Hurricane Harbor

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

As we Sail Into April ... Inspiring Stories, Looking Back at How We Roared Back AFTER the Spanish Flu in the Roaring 20s.

As we all watch the hospital ship sail into NYC Harbor.

We are all in awe of this larger than life drama going on.

Both in our personal lives and collective lives.

The size and scope of this shows in this picture.

That's a huge ship... a huge hospital.

Trying to post every day as we get closer to the Hurricane Season and to be honest it kind of saves my sanity to write every day. My brother, the author, says I need to proofread more. I know, he's right, but this is my off season when few read the blog and I think of it more like an online diary. I'll try to be more on top of that proofreading and trying to be more uplifting rather than depressing as we work our way through this part of 2020 when quarantining is all the rage today. Rage really isn't a popular word anymore ...now that I think on that but it was all the rage in the 1920s that were much more fun if you were a flapper and danced til dawn.

For those of you not as much into the history of the Roaring 20s as I have always been and unaware of the social demographic issues that led up to this raucous period infamous for young kids climbing flagpoles, swallowing gold fish and girls raising their skirts and bobbing their hair up and so let me explain it to this way... they were exhaling, reacting, breathing and having fun after the hard times of World War 1 where sons, brothers and lovers marched off to war and then tragically on their way home many of those soldiers died on ships from the Spanish Flu. It wasn't the happiest of times and when the flu ebbed away and a short term 2 year mini depression from the after effects of WW1 and the Pandemic wore off people bounced back as they always do with a dizzying array of changes that impacted music, fashion and travel and the world was never the same. The Model T Ford led to people wanting to travel further from home and the hospitality business opened up road side "motels" and the US government began for the first time to really give people paid vacations and Americans hit the road looking for Tin Can Motels and a beach somewhere with pretty girls and handsome guys looking to have fun again.

Many students of history are wondering on the parallels and this graph is from the link below that discusses it in more detail than I am here today. Note even Wikipedia mentions the Spanish Flu as one hard time that people endured before the 1920s really began to roar with music, laughter and jazz.

I'm out of bananas and I don't see any in my future unless I break down and get some from the store so ... this song so resonated with me. I'm guessing it resonates with many here as well.

Nuff said on the Roaring 20s for now, but there are parallels, because people do tend to bounce back in the same way the England did after theaters were open again and life, literature and theater went on again. I read online that Shakespeare wrote the play King Lear during a plague. I'll have to run that past Snopes to see if it's true or very early urban legend!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_theatre_closure_1642

Next I wanted to show a video that is so inspiring and shows how even a tragic, deadly pandemic can bring the best out in people just trying to help make a difference for someone in need. I read about this last Saturday in the local paper that did a beautiful uplifting story and been meaning to mention it online. Seems the movement has gone viral (good use of that term) and spread to other cities so it shows you that good deeds can spread fast too!

That is so beautiful and I suggest you share that video with someone who feels down, depressed and hopeless and that pretty much describes most of us at some point of our day when reading about people in need of prayer or who have died. I'm really trying to balance my time between prayer and taking time to breathe, refresh my mind and soul and then I go back to praying with friends in Crown Heights and Florida who are in prayer groups for relatives. You gotta do what you gotta do and if my allergies weren't an issue I'd take a long walk along the golf course across the street and stare in wonder at the flowers in bloom ... but the pollen wouldn't be good for my system so I probably won't. A friend and distant cousin posted this beautiful picture the other day in honor of the medical and public service people who are risking their lives to help us all.

That says it all for Raleigh, North Carolina.

Another uplifting story I read recently is below.

I also read it this past Saturday.

A pop up sort of place to help the homeless.

Let people take showers..

...cut their hair.

Uplift their spirit.

It uplifted mine.

People are trying to help...

... not easy.

I worked as a librarian.

Some of our nicest patrons were the homeless.

They hung out reading, going online.

Librarians get to know them well.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/24/libraries-

homelessness-deter-landscape-designs-san-francisco

Often patrons don't appreciate them as much...

...as the librarians do.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-23

/san-francisco-fights-coronavirus-by-finding-the-homeless-a-home

Lastly a few pictures of how we are all doing.

Doing as in surviving and thriving emotionally.

While staying home or isolating.

Key West NWS is awesome to follow.

As is another NWS on the opposite side of the USA

There's a close up of their forecast drawing.

Speaking of crayons I love color.

I love make up because I'm coloring.

That's what I told my friend Chana yesterday.

She lives in Israel.

She's a Make Up Artist... weddings, parties.

Not a lot of work these days ...

..so she tries to cheer us up online.

Playfully doing cute, fun things.

You can follow her on Instagram.

She's one of my daughter's best friends.

Kind of a child from another mother.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Back From the Beach. Models Whisper Southern Snow. Pet Peeve about 1926 Miami Hurricane. Florida History. Weather Thoughts.

Yeah yeah it loves to promise snow late in the 10 day.

Other apps do it too.... it's model driven of course.

So we have a snowy jigsaw puzzle.

Keep watching.

Chick lives in the Sandhills.

Usually they have a slimmer chance than Raleigh.

Roxboro has the best chances usually.

Okay I'm home and the first thing to greet me this morning was the possibility of snow on my various weather apps. I use them but I don't trust them that much but it's a cheap thrill more a game than anything else. "What does the weather app show for the next 10 days" and come on we all do it because if you are reading this blog you are probably slightly obsessed with the weather. Any forecast beyond the five day to me is still iffy though I tend to trust the seven day a bit more. 10 days is speculation and innuendo and means as Brad says the pattern is favorable!

I'll wait to see what Wes in Raleigh says and Allan who is also in the Raleigh area over the next few days while adjusting to the cold night time temperatures again. Being into weather means that you check the weather often when making plans to celebrate events. This past weekend was a 10 year anniversary of sorts and I was debating whether to spend it in the Raleigh area or maybe drive to Charlotte or up to Highpoint but after checking the long range weather models I felt there was a good possibility we could pull off going to Myrtle Beach and the weather would be almost summer like if things fell into place. Again, what Chick said, it's a puzzle with pieces still falling into place when you watch the models. A suggestion of 72 degrees in Raleigh for Sunday was nice but a suggestion of similar temperatures at the beach if only the front would push through and clear out a good week's worth of gray skies and rainy days. Honestly did not see the sun for a week after getting back from Miami last week; after a while it does get to you I have to be honest and I don't generally mind a few rainy days. After an extremely beautiful sunset in Myrtle Beach's Broadway on the Beach I fell asleep to howling wind and woke up to this pristine, beautiful, incredible #nofilter sunrise with venus shining down on me. The last vestiges of clouds can be seen at the bottom of the horizon. Seen many beautiful sunrises in Myrtle Beach and other beaches but nothing like that.

I have blue skies outside out beyond the pine trees.

Carolina pines and Carolina Blue skies.

Winter in Raleigh when the sun shines.

Stu Ostro is good to follow.

He's one of the best.

Met him at some Hurricane Center event once.

He knows his stuff :)

This is a perfect example of an annular hurricane.

With that big, wide, perfectly round eye.

Wondering if that eye is bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

Possibly. Awesome and very far away.

A very strong February hurricane in the Pacific.

Strong and rare even for the Pacific.

Speaking of Hurricanes.

One of my biggest pet peeves is this:

"The 1926 Miami Hurricane killed the Boom"

No it did not.

I've written articles for Miami History magazines.

Researched endlessly with Dr. Paul George.

The Miami 1926 Hurricane hurt Miami.

But Miami was down for the count earlier that year.

The much awaited 1926 Winter Season was a BUST!

Bad press on true news stories flooded the national media.

New laws were put into place to stop bad real estate deals.

Binder Boys were flipping swamp land by the hour.

Binder Boys were in all the Boom Towns.

Both sides of the Florida Coast.

But they flourished in Miami.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20150301/1920s-boom-not-a-walk-in-the-park

Real Estate practices then basically were like buying stock back when in that you could buy Florida Real Estate (not built on yet and often under water still) for a mere percentage of the price and that deal could be "flipped" and turned over ten times in an hour on mere speculation. Some of those subdivisions such as Coral Gables did get built, but many did not and people (tourists are people too) were swindled out of money by those hoping to make good money. New regulations were passed putting an end to the "Binder Boys" period ... a name mostly for their style of clothes they wore that were popular in the roaring 20s and their buying land on a binder... a wing and a prayer method that made them rich for a while.

A huge ship named the Prins Valdemar capsized in a winter storm and ended up blocking the "turning harbor" that ships used to get into Miami and offload their lumber that was the fuel for the housing boom; without lumber it was hard to build houses and it was equally as hard to get other merchandise and people into the Magic City. Being Miami after they finally were able to get it up they hauled it over to the nearby docks and eventually turned it into a floating restaurant and party venue popular in Miami. Only in Miami does the problem get sold as a tourist attraction.

Add in two railroad strikes put a halt to the flow of money and people.

I mean in WINTER of 1926 you could not get to Miami for trying.

And you could not get building supplies or merchandise in either.

And the National Media now knew about the land swindles.

Florida Real Estate = Selling Swamp Land suddenly..

But oh what a time it was in the Roaring 20s.

Miami was a real paradise.

Before the ship capsized and the trains stopped running.

And the Media had a field day with the Binder Boys.

And then came the 1926 Miami Hurricane.

The Smithsonian does history.

But they should tell the whole story.

But hey it's more dramatic to blame it on the Hurricane.

And it is incredibly great footage.

It's fake in that the real footage was not in color.

But think of it as a colorized sequel :)

The hurricane gave Miami focus.

They cleaned up, rebuilt and were open again by 1927.

In the same way all the blue tarps from Irma are gone...

...and new construction is everywhere.

Hurricanes are a meteorological form of gentrification.

5 years after Hurricane Andrew....

... Homestead and Cutler Ridge property was worth way more.

People sold and left, real estate deals were everywhere.

Expensive construction with pools and higher price tags.

And the beat goes on ....

North Carolina is beer country.

Beer is good on a rainy day.

Going to the beach is better when the sun comes out.

And the temperature is forecast to climb to 73!

And that is the beauty of Raleigh.

You can drive up to the mountains...

....or down to the beach.

Or just hang out in Raleigh.

But will it snow in Raleigh soon?

I'll be watching ...

But this week is mild temps and cold nights.

Works for me.

A little note here in that if we do get Carolina snow it's worth remembering some trees have early leaves and some trees are covered in early blossoms and a wet, messy snow will put pressure on those trees and I'm not even talking on the possibility of ice. So when things bloom early it's beautiful to see but it has a secondary threat if snow falls when flowers are on the trees and red maples already have new red leaves unfurling in the Carolina Blue sunlight.

And in about a month of so we will be worrying on pollen popping. Yep... Carolina has lots of seasons; summer, fall, winter, spring and pollen season!

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram.

Ps.... if you keep listening to that hurricane video on the 1926 the really chilling story is told on the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. If you listen to the first hand survivors you will know it was not your average "storm surge" but truly a tidal wave that washed over the Florida Keys as the construction of the railroad created dams that early Florida author and ecologist warned against building that way but he was ignored and what he said would happen did happen and Florida Bay sucked the storm surge in the Atlantic over the railroad and the Florida Keys in one huge tidal wave that washed the train off the tracks and washing people out to sea.

Labels: beaches, BinderBoys, Boom, carolina, Florida, History, hurricane, miami, raleigh, Roaring20s, snow, spring, weather, winter

Sunday, February 04, 2018

Super Bowl Sunday. A Look Back at Miami's Super Bowl and Some Miami History - Musing on the Magic City. Hurricane Seasons & Cold Winters. Will 2018 Be a Busy Hurricane Season? History Would Answer Yes!

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/frigid-air-to-pour-over-minneapolis-as-eagles-patriots-square-off-in-super-bowl-52/70004045

Funny.

When I was little in the 1960s..

I thought Super Bowls would always be in Miami.

That 1969 Super Bowl changed Miami History.

Keep reading to find out how...

The Orange Bowl with palm trees in 1969

Ain't no palm trees in Minnesota today!

The Orange Bowl had magic always!!

As for the weather this morning may I say it's cold in the Carolinas but way colder in Minnesota where the Super Bowl is being played. Waves of eastbound winter weather have been moving across the country this year much the way westbound tropical waves usually depart Africa in the hurricane season. There has been some Arctic Air mixing it up with those Eastbound impulses this year and it's been a continual see saw between cold, warming up, cold, warming up, freezing, warming up and frigid cold again. One could make a good case for that continual see saw slamming us with cold bursts helped the Flu as it continually weakens our immune system. Some winters the cold sets in and you acclimate yourself to the cold weather. As the mercury climbs into the 40s it feels cold still and the 40s do not last long. But when the mercury vacillates between the 20s and flirting with the 60s it's harder to acclimate to the reality of winter. I'm not sure there is any real science there as medicine is not my thing, but I know it's been a hard winter to acclimate to as the waves of warmer weather followed by frigid weather has taken a toll on many of my friends who tested negative to the flu but were sicker than normal this past winter.

Going further West you can see where this flow begins.

Miami is a funny place. Logically it should never have become a large metropolitan city yet ironically in the heart of the tropics at the water's edge it rose up despite daring Mother Nature to hit it with her best shot and try and damper her magical spirit. Year after year hurricanes curve away from the coast or slice through the Florida Keys rather than slamming into Miami directly. Hurricane Andrew, compact dry storm, swerved to the left just before crashing directly into downtown Miami and obliterating Miami Beach. Instead, the Category 5 hurricane went south across Everglades National Park, nurseries and farmland down near Homestead. The bedroom communities of Kendall and Cutler Ridge took a huge hit but they are no more "Miami" than pretending Yonkers and New Rochelle are Manhattan. Hurricanes Donna and Betsy went through the Keys in 1965 as did Irma in 2017 and books are filled with hurricanes that could have hit Miami dead on but did not. Miami felt the tropical breath of these hurricanes but that's not the same as having the eye of a Major Hurricane travel across the heart of Miami.

screen_shot_2017-09-10_at_4.24.17_pm.png (799×445)

No this isn't about how the 2018 Hurricane Season will bring that variant, violent storm into downtown Miami and do more than show watery video of flooding that disappeared almost magically the next day. New buildings at the water's edge are designed to deal with storm surge and despite the dramatic images stores were open for business and bars opened up in Brickell Village a few days later. This post is more a post on the wonders of Miami than actual weather or hurricanes. My friend Dr. Paul George, the Supreme Miami Historian, has said "Miami is seductive" and that's a direct quote from the other day when we were deep in discussion about Miami's history. Miami is indeed seductive as it is a taste of the tropics on our shores necessitating no passport making it always a vibrant, sexy destination especially in the winter. And, even more amazing Miami morphs through time always staying ahead of the game if not creating the game as it moved from the Roaring 20s to the Sexy 1960s when the Beatles performed at the Deauville Hotel broadcast to the world by the Ed Sullivan Show live in Miami.

Jackie_Gleason_Miami_Beach_1968.JPG (1416×1050)

In the 1960s Miami stole Jackie Gleason away to prove that Miami Beach had the "greatest audience in the world" and yes that brings us to the sister city of Miami the way an identical twin is often confused to the casual observer. The only real difference is that Miami Beach was once Miami's sandbar; filled with mangroves as a barrier island and nothing more. Miami at the turn of the last century was a small town congregating around the small ridge along the coast far from the Everglades that began only five miles west of the present site of downtown area. A river no more than five and a half miles and that may be an exaggeration that ran out of the Everglades down to the mouth of the Miami River where old man Brickell and his family ran a trading post for Seminoles who rode down the river in their dug out canoes to trade with the new merchants at the water's edge.

Every twenty years or so Miami recreates itself moving from Miami Vice to CSI Miami with more episodes than can count of Burn Notice shown on air always somewhere. Cutting edge scenery, glittery lights reflecting, shimmering in the water that laps at Miami from many angles be it bay, river or the ocean Miami is forever tied to the tropical waters and balmy breezes of Biscayne Bay. Not much has changed on that level than when people in the late 1800s began to move to Miami for the promise of better health in a warmer climate giving an older person a better quality of life than they had back home in the winter in Ohio battling asthma or tuberculosis. In the 1960s a generation moved South to retire in the Florida Sunshine from snowstorms that exacerbated the general maladies of old age. No I didn't forget Flipper or Gentle Ben, but Flipper was fun and Miami Vice was a sexy upgrade to Miami in the Boom Time 1920s when crime and palm trees often went together. America's Al Capone actually became Miami's Al Capone; even the King of Gangsters moved to Miami for the Florida Sunshine that he enjoyed once again after he got out of jail and lived out his life on Palm Island until he died in 1947. The house not far from homes my grandfather built on Palm Island still exists. Watch my friend Paul show the house and it's history off below.

Cubans who always viewed Miami as a far distant suburb of Havana moved to Miami en masse in the 1960s when Castro came out of the mountains and wrestled Cuba away from the Batisto. The Cubans were followed by others from the Caribbean and over time Israelis, Russians, Pakistani and others found their way to Miami for the same reasons that the early merchants at the turn of the Century did .... it's a great place to sell things to tourists. Tourism is mother's milk to Miami and from the very start small excursion crafts took tourists up river to tall towers built to show people from "Up North" what the Everglades looked like and the beauty of the Miami River in the early 1900s. Again the Everglades began around 32nd Avenue not very far inland. In those days Miami International Airport did not exist and the only things flying about in the air were nesting birds of all types living in the saw grass prairies.

How that small group of early settlers gave birth to a modern metropolitan city surely shows the magic of Miami. After the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 survivors moved inland to Houston where the new canal with the perfect timing opened up. Galveston was rebuilt but it became more a place to go in the summer and enjoy time by the beach in the way that people in the Carolinas head towards the Outer Banks or Myrtle Beach. What makes Miami different? The people; the every day people who lived in Miami who stayed after the 1926 Hurricane. The 1926 Great Miami Hurricane is indeed the one Major Hurricane to take Miami dead on at the Miami River. Those early Miamians rebuilt the city and kept going the same way numerous Miamians have suffered through loss of electric and water while cleaning up the debris and doing repairs waiting out the hurricane season one day at a time til the all clear is on November 30th. Miamians have one real definitive season and that is the Hurricane Season.

So how will Miami fare this year? Yes, I am going there on some level. Miami proved it's worth after the freezes of the winter of 1895 and 1896 when most of Florida froze except for South Florida. Miami's birth as a city is intricately related to it's frost free climate. The farmers, the first real boom in Miami was agricultural, kept shipping out tomatoes and eggplant and pineapples to Key West to be sent far away when crops up the coastline were ruined. In those days Miami had pineapples but it did not have a world class port the way Key West was a major port. And, yet Miami was not a stranger to tropical storms as October of 1895 and 1896 brought tree trimmer type of storms that blew away the thatched hut homes many lived in and tossed trees forcing even the earliest Miami settlers to clean up after a hurricane. On Miami Beach life went on as normal for the rattlesnakes and alligators and other creatures that lived in the mangroves at the water's edge.

The only REAL difference over time has been the way we can now prepare residents before a Hurricane makes landfall. Even in the 1950s and 1960s early Miamian's did their best to prepare and after the storm they waited to be allowed back into hurricane ravaged areas.

Your typical catch a frontal boundary storm.

Back to back October storms.

Miami is often open wide for assault from October hurricanes in the same way late August and September make us look out our ocean front windows for hurricanes headed this way moving WNW around the strong Bermuda High. We may have blown up the rapids in the river, drained the swamps, built some flood control canals and built skyscrapers to withstand storm surge but the dangers are still there and the type of people who live in Miami stay there and rebuild time and time again.

1969-ny-daily-news-jan-320.jpg (320×427)

If the current pattern continues from this winter then the tropics will remain busy next year and storms that form early or late at the tail end of cold fronts could grab that opportunity to travel North along the front in the same way Jackie Gleason grabbed his chance to move to Miami; much the way Don Shula in town for the 1969 Super Bowl looked around Miami and liked what he saw and took the job offer to move to Miami and coach for the Dolphins. His team, the Baltimore Colts, may have lost the game to Joe Namath's Jets but Don Shula ended up the winner in the end and so did Miami. Miami's magic and seductive call once again lured away the big prize.

dolphinsvictory05ai-1_250x.jpg (250×375)

Yeah you knew I would weave the Super Bowl into this blog right? How can you talk about Super Bowl History and Miami without remembering Miami's constant use of grabbing any chance to advertise how warm and beautiful Miami is in the heart of winter to tourists digging out from snow and sub zero weather. Our early Mayor E. G. Sewell used every chance to advertise Miami's beauty to Northerners before Carl Fisher put bathing beauties on billboards in Time Square in January and Charlie Cinnamon turned Coconut Grove into the Left Bank and started an Art Show to advertise the showing of Irma La Douce showing at the Coconut Grove Playhouse; publicity has always been King in Miami and Jackie Gleason was indeed the Great One when it came to being the King of Miami Promoters every week broadcasting his show to the rest of America.

http://communitynewspapers.com/dining-and-entertainment/blame-irma-la-douce-for-coconut-grove-art-festival/

Miami is magical. It's history defies logic and it's long lasting appeal can only be attributed to being the Magic city with it's seductive call and the ever present moon rising over Miami lighting up the tropical night sky. Even a hurricane as strong as the Category 4 Great Miami Hurricane did not put an end to it's growth . . . just slowing the growth a bit prior to the Great Depression that made Miami and the nation take a break from the boom of the 1920s. But even then in the early 1930s people like my grandfather moved to Miami to work on construction on Miami Beach where small beautiful Art Deco buildings were going up despite the slow growth of construction elsewhere. I can picture him working on the small dome of a synagogue a block from the Ocean feeling the balmy breeze as he worked in the January sunshine of 1936 far from the bitter cold up North. In Miami you could grow crops in your yard, pick citrus fruit off the orange tree in your backyard and eat fresh fish any day of the year. Family legend has it he apologized to my very Southern Grandma Mary from Tampa who met him while visiting her sister Jenny in Philadelphia that she was right and he should have listened to her ... that Florida is like paradise and they should have moved South earlier. Apparent my Grandfather Ben felt Miami's magical call when he visited in 1935 with a friend. He told my mother how the wind blew in Miami so strong from a Labor Day Hurricane in the Keys he practically had to hold onto a palm tree not to blow away. Nope, the reality of tropical weather did not deter him from moving to the tropics and finding work and warm weather all year. My uncle in the 1960s grew tomatoes in the backyard of the house my grandfather built near the orange tree my cousin and I used to climb and the front yard was filled with rose bushes always in bloom. That's life in Miami.

Miami is the gateway to the tropics and every once in a while a tropical problem finds it's way into our beautiful city. I hope and pray Miami's magic continues and it's star shines on growing, evolving and only getting better over time. Luckily our ability to prepare the residents earlier and more accurately also improves. As we move closer to June 1st I suggest you stock up on things you see on sale that will help you during the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season as it may indeed me a sort of repeat of the 2016 Hurricane Season but this year Pt. St Lucie could be hit the way Big Pine Key was last year or some how a hurricane this year will find it's way into Miami proper and give Miamians a real run for their money.

I'll be in Raleigh for the Super Bowl and back in Miami soon enough. Thanks for letting me muse during the Off Season a bit on Miami History and how it relates to the magical growth of Miami despite the yearly threat of devastation from hurricanes. Often this time of year I think out loud here on my blog working my way through ideas I want to pursue down the road.

Besos BobbiStorm

Ps I'm rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles if you were wondering but how any real Miamian can root for the Patriots is beyond me unless they originally came from New England ancestors.

http://flcitrusmutual.com/industry-issues/weather/freeze_timeline.aspx Note many of those hard freezes were followed by busy hurricane seasons. Something to think on while it's quiet and we watch people up north worry on snow.

http://www.publix.com/pages/publix-storm-basics

Labels: artshow, beatles, coconutgrove, Florida, gangsters, History, hurricanes, lifestyle, longread, miami, miamivice, Roaring20s, superbowl, tropical, tropics, weather