gr-1114 physical geography fall 2014 mississippi state university professor greg nordstrom...

GR-1114 Physical Geography Fall 2014 Mississippi State University Professor Greg Nordstrom CHRISTOPHER CAWLEY 28 November 2014

On August 29, 1935, a disturbance organized east of the Bahamas. Little could anyone have known at the time that this weak tropical storm would become the strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States, pack winds between 180 and 200 mph, and claim over 400 souls. The storm progressed westward, strengthening into a hurricane by September 1, 1935. By harnessing the fuel provided by the Gulf Stream, this storm became a small, compact monster that finally made landfall as a Category 5 Storm the evening of Labor Day, September 2, 1935. After destroying the Keys, the storm curved to the north, and ran virtually parallel to the west coast of Florida. The second landfall occurred near Cedar Key, Florida, as a Category 2 storm on September 4. The storm then progressed off to the north-northeast across Georgia and the Carolinas, and into the Atlantic where it briefly regained hurricane strength before becoming extratropical, and then a nontropical remnant low, near Greenland by September 10, 1935 (HurricaneScience.org)

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/labor_day_hurricane_1935-09-04_weather_map1.gif

WIND SPEEDS: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane was the first ever Category Five storm to hit the United States. While no reliable wind measurements were taken, McDonald states that [i]t seems safe to estimate that winds of 150 to 200 miles per hour occurred near and over the Keys, with gusts probably exceeding 200 mph. The concept of Category Five, however, is a bit of a stretch because the Saffir-Simpson Scale wasnt developed until the year 1971. (An interesting side note, the Saffir-Simpson scale originally included parameters such as central pressure and storm surge, but that was eliminated in 2009, with the scale being renamed the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.)

CENTRAL PRESSURE: The intensity of a given storm is determined in part by the central barometric pressure. According to McDonald, in Monthly Weather Review (published in 1935), the central minimum pressure was probably somewhat below 27 inches as indicated of three aneroids on the Keys, the values ranging from 26.75 to 26.98. Effort is being made to secure one or more instruments for testing, because any authenticated pressure value below 27 inches will constitute a new record low for the Western Hemisphere. Other sources* indicate a minimum central pressure of 892 mbar (which converts to 26.341 inHg), and this measurement is corroborated by the National Hurricane Center. This makes the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane #3 on the list of most intense hurricanes to strike the U.S. * includes Wikipedia and NOAA

STORM SURGE: Several sources indicate a storm surge of 18 to 20 feet struck the islands. To put this into some perspective, 20 feet is the approximate height of a two-story house. Further slides in this presentation will detail some accounts of the wall of water that overtook the islands.

DEATH TOLL: Various accounts show that between 400 and 500 people perished during this storm. Marie Maxwell, in The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (National Archives), relates the story of the World War I veterans camps that were on the Keys. She states, there were over 600 veterans stationed there for a work program, [] and 262 of those veterans died, and many more were injured. The American Red Cross lists a death toll of 408, with the majority being the veterans working on a construction detail for the Works Progress Administration (NWS).

The federal government paid $100 per body to have 109 World War I veterans who were killed at works camps in the Keys during the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane to be buried at Woodlawn Cemetery on SW 8 th Street in Miami. (per the Miami Herald, 8/30/2014)

COMPLETE DESTRUCTION: Unknown author, on the Overseas Railroad / Railfan webpage describes a glimpse of some of the numbing sense of loss. By Tuesday, the storm had gone, and on that morning stragglers were making their way back up the string of islands to civilization. They told people first in Key Largo and then in Homestead that the hurricane had cut the string of islands in half. It seemed unbelievable, but the entire islands had disappeared. They also said that hundreds were missing. (continued)

COMPLETE DESTRUCTION (continued from previous slide) Dazed survivors continued to crawl out of their hiding places and look about them, wondering that they were still alive. Everywhere the islands were stripped bare, and death and destruction were all around. Houses, trees, and here and there, even parts of the islands themselves had vanished. [] On the following day the search for the dead commenced in earnest. Some had tied themselves to trunks of trees. Others were floating out in the bay or washed up on tiny islands. [] Most of the victims were never found. This extensive quotation is provided in its entirety because it paints a picture, gives a glimpse of the remarkable level of destruction that occurred.

Florida East Coast Railway evacuation train derailed by the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. (credit National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters)

COMPLETE DESTRUCTION In his Monthly Review Article, McDonald describes some of the devastation observed: Over a distance of about 30 miles, from the settlement of Tavenier [] to Vaca Keys, the destruction of buildings, roads, viaducts, and bridges was practically complete. Much of this damage was caused by the overwhelming depth and strong washing flow of the storm tide that piled up on the Keys under the driving power of the storm. [] The disposition of debris and nature of the erosion of the railroad embankments clearly indicate that the destructive tide flowed with an intense effect over the Keys from southwest to northeast, in the direction of advance of the storm center.

(credit KeysHistory.org)

(credit Keywesttheblog.blogspot.com)

In researching survivor accounts of this horrific storm, one reaches a point where paraphrasing survivors stories simply does not do justice to what they endured, not only in the storm but in the storm aftermath. The accounting by the unknown author on the Overseas Railroad site is just a few short paragraphs but very haunting, telling of dazed survivors wondering that they were still alive. The author told of families who knew of members of their own who were missing, but simply never reported, as they knew they wouldnt be found.

An article from 2010 in The Tampa Tribune, published by the Associated Press, details the stories of seven people who survived the hellish storm. The article is ambiguous as to when or where this took place, but that is irrelevant. The stories of these individuals commands the full attention. From the article, [t]he seven survivors, ages 78 to 90, told of ferocious winds ripping the skin off their ears and the clothes off the bodies. They remembered clinging to mattresses with their siblings and their parents as the ocean that had been their playground turned into a scary monster.

(credit Tampa Tribune)

The Florida Keys Keynoter and Reporter Newspapers has an accounting from the same conference. Heart-wrenching description is given to the veterans who drowned. A group of veterans took shelter in quarry that was dug about 8 feet below the ground level. This turned out to be a fatal move, as they succumbed to the 18- to 20-foot storm surge. The survivors stated that several days later other veterans were found as they died hanging onto something. The survivors noted that they didnt recognize the island in the aftermath; they believed they were out on a bank, lost.

Bernard Russell, in an interview published in a May 2005 edition of USA Today, stated there were 61 in the Russell family and 50 of them died that night. He stated that [t]here were so many dead people and no place to take them. They stacked them up and burned them.

THE BLAME GAME Even in the mid 1930s, the blame game was played, and played well. Accounts show that if the Weather Bureau (known today as the National Weather Service) had avoided forecasting errors, lives could have been saved. The initial forecast was for the storm to move west into the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequent forecast revisions indicated the storm would impact Cuba. Once the Weather Bureau realized what the true path of the storm would be, it was too late to initiate any evacuations or planning. HurricaneScience.org states that, the inaccuracies in the forecast was likely due to the storms small size, with the lightest associated winds just 155 miles from the center.

In Marie Maxwells report from 2011, The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, she described that the 74 th Congress held hearings in the early part of 1936, A Bill for the Relief of Widows, Children and Dependent Parents of World War Veterans Who Died as the Result of the Florida Hurricane at Windley Island and Matecumbe Bays, September 2, 1935. The point of this was to establish responsibility for the veterans deaths, provide relief for dependents, and to establish a way of proving death so as to expedite benefits that dependents should receive.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY BLASTS THE GOVERNMENT Melissah Pawlikowski, in a report to the History News Network, provided an accounting of an inquiry by Ernest Hemingway regarding the treatment of the veterans. Hemingway wrote an account entitled, Who Murdered the Vets? A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane. This is described as an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY BLASTS THE GOVERNMENT (part 2) (credit Historynewsnetwork.org)

At mile marker #82 on the east side of U.S. Highway 1, a memorial is constructed to honor the lives of those who perished during the storm. This memorial was established in 1937. In the memorial is a crypt that holds the cremated remains of over 300 people. The monument stands at the location of the former Islamorada post office, and was unveiled with over 4000 people in attendance. The monument was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

(credit Keywesttheblog.blogspot.com)

(credit florida-keys-vacation.com)

(credit Julie-Ann Amos julieannamos.hubpages.com)

Amos, Julie-Ann. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. n.d. Web. 29 November 2014.. Associated Press Staff. Survivors of 1935 Key West Hurricane Recall Terrible Night. 15 May 2010. 29 November 2014.. Baucom, Donald. The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. 29 August 2013. 29 November 2014.. Clark, Cammy. Photo Exhibit Shows Devastation of Florida Keys' Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. 30 August 2014. Web. 28 November 2014..

Clingerman, Jason. Plumage of Pomp: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. 5 November 2012. Web. 28 November 2014.. Maxwell, Marie. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. 2 September 2011. Web. 28 November 2014.. McDonald, W. F. Labor Day 1935 Hurricane Monthly Weather Review Article (exerpts). 1935. Web. 28 November 2014.. Pawlikowski, Melissah. When Hemingway Took the Government to Task for a Hurricane Disaster that Cost Hundreds of Lives. 26 September 2005. Web. 29 November 2014..

Timothy Schott, et al. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. 1 February 2012. PDF. 28 November 2014.. Unknown Author. 1935 - Labor Day Hurricane. n.d. Web. 28 November 2014.. Unknown Author. 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. n.d. 29 November 2014.. Unknown Author. National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center. n.d. Web. 28 November 2014..

Unknown Author. 1935 Storm Swept Away All But Memories. 17 May 2005. Web. 29 November 2014.. Unknown Author. The Florida Keys 1935 Hurricane Brutalized The Area on Labor Day. n.d. Web. 29 November 2014.. Unknown Author. NWS Marks 75th Anniversary of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. 2 September 2010. Web. 29 November 2014.. Unknown Author. Remembering the Labor Day Hurricane. n.d. Web. 28 November 2014..

Wadlow, Kevin. Survivor Remembers: 'When the water came, they drowned like rats'. 27 May 2010. Web. 29 November 2014.. Wilkinson, Jerry. History of Long Key. n.d. Web. 29 November 2014.. Williams, Jack. Hurricane Scale Invented to Communicate Storm Danger. 17 May 2005. Web. 28 November 2014..

gr-1114 physical geography fall 2014 mississippi state university professor greg nordstrom...

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