 1991-2020 average. Near normal but below basin activity slightly below average.

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Sources:

National Hurricane Center:
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml

https://sos.noaa.gov/catalog/datasets/hurricane-season-2012/

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/MIATWSAT.shtml

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/damaging-2022-atlantic-hurricane-season-draws-to-close

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/A_brief_history_of_the_United_States_Hurricane_Warning_Service-Dunn.pdf


Statista:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/621238/number-of-hurricanes-that-made-landfall-in-the-us/

Tags: Hurricane statistics, hurricane history, hurricane deaths, deadliest hurricanes, Florida hurricanes, historical researcher, film researcher 

Recovering from a hurricane before FEMA: "Overwhelming" disaster of 1926

Aftermath of 1926 hurricane in Miami
State Archives of Florida

By Jane Feehan

One of the most devastating storms to hit South Florida was the hurricane of  September 17, 1926. Shoddy construction and an unprepared public was faulted for much of the damage. The hurricane's destruction ushered in the Great Depression before it affected other states three or four years later.

Recovering from a hurricane was very different before the Federal Emergency Management Agency was established in 1979.  An examination of newspapers reporting on the storm’s aftermath reveals just how different.

The New York Times (Sept. 24, 1926) reported “conscription of all unemployed persons” was underway to help with “rehabilitating” South Florida.  Miami put out a call for 25,000 workers; Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale indicated they would employ 2,000 each in the cleanup. Several hundred members of the American Legion assisted “militiamen” and police in patrolling streets and highways to “apprehend” those who could not show they were employed. The objective: to put them to work clearing streets of debris left by the hurricane.

There was much to do, more than those conscripted could accomplish.

Scores of private vehicles were “commandeered” by authorities in the recovery process. The city of Miami delivered water and other supplies by tug boat across Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach. Hotels became makeshift hospitals. 

Contrary to reports in the North, many commercial buildings remained standing, especially those of stucco construction, but most residents lived in poorly-built houses that were destroyed. For those who lost their homes, five tent cities were set up in South Florida: one in West Palm Beach, two in Fort Lauderdale, one in Hollywood, one in Hialeah. More help was soon on the way.

Trains from Jacksonville brought doctors, nurses and medical supplies. Until they could get medical assistance, residents were urged to bathe in the ocean to prevent infection of minor cuts. Salt water, officials advised, bore antiseptic qualities. Medicinal alcohol was unavailable. 

One local doctor, it was reported, rowed to the tiny 300-resident village of Davie, west of Fort Lauderdale, to assist the injured. He said demand for “medicine liquor” caused warehouses in Miami to be emptied for the first time since that city became a bootlegging distribution point. The good doctor was later criticized for drunkenness while tending to his storm-affected patients. 

Disease spread. Typhoid cases were reported in Miami Beach and Hollywood. In days, a flotilla of navy vessels arrived from Charleston bearing anti-typhoid vaccine.  

Assistance varied. The Florida East Coast Railway offered free rides from South Florida to Jacksonville to “worthy applicants.” Communications were nearly non-existent the first few days after the storm so cables went via Havana, Cuba. Restaurants in Miami served free meals to storm survivors. Ships delivered donated food. At one point, so much relief was delivered to South Florida that supplies were turned away.

Days after the storm, President Calvin Coolidge asked citizens of the U.S. to contribute to the American Red Cross, calling the hurricane's aftermath and its recovery “overwhelming.” Within hours, $500,000 was collected; days later, more than $3 million filled the coffers. The Associated Press donated more than $200,000.  The Chicago Examiner launched its own fundraising campaign. The Miami News donated $1000.  

Coolidge tapped Henry M. Baker as the national director of disaster relief for the American Red Cross; the organization managed and distributed all contributions.

On Oct. 14, 1926, the Miami News reported 75 percent of families in need received some form of aid through the American Red Cross. Nearly 15,000 people out of an estimated 20,000 received assistance that included supplies, food, lodging, seed, fertilizer, and burial payments. None of the aid “constituted permanent rehabilitation.”

Relief, not complete rebuilding, was provided to individuals; that has not changed even with FEMA. Federal disaster assistance does not make people whole again. Something else remains the same: Americans coming to the aid of those in need.

Copyright Jane Feehan

NOTE: FEMA organizes response and recovery; though the agency may pay for cleanup, it does not perform cleanup activities.

Sources:

Miami News, Sept. 19, 1926

Miami News, Sept. 20, 1926

New York Times, Sept. 24, 1926

New York Times, Oct. 3, 1926

Miami News, Oct 14. 1926

Tags: Hurricane history, Fort Lauderdale history, Miami history, American Red Cross history, FEMA, historical researcher, film researcher.

The hurricane that hushed the South Florida roar

By Jane Feehan

For more on this storm, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/05/recovering-from-hurricane-before-fema.html

Fort Lauderdale, like much of South Florida, reached the zenith of its first building boom in 1925. The city expanded from a square mile to a peak of 43 square miles in 1926 (today it’s about 33). But the luster was starting to fade by late 1925. The boom lost its momentum yet the economy limped along – until September 17, 1926, when a blow from Mother Nature muzzled the roar of the 1920s.

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, a Cape Verde storm first reported by a ship September 11, approached land late Friday, the 17^th.  By 2 a.m., the Category 4 storm (about 140 mph winds) was pummeling Miami, its eye pausing over downtown. Residents took to the streets when winds subsided only to see the storm resume its fury 35 minutes later as the eye passed. One hundred citizens died in those mean streets; they were unaware of the surprises a hurricane could hold. 

The storm marched north, plowing through Hallandale, Hollywood, Dania and Fort Lauderdale, destroying flimsy boom time structures in its path. Hurricane winds pounded South Florida for 12 hours leaving 325-800* dead (15 in Fort Lauderdale) and leveling thousands of homes. Damage in South Florida was estimated to be $100 billion in today’s dollars (according to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration), ranking this hurricane among the most costly in US history.

In Fort Lauderdale, the newly built St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and its adjacent school escaped serious damage. Most stucco houses remained unscathed. But nearly 900 other houses and dozens of businesses, including Las Olas Inn, were destroyed. Martial law was declared. The Masonic Temple downtown, surviving the hurricane’s winds, was set up as a temporary hospital and food distribution center.

The Fort Lauderdale Daily News was unable to print a paper until September 20 -  from Lake Worth. Newspapers from around the country wrote about the devastation; one Philadelphia paper proclaimed “Southeastern Florida wiped out.”  South Florida was not wiped out but the boom ended, ushering in early arrival of the Great Depression. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

* The Red Cross reported 372 deaths

Photos at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-1926-hurricane,0,5204136.story  

*Note: The hurricane crossed the state, hit Pensacola in the Florida panhandle,  moved into Mississippi and then Louisiana.

For the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane, see 
Index

Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

Weidling, Philip J., Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration

http://www.browardshines.com/Library/History/Documents/BrowardLegacyVol28.pdf

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Florida hurricane history, 1926 hurricane, film researcher, historical researcher