1935 Labor Day Hurricane. Facts, Myths and Reality. A History Lesson.

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 that hit the Florida Keys was a Category 5 Hurricane. It is the stuff that legends are made of... there is a horror and a romance to the storm that compels people to read stories online and in history books about it's strength, high death toll and how it changed the very history of South Florida and Key West. Years later the road to the Keys was built over the abandoned rails and as you drive south of the Overseas Highway it's hard to not think about that train, what it must have been like and to wish for a moment that you could have taken a trip on the railroad that went out to sea...

"The work began in 1905, with a great fleet of dredges opening up the channels inside the Keys for the transportation of materials and machinery by river steamer. The impenetrable tangle of mangrove between the mainland and Key Largo --- ten miles of it -- was conquered by the huge dredges, which simply undermined the forest beside the track, and buried the remaining trees to make the "grade." Beds of fie marl were searched out (white silt which hardens almost like mortar on exposure to the air) and millions of tons of it grew into countless miles of thirty-foot embankments across the shoals. Trestles, or int he more exposed parts, concrete arches of fifty-four span, bridged the deeper waters." (From The Commodore's Story"

"In October, 1906,came the first set-back, a hurricane which drove several feet of extra tide into Florida Bay, melted away the marl-banks like sugar, destroyed many trestles, smashed a steamer with several huge "quarterboats" (floating tenements in which laborers were housed), and generally played the deuce. But the work went on, with just a little heavier and soldier construction. Soon trains ran to Knight's Key, halfway to Key West, and connected there with the Havana steamers. And in the fullness of time, the locomotive entered the ancient "Island City," where enormous car-ferries were ready, Cuban tracks were quickly covered with American cars, and the road had more freight than it could handle."

People forget it was the RELIEF TRAIN that was swept away, the relief train sent down too late to save the laborers... not Flagler's Overseas Railroad Train itself. When people say the Overseas Railroad was swept out to sea they are incorrect. It was the the "relief train" sent down from Miami that was swept out to sea. The Tracks were ripped from the ground in places, there was too much damage to easily rebuild and the train to Key West was no more.

The legacy of the railroad that Flagler built gave us the Overseas Highway that remains today...though tremendously upgraded from the rickety, two land road that combined with ferries was the lifeline between Key West and Miami before the new, beautiful Overseas Highway. Previously, Key West was as Ralph Munroe called it an "Island City" in the middle of the Florida Straits between Homestead, Florida and Havana, Cuba. "Cars from a relief train near Islamorada, Fla., are pushed off the track following the Labor Day 1935 hurricane that ravaged portions of the Middle Keys. The Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad, that Henry Flagler completed in 1912, was never rebuilt and two years later a new Florida Keys Overseas Highway opened in its place. Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Public Library/ Gift of Margaret Foresman.

To understand the 1935 train and hurricane tragedy, you have to go back to the beginning. It was not the first tragedy concerning this Railroad to the Sea that Henry Flagler built. 1906 was a wicked sort of year for weather and geological disaster in America. Although more remembered for the 1906 Earthquake in California, a series of hurricanes tracked across the Southeast with multiple landfalls and high death tolls. http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/1906/track.gif <-- 1906 Hurricane Season

It was one of those worst case scenarios that during the construction of the railroad there was a hurricane that marched up the Florida Keys, key by key the whole way to Miami. A storm like that today would be a worst case scenario, which it was back then as well but Henry Flagler was a man with not just a dream but with deep pockets to see that dream come true. He simply reached into those deep, rich pockets and kept building. Many looking back saw that first hurricane in 1906 as a bad omen and it was spoken about by old timers after the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. It was in fact one of several hurricanes that plagued the construction of Flagler's railroad... but Flagler was determined and nothing stood in his way.

Ralph Munroe, by the way, was one of many who did try to stand in his way. Ralph Munroe was what we would call today a New Age Green Ecologically Minded Person. Today, Ralph would debate whether to shop at a local farmers market rather than even shopping at Whole Foods. He was a man who lived in concert with the environment, with nature, with the seas and the wind and he like many of Miami's early farming settlers that were part of the first South Florida Land Boom that saw the area as a potential Garden of Eden and a place to live out a healthy life near the fresh air and endless waters of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Barnacle_Historic_State_Park

You see to build the railroad Flagler's men first had to build islands and construct a path with adjacent land to support the equipment and to house the laborers. The Florida Keys did not look the way they do now complete with Starbucks, gas stations, grocery stores, sushi restaurants and million dollar subdivisions. At the turn of the century they were used mostly for agricultural settlers who tried their hands at growing pineapples and other tropical produce that was shipped by boat to big cities up north. Bahamians came over and set out to settle, to live, to farm what they could and enjoy the islands in the stream...islands that had more in common with the Bahamas than North Florida or the rest of the South. It was a hardy mix of both white and black Bahamians and a few runaway Seminoles who had married in to an island family. A lot of runaways... people who had health problems and found the climate beneficial and merchants who sold products to the prosperous citizens of Key West at the end of the Florida Keys. Children of Wreckers who had made their fortunes off of what the sea gave up after hurricanes and often they helped that process along in the process. Immigrants like my family who came from England and sold tin and hardware out of their store on Whitehead Street. It was an interesting mix of adventures and people who wanted to hide away in paradise, people who loved being near the water despite the constant threat of storms.

What the original Conchs who lived in the Florida Keys understood was that hurricanes were a part of life. Sometimes they created set backs and washed your crops out to sea, other times they gave forth cargo from ships that were lost at sea. It was a natural, organic sort of process that the locals understood. Anytime you try to change a natural process you will have a problem. Ralph Munroe understood that and he testified in court to the dangers of building the railroad the way it was being built. He was concerned with the safety of sailors who would be trapped on the Atlantic Side on the Gulf Side of the long, solid, railroad embankment that was being built eliminating the cuts sailors used to sail through from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay. Sailors could no longer sail through the water between the islands to take shelter during a strong thunderstorm which in the summer was a daily phenomenon. And, he was worried on the dangers of damming up all of that water in Florida Bay behind that long embankment for the train and the inherent problem of a possible tidal wave being sucked across the railroad tracks.

Ralph Munroe understood the waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and the Florida Keys... he sailed them all the time, he loved them and he saw problems down the road that Henry Flagler could never see or simply ignored. A view of where the storm hit the Keys the hardest on a nice sunny day with the top down and sunny weather.

Map of area affected by the storm:

Another view of the spit of land...in the ocean.

My point here is that ANY STRONG MAJOR STORM would have done the same damage to an area less than 2 or 3 blocks wide in the middle of the Ocean. It was not even a "barrier island" it was a partially man made, mangrove island which prior to the railroad had a natural valve set of for water to flow in and out, through the islands... vs slamming up against a man made dam that ran across the water and had never been there before. And, any strong Category 3, 4 or 5 storm down the road would do the damage. The pictuer of the train above looks like it's a normal place... if you had a wide view you would see the land ends and the water begins. It wasn't a very safe place in a Major Hurricane. It makes Sullivans Island and Folly Beach that was destroyed by Hugo look like a big city not a barrier island. It was not just a waterfront lot, it was a made made road built through the water .....

When you damn up a natural process.... it diverts water elsewhere. It doesn't make it go away poof, it diverts it elsewhere or alters the natural process that Mother Nature designed. A strong Category 4 could just as easily have done the horrific damage on the Florida Keys that terrible night. A Category 5 Hurricane was seen as an "Act of God" and the Federal Government was not held responsible for the men who died on the relief train or the tragedy of the breakdown of the system that led to the deaths of the Vets. It is hard for us to view this through the lens of history books read in 2012 vs through the lens of the late 1930s ... a time when there was great criticism of FDR because the Veterans of WW1 felt he did not have their back... in modern day terminology.

 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/marching.html

In 1932 veterans camped out in Washington within site of the White House. It became a political stigma...day by day....vets who served our country demanding either money or jobs. Simply put... FDR gave them jobs. One of the jobs was to camp out on the Overseas Highway and do hard labor, whereby laborers could send home money to their families at the height of the Depression. It was hard work, bad weather and there was the threat of hurricanes...however FDR and his government promised to have means to evacuate them if there was a problem. This was a known problem and danger as five different storms delayed the building of the railroad. The President promised to provide a safe route for them out if a hurricane came through the Florida Keys. It was a promise he was unable to keep.

The Labor Day Storm was a worst case scenario and a Perfect Storm set of events led to the tragedy.

1. It was Labor Day weekend... communication back and forth during the pre cell fone days was not the best or the fastest on a holiday weekend.

2. When they did decided to send the train the bridge at the Miami River got stuck in the upright position thus delaying the train's departure for some time at a time that every minute made a difference.

3. The quick, strengthening of a storm that was said to be a Tropical Storm in the Bahamas that hit the Florida Keys as a Category 5 hurricane... a rapid intensifying process that has rarely happened since. Though it is possible... it is obviously very rare and I'd say hard to believe had I not watched Hurricane Andrew intensify when he turned due East to hit Miami after being forecast to move NE towards Carolina. It does happen, rarely happens and in today's world there would be thousand of mets online and off all watching every blow up of a thunderstorm in the band of the storm. In those days they relied on radio reports and other official means and again ..it was Labor Day Weekend.

4. Being Labor Day Weekend, many locals had headed north to visit family and were on the road that might not have been there otherwise. I interviewed a woman in Key West, Dr. Porter's granddaughter who remembers losing an Aunt who was out with her fiance for a ride on what was thought to have been a nice weekend going up to Miami. Mind you going up to Miami in those days was a LONG ARDUOUS trip made by car, across ferries and something you needed a weekend for...not the quick, air-conditioned ride across the highway in 3 to 4 hours depending on how fast you drive and how many stops you make. It was a different world in 1935.

Hemingway writes about this world well in his article "Who Murdered the Vets?" Though the lens of time that may seem totally paranoid and political on Hemingway's part, however at the time it was a very valid question.

One GOOD thing about this oddly was that it WAS LABOR DAY WEEKEND and many vets took the train north into Miami to celebrate the weekend, enjoy the time off and spend their paycheck. Those vets would have been killed possibly had they been working at the camps when the storm came through.

Fast forward to 2012....

Was the Government's rebuilding of the levees and locks around New Orleans even partially responsible for the inland flooding of other areas and possible lock failures we've seen up river or a coincidence? A similar question is being raised now by many concerning the flooding of Slidel Parish and LaPlace that had NEVER had this sort of flooding prior to the new levees built to protect New Orleans after Katrina. The Weather Channel has mentioned it several times today. The government's response was that they knew there might be minor problems, but the slow motion of Isaac is what caused the flooding not the new work on the levees to protect New Orleans at the possible cost to other nearby cities such as Slidell. Similar questions are being asked and they are denying responsibility. A government investigation may follow... it happens.

After the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane there was an investigation. The book is at the NHC's Library and a few other libraries. I've read it, it's a long, long read. It is several inches thick and that is with thin paper. After long discussions and with much deliberation it was decided that the Labor Day Hurricane was in fact a Category 5 Hurricane...an Act of God..and no one could be responsible. A true "worst case scenario" and life went on... I'm not saying it wasn't a Category 5 hurricane. But, I am saying it could have been a Category 4 Hurricane and done the same damage..five or ten mph wind speed would not have changed the scenario very much. I'm saying it was very politically convenient for it to be a Category 5 Hurricane. I AM SAYING...that ANY STRONG MAJOR CANE moving fast with a strong surge slamming into the rail road the way it was built...the way Ralph Munroe warned back in 1906 that it would cause a tidal wave that would suck the water across the railroad embankment from the Atlantic Ocean into Florida Bay. And, all eye witness reports describe such a tidal wave. It's easy to say it was a "storm surge" and one strong wave, but that is not the way the witnesses who lived described it. And, there is no reason to believe that it did not play out the way Ralph Munroe predicted it might in a worse case scenario. Commodore Ralph Munroe testified against building an island community south of Cape Florida in waters he knew well as he sailed them daily.

Reading his history of the Florida Land Boom in his "The Commodore's Story" is a MUST READ and I am quoting here again from his testimony concerning the railroad.. it's just a taste of looking at the world through the eyes of history... the eyes of a man who was there and sailed the waters between his home in Coconut Grove and Key West as often as you might commute to work each day. When the judge asked Munroe about his testimony concerning the way the flow of water in and out of Biscayne Bay would doom such man-made islands to destruction south of Key Biscayne his response was as follows: "No," he answered, "I never heard any name applied to it, but if one were needed, I should suggest "The Safety Value" since that is its function to the whole of Biscayne Bay," and there the matter of name rested, for the time."

"And all that the Commodore said was fully confirmed by the builder of the railroad. considerable embankment-work had been completed by the railroad in October, 1906, and the engineer in charge had an excellent demonstration of the ways of hurricanes with obstructions. A large portion of the new banks was washed away, though they were supposedly protected by surrounding shoal water and surfaced with hardened marl; and the added height and accompanying violence of the floods when so checked and confined were conclusively demonstrated." Commodore Munroe's testimony did not make him popular with developers or people fond of the Land Boom. His ongoing concerns of a storm similar to the 1876 Hurricane hitting the area and the new seawalls, man made islands and the railroad stretching like a scar across his beautiful Florida Straits made him seem like a worry wort and a person who wanted to stop the flow of money and progress ... when in fact he was worried about the flow of the water and the lay of the land and the safety of the people who lived along the water's edge in South Florida.

Ralph Munroe understood hurricanes. Ralph Munroe understood the ocean and the tides. Ralph Munroe understood you took a chance living at the edge of the ocean, but he believed it was worth it and the less you play with land that is not meant to be built upon the better you are in the long run. Ralph Munroe lived in Coconut Grove, an area with an elevation and a bluff that looks out over Biscayne Bay. A small area where the continental shelf rises up and has survived hurricanes better than a shanty structure meant to house temporary workers would do on an area geographically no larger than two blocks wide in the middle of the ocean. He also ...as much as he loved Biscayne Bay...did not think it would be a good idea to dredge land up and place it at the entrance to Biscayne Bay... He would sail there often, but he would build his house on more solid ground.

In Slidell, people who often commute in and out of New Orleans chose to live inland, not in a city that is below sea level or at the water's edge. The question will remain and will grow down the line whether the government that worked so hard to protect New Orleans from another Katrina like tragedy.. may have diverted the tragedy elsewhere. Hard to say but anytime you do try to damn up mother nature... she flows somewhere else...

It is possible, the jury is out and I'll be surprised if there is not a government investigation to see what they can learn for the future.

It doesn't take much to knock a train off the tracks in the middle of the Florida Keys whether it's over a spit of land or a train trestle. But...oh the view. I've interviewed old Conchs who took that train into Miami. They said they were so high up that you could not see the train tracks when you looked down, you were sailing across the turquoise blue waters with only a small traveling cup filled with water and a few cookies packed by your mother for the trip... sailing in a big train across the water. A memory they hold dear as few can as most only read about it versus seeing it in their mind's eye. Jesse remembers the sound of the train, the movement across the water, the view...how fast the trip was compared to the old trip that took sometimes two days by car... she remembers and was glad she was safely in Key West during the 1935 Hurricane.

Enjoy some of the links below. If you can buy this book, there is no book as incredible for a lover of South Florida history and South Florida weather as "The Commodore's Story" Another good book is "Hemingway's Hurricane" by Phil Scott. History is written by the survivors. I am not a conspiratorial person who believes the government would lie about the strength of the storm and barometric pressure... but I am a logical person. It's hard to believe a storm intensified from a weak tropical storm to a strong Category 5 storm and it was missed until it hit the Keys. Then again it was a small storm and easily the strength of it may have been missed by areas that felt only a small storm. It is also without the aid of satellite images... that the storm was not a Tropical Storm and intensified slowly but there was no eye in the sky to record that for the history books.

Whatever... to this day it remains as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the US Mainland and ironically it was covered by one of America's greatest novelists as he was one of the first reporters on the scene as Ernest Hemingway went in search of a story in his boat The Pilar and he found and recorded what we now as the vivid descriptions of the aftermath of the 1935 storm. Ironically, a man who wrote with few words in his novels... wrote long when it came to his work as a journalist and a commentator. Though Ernest Hemingway rode out the storm in Key West, he being a journalist at heart took his boat and went out to help and ended up coming across a scene of vast horror and he did what all journalist do... all writers do... he wrote and his observations go down in history along with others describing the grisly aftermath of the Labor Day Storm.

Great Books:

Some links below... including old posts I wrote on this storm. Unless you have taken a trip down the Florida Keys, stood on the spot reported to be where the train was swept from the tracks it is hard to imagine. A most beautiful spot akin to paradise, unless you are there in a Major Hurricane...

If you are stuck inside and looking for reading material today or you wish to surf the web...surf and read... or bookmark the links for another rainy day. It's raining in Raleigh today... off and on... a steady stream of tropical moisture that makes it feel like Miami... a gift from the remnants of Hurricane Issac... and a nearby frontal boundary.

As for Tropical Storm Leslie...I'll post on that in another post. She is looking good, closer to land than previously expecting and she should be watched carefully. All hurricanes and tropical storms should be watched carefully...that is the lesson of The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.

Besos Bobbi

Ps... Hemingway is not my favorite writer. He was a unique thinker, a man of his times. It is easy to say he was paranoid or had political motivation for his article blaming the government and FDR. Then again, before he committed suicide he was seen as extremely paranoid and insistent to his friends that the government was watching him. Only now, after his death...years later do we know it is true. He was under surveillance. Go figure. Not the reason he killed himself as he had many devils that ate at his soul ...but he was living in fear and he was right they were watching him. Personally, I'm a Fitzgerald fan... but I'm very thankful that Hemingway was in the right place at the right time to record the history of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/03/fbi-and-ernest-hemingwayhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/03/fbi-and-ernest-hemingway http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2012/08/aftermath-of-isaac-where-is-compassion.html http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2005/06/1935-hurricane-by-marjory-stoneman.html http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2009/05/bobbistorm-who-am-i-why-am-i-here.html http://www.unz.org/Pub/NewMasses-1935sep17-00009 http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1075/sullivans.html http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/4QpcF_3YDki5qyW3Mi738Q.aspx http://www.worldcat.org/title/florida-hurricane-disaster-hearings-before-the-committee-on-world-war-veterans-legislation-house-of-representatives-seventy-fourth-congress-second-session-on-hr-9486-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-keys-september-2-1935/oclc/7833913 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/marching.html http://360floridakeys.com/things-to-see-and-do/mm81-hurricane-monument/ http://www.keyshistory.org/windleykey.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6IrtGSt_9M <--- video of homes built at waters edge http://www.tide-forecast.com/locations/Snake-Creek-Highway-1-bridge-Windley-Key-Florida http://www.palmbeachillustrated.com/FirstTraintoParadise#.UESuesGPVts http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/tropical-storm-isaac-winds-slow-as-it-exits-louisiana.html?pagewanted=all