Florida's Hurricane History
by Jay Barnes
Second Edition

424 pp., 139 photos, 87 maps, 3 tables
$24.95 paperback, $39.95 hardcover
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It was a small hurricane, with an eye only eight miles wide. Its movements toward the Straits of Florida were almost stealthlike. On the day before its arrival in the Keys, Weather Bureau warnings described it as a tropical disturbance with "shifting gales and probably winds of hurricane force." The Miami Herald of Sunday, September 1, paid little attention to the storm, but wise residents of the Keys began boarding up anyway. The Coast Guard hustled ships into port and used airplanes to drop warnings in pasteboard ice cream boxes on fishing fleets along the Keys. Cuban weather officials notified Miami that the storm was getting stronger, but no one knew it would intensify so quickly. It was later reported that just thirty hours before landfall it was barely of hurricane strength. By Labor Day, September 2, when it finally struck the Keys, it had become one of the most powerful cyclones in recorded history.

The eye of the compact storm passed over Long Key and Lower Matecumbe Key during the evening of September 2 and was accompanied by the most awesome storm effects imaginable. The eye lasted about fifty-five minutes at Long Key and about forty minutes at Lower Matecumbe. The storm's forward speed was only about 10 mph, but its comparatively small eye was wrapped with superdestructive winds. These winds were of unbelievable force, higher than survivors could begin to describe. All wind instruments were destroyed, but according to David Ludlum's American Weather Book, engineering analysis of the damage indicated that gusts were in the range of 150-200 mph over a fifteen-mile radius on the eastern side of the storm center. Some estimates suggest that winds could have approached 250 mph. Unquestionably, this hurricane's winds were far greater than those in any other hurricane in Weather Bureau history. Eyewitness reports and the observations of relief crews provided evidence to support the estimates.

Left: The rescue train sent to evacuate veterans building the Overseas Highway to Key West was swept off the tracks by a massive storm surge at Islamorada in the 1935 Labor Day storm. (Photo courtesy of Jerry Wilkinson)
Right: The battered remains of the Long Key Fishing Camp, where weather observer J. E. Duane made his remarkable report during the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. (Photo courtesy of Monroe County Emergency Management)

Equally remarkable but more accurately recorded, this hurricane's intensity was indicated by extremely low measurements in barometric pressure. Aneroid barometers throughout the Keys recorded astonishing readings below 27.00 inches, which at first brought skepticism from seasoned weather observers in other parts of the country. At Upper Matecumbe Key the lowest pressure was 26.55 inches, and at Long Key a reading of 26.98 inches was recorded at 10:20 p.m., just before the barometer was washed away. Because of the hurricane's small diameter and extreme low pressure, it was estimated that while it was over the Keys, there was a pressure difference of one inch in only six miles. Grady Norton in Florida Hurricanes noted that "pressure gradients of this magnitude are exceeded only in tornadoes."

Those who lived near the shore along the Keys considered themselves experienced with hurricanes. Most maintained "hurricane houses," which were small but sturdily built shelters on high ground that served as safe havens during the storm season. As hurricanes approached, families gathered their most important belongings, their pets, and a couple of days' rations and left their homes for the safety of these shelters. After a hurricane passed, they returned to their homes to survey the damage. But the 1935 storm was like no hurricane they had ever experienced, and unfortunately their hurricane houses were no match for the winds and tides it delivered. Many families, some among the original settlers of the Keys, were tossed into the raging flood when their hurricane shelters buckled under the pressure of 200 mph winds and high water. Their ordeal was made more horrific by the deafening roar of the wind and the frightening blackness of the night. The darkness was said to have been occasionally disrupted by an eerie illumination--high winds lifted sand granules into the air, generating static electricity that caused flashes in the sky "like millions of fireflies."

Today visitors to the Keys can pause on their journey southward to visit the final resting place of many of the hurricane's victims. The 1935 Hurricane Monument, located just off U.S. 1 in Islamorada, was designed by the Florida Division of the Federal Art Project and constructed by the Works Progress Administration. The eighteen-foot memorial, made of coral from a nearby quarry, was built on top of a crypt that contains the bones and cremated remains of many of those who died on the Matecumbe Keys. A bronze plaque on the monument is inscribed: "Dedicated to the memory of the civilians and war veterans whose lives were lost in the hurricane of September second, 1935." It was unveiled before a crowd of 5,000 by nine-year-old survivor Fay Marie Parker on Sunday, November 14, 1937.




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