 |  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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