FLORIDA HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS

1871-1995: An Historical Survey

Fred Doehring, Iver W. Duedall, and John M. Williams

'+wcCopy~~ I~BN 0-912747-08-0

Florida SeaGrant College is supported by award of the Office of Sea Grant, NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce,grant number NA 36RG-0070, under provisions of the NationalSea Grant College and Programs Act of 1966. This information is published by the Sea Grant Extension Program which functionsas a coinponentof the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, John T. Woeste, Dean, in conducting Cooperative Extensionwork in Agriculture, Home Economics, and Marine Sciences,State of Florida, U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, U.S. Departmentof Commerce, and Boards of County Commissioners, cooperating.Printed and distributed in furtherance af the Actsof Congressof May 8 andJune 14, 1914.The Florida Sea Grant Collegeis an Equal Opportunity-AffirmativeAction employer authorizedto provide research, educational information and other servicesonly to individuals and institutions that function without regardto race,color, sex, age,handicap or nationalorigin.

Coverphoto: Hank Brandli & Rob Downey LOANCOPY ONLY Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

1871-1995: An Historical survey

Fred Doehring, Iver W. Duedall, and John M. Williams

Division of Marine and Environmental Systems, Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, FL 32901

Technical Paper - 71

June 1994

$5.00

Copies may be obtained from:

Florida Sea Grant College Program University of Florida Building 803 P.O. Box 110409 Gainesville, FL 32611-0409 904-392-2801 II Our friend andcolleague, Fred Doehringpictured below, died on January 5, 1993, before this manuscript was completed. Until his death, Fred had spent the last 18 months painstakingly researchingdata for this book. Fredhad a genuineinterest in Florida Tech, and in helping students find information on weather. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Fred and we are hopeful that this book will enhance hurricane awareness for all Florida resi- dents. We dedicatethis book to his family.

W. Dued

hn . Williams IV

The hurricane as a heatengine, is inefficient, hard to start, and hard to sustain; but once set in motion, once mature, is an awesome natu- ral event!

Frombirth, the hurricanelives in an environmentthat constantly tries to kill it...... and ultimately succeeds

Dr. Robert C. Sheets Director National Hurricane Center 1990 Table of Contents

List of Tables, Figures, and Plates Vll Tables...... V 11 Figures Vll Plates 1X

Preface Xl

Chapter 1..... Introduction

Chapter 2...... 5 Historical Discussion of Florida Hurricanes .. 5 The Early Years, 1871-1900 6 The SecondThirty Years, 1901-1930 . 10 The Third Thirty Years, 1931-1960 .. 18 The Last Thirty-two Years, 1961-1993 26

Chapter 3 39 Hurricane Andrew 39 On Sabbatical with Hurricane Andrew 41

Chapter 4...... 45 Andrew Epilogue...... 45 The 1993 Hurricane Season 46

References 47

Tables, Figures and Plates 51

Glossary

Hurricane Preparedness 111 Be PreparedBefore the Hurricane Season 111 When a Hurricane Watch is Issued..... 111 When a Hurricane Warning is issued 112 Evacuation ...... 112 Index of Named Hurricanes 115

Subject Index...... 116

Citation Index 118

About the Authors...... inside back cover vii

List of 'tables, Figures, and Plates

Tables 53-67

Table l. Saffir-Simpson Scale Table 2. Numberof Hurricanes,Tropical Storms and Combined Total Stormsby 10-YearIncrements Table 3. Hurricane Classification Prior to 1972 Table 4. Florida Hurricanes 1871-1993

Figures . 68-95

Figure l. Home in Coconut Grove, Miami, September1926, Hurricane Courtesyof NationalHurricane Center!. Figure 2. Meyer-KiserBuilding, N.E. 1stStreet, Miami, Septem- ber 1926 Hurricane; the building had to be tom down Courtesyof NationalHurricane Center!. Figure 3. Sunkenboat, Miami, September1926 Hurricane; the boat was onceowned by KaiserWilhelm of Germany Courtesyof NationalHurricane Center!. Figure 4. Damagein PalmBeach, 1928 Hurricane Courtesy of National Hurricane Center!. Figure 5. Destruction in West Palm Beach, 1928 Hurricane Cour- tesyof NationalHurricane Center!. Figure 6. Train blown off track, 1935 Great Labor Day Hurri- cane,in Islamorada,Florida Keys. From News/Sun- Sentinel! Figure 7a. Monument to 1935 Hurricane, Islamorada, Florida Keys. Figure 7b. Inscriptionplaque commemorating those who died in the 1935 Hurricane. Figure 8. HurricaneDonna. Even thoughHurricane Donna did not strike Miami, this photographshows typical damage alongthe Dade County shoreline Courtesy of National Hurricane Center!. Figure 9. Radarof HurricaneDonna Courtesyof National Hurricane Center!. Figure 10. Track andtime of HurricaneCleo in 1964 from Dunn and Staff, 1967!. Figure 11. 27thStreet, Miami, Hurricane Betsy in 1965 Courtesy of Miami Herald!. Figure 12. Recordof barometricpressure, Hurricane Betsy in 1965 Courtesyof NationalHurricane Center!. Figure 13. HurricaneDavid in 1979in CaribbeanCourtesy of Henry Brandli!. Figure 14a. HurricaneDavid in 1979in Florida Courtesyof Henry Brandli!. Figure 14b. HurricaneDavid, track Fromcollection belonging to John Williams!. Figure 15. HurricaneElena 985! damage From Clark, 1986a!. Figure 16a. HurricaneJuan 985! damage From Clark, 1986a!. Figure 16b. HurricaneJuan 985! damage From Clark, 1986a!. Figure 16c. HurricaneJuan 985! damage From Clark, 1986a!. Figure 17a. HurricaneKate 985! damage From Clark, 1986b!. Figure 17b. HurricaneKate 985! damage From Clark, 1986b!. Figure 18. DopplerRadar Image of HurricaneAndrew, 1992. Courtesyof NationalWeather Service, Melbourne, Florida Office!. Figure 19. Businesssign along US 1 in Homestead,Florida. Figure 20a. Last ChanceSaloon, which survived several hurricanessuch as Donna,Cleo, Betsy,Inez and An- drew, located on US 1 near Homestead,Florida. Figure 20b. Treesblown down just southof the Last ChanceSa- loon. Before Andrew, area around the saloon was heavily wooded. Figure 21. Typicaldebris scene from Andrew U.S. Army Corpsof Engineers,1993!. Figure 22. Familyhome damage from Andrew U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1993!. Figure 23. Themobile home and the hurricane U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1993!. Figure 24. Theroof and the hurricane U.S. ArmyCorps of Engineers, 1993!. Figure 25. Oneof the39 debrisburning sites U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1993!. IX

Plates

Hurricaneand TropicalStorm Tracks by 10-yearperiods

Plate l. 1871-1880 Plate 2. 1881-1890 Plate 3. 1891-1900 Plate 4. 1901-1910 Plate 5. 1911-1920 Plate 6. 1921-1930 Plate 7. 1931-1940 Plate 8. 1941-1950 Plate 9. 1951-1960 Plate 10. 1961-1970 Plate 11. 1971-1980 Plate 12. 1981-1990 Plate 13. 1991-1993

XI

preface

Thisbook presents, by historicalperiods, a summaryof the hurricanesand tropical stormsthat struckFlorida's more than 1200- milelong coastline during the 122 years from 1871 through 1993. Prior to the publicationof this book, the only booksor reports exclusivelywith Floridahurricanes were R.%. Gray'sreport, revised

GordonE. Dunn and staff of the NationalHurricane Center NHC! also titled Florida Hurricanes. GradyNorton and Gordon Dunn were important figures during theearly creation of whatis nowknown as the National Hurricane Center.Grady Norton was considered by manyas one of thebest hurricaneforecasters. After Grady Norton'sdeath in 1954,Gordon Dunn wasnamed director of the NHC. After GordonDunn retired, Dr. RobertSimpson became NHC Director. He wasfollowed by Dr. Neil Frank. The currentNHC Director is Dr. RobertC. Sheets. In additionto the reportFlorida Hurricanes,the very recent 1992NHC report titled The Deadliest Costliest and Most Intense UnitedStates Hurricanes of this Centu providesinvaluable informa- tion on bothhistorical and recent hurricanes affecting Florida and the United States. Ourprimary goal in preparingthis book was to updatethe historicalwork as it pertainsto Florida,to consolidateand standard- ize technicalterms published at thebeginning of eachhurricane seasonon hurricanetracking maps, and to introducethe following newmaterial pertaining to Florida:! a detailedhistorical discus- sion,! a chronologicallisting of all Floridahurricanes, ! 13 platesof hurricaneand tropical storm tracks grouped into 10-year increments,and ! a tableshowing the number of tropicalstorms andhurricanes by 10-yearincrements. The book is writtenon a non-technicallevel for thegeneral reader who is interestedin know- ingwhen and where hurricanes affected Florida and the magnitude of damageinflicted by the storms. Those wishing more technical infor- mationon hurricanescan consult the referencesor contactthe NHC directly. Principalreference documents used in preparingthis book, in additionto theones mentioned above, came from theNational Oce- anicand Atmospheric Administration NOAA! publication, HistoricalClimatolo Series6-2 Tro ical C clonesof the North AtlanticOcean 1871-1986, and U.S. Weather Bureau publications, Climatolo ical Data for Florida 1897-1965. It shouldbe noted that this bookdeals primarily with thecharac- teristicsof FloridaHurricanes and some eyewitness accounts. Amountsof precipitationassociated with Florida hurricaneswere not discussedin this book because of their frequent occurrence resulting fromother systems such as tropical depressions or non-tropical sys- tems.However, we shouldpoint out that precipitation from a hurri- canecan be very great and can cause major damage and flooding. Whiletropical depressions cancause heavy flooding problems anddamage, rainfall from tropical depressions is not discussed. Also, tropicalwaves and depressions are not namedeither. Weshould mention that some of thedirect quotes we usemake referenceto the earlier used term "Great Hurricane" and "Major Hurricane".The reader is referredto theglossary and tables for a detailedexplanation of all terms,including the Saffir-Simpson Scale nowin useto categorizehurricanes. In someinstances, we have madeinserts, indicated by [...], into quotationsto provideclarifica- tion. The[...] notationwas also used to providean estimate of the damagein dollars, adjustedto 1990. Weare especially thankful to thereviewers of theoriginal manuscriptwho pointedout severaldeficiencies and errors in the first writingand who provided important suggestions leading to an improvedand accurate final manuscript andto friends,colleagues, assistants,and organizations whose help we couldnot have done without.Specifically, we thank Bill Mahanwho encouraged usto preparethis book,Annette Bernard, Ann Bergonzoni, Derrick Doehring,Rosary Pedreira, Arnold Samreth, and Huan Feng for manuscriptpreparation, to Henry Hank! Brandli for graciously providingus with his satelliteimages of FloridaHurricanes, to Rob Downeyfor thecolor photograph of HurricaneAndrew, to Anita Brombergand John Reposa who assisted in thepreparation of the platesshowing the hurricane tracks, Victoria Tori! Smithand Jea- netteC. Sparksof theFlorida Tech Evans Library for searching historicaldocuments, to the Melbourne Office of the National WeatherService for providingthe Doppler radar image of Hurricane Andrew,to FloridaSea Grant College who provided financial assis- tanceto completethis work and to JayHumphreys who read the manuscriptand provided suggestions for improvementand to Susan Grantham for the layout and design, to the News/Sun Sentinel, Ft. Lauderdale, and the Miami Herald, Miami, for the use of their photographs,to Ms. Ruth Warnerfor kindly providingus with her grandmother's account of the 1926 Miami hurricane, to,Lois Stephensfor allowing us to use her personal account of Himicane Andrew entitled "On Sabbaticalwith Hurricane Andrew", and to the NationalHurricane Center for providingphotographs. xiv