7/30/2023 0 Comments 1935 hurricane trackThe Labor Day Hurricane that struck the Florida Keys on Septemis the most powerful storm to ever hit the United States. 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting and Symposium.2021 Virtual Annual Meeting and Symposium.Information from online newspaper archives were used in compiling this report. “You lost everything but the shirt on your back. “Those memories of what happened, you don’t blot them out overnight,” Russell said. Many of the veterans killed in the Keys during the Labor Day storm were buried in a mass grave at Miami’s Woodlawn Cemetery in the Little Havana neighborhood.īernard Russell, who lived in Islamorada when the hurricane hit, told Drye that the experience left him “numb.” It regained hurricane strength the next day before finally dying as it passed Canada’s Maritime provinces. The storm finally left the Eastern Seaboard, pulling away from the Maryland coast on Sept. Virginia, which had been soaked by rain the previous week, saw floods in Richmond when the James River overflowed because of the storm. Maggie Gamble, of Gastonia, North Carolina, was killed when the storm’s blinding rainfall prevented her from seeing an oncoming train at a railroad crossing, Drye wrote. Residents outside of Florida were also impacted. Pepper, the editor of The Gainesville Daily Sun, wrote in an article. “Main Street, from here, looks like a turbulent river now,” William M. 4, and the waters of the Gulf flooded the quiet island hamlet. The storm came on shore for a second time at Cedar Key on the afternoon of Sept. According to Wayne Frye’s 2002 book, “Storm of the Century,” more than 5 inches of rain were recorded in Tampa and St. The storm continued to cause problems as it traveled up the Florida peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. Roosevelt a week after the deadly storm, according to the Miami News. Ijams, head of the Veterans Administration, wrote in a 3,000-word preliminary report to President Franklin D. “The conditions we found there were indescribable,” Aubrey Williams, federal relief administrator, and Col. Because telegraph lines were down and access was hindered by the washed-out railroad tracks, news of the extent of the destruction did not reach the mainland for several days. Many of their bodies were swept into Florida Bay. More than 440 people drowned - 280 veterans and 160 residents. However, the winds from the storm ripped off the roof and the second story of the Hotel Matecumbe in Islamorada, which served as the headquarters for the work crews. Miraculously, no one from the train was killed, NOAA said. The massive storm surge pushed cars off the tracks, except for the locomotive, Keim and Muller wrote. The train reached Islamorada at about 8:20 p.m., the same time as the hurricane’s storm surge. The holiday hindered the FEC’s efforts to assemble a train and crew, and by the time a train reached the Upper Keys, debris from the storm was blocking the tracks, causing further delays. According to NOAA, the Florida Emergency Relief Administration alerted the Florida East Coast Railway to send a relief train to evacuate the soldiers, who had remained at the camps during the Labor Day weekend. (State Archives of Florida)Īs the storm approached, there were hundreds of World War I Army veterans working in the Keys to build an overseas railroad from Miami to Key West. At least 280 World War I veterans were killed when the Labor Day hurricane roared through the state. However, the Cuban weather service saw no evidence of the storm, and according to the NOAA, no one was sure where it was.ġ935 hurricane: An aerial view of the worker's camp at Lower Matecumbe Key in Florida. Early reports indicated that the hurricane would scrape the northern coast of Cuba on Labor Day weekend. 2 shortly before making landfall.įinding the storm had been an exercise in frustration. 1, had grown to Category 4 status 24 hours later and reached Category 5 status at 7 p.m. According to Barry Keim and Robert Muller’s 2009 book, “Hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico,” the Labor Day storm, which was a Category 1 cyclone at 7 a.m. That prevented forecasters from anticipating the storm’s rapid intensification. Several reports at the time indicated estimated gusts were exceeding 200 mph.įorecasting storms was a primitive exercise in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the Labor Day hurricane, which made landfall at Matecumbe and Long keys near the village of Islamorada as a Category 5 storm, had maximum sustained winds of 185 mph. 1935 hurricane: An aerial view of trains that were tossed off the track from the wind and storm surge caused by the Labor Day Hurricane.
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