Hurricanes The late summer afternoon sun has a dull reddish-orange glow with a stillness in the air that is erie, almost spooky. This causes old-timers in South Florida to take notice and they often remark, "looks like a hurricane out there somewhere." This was usually the prediction of an approaching hurricane before the advent of radar, satellites and hurricane-hunting airplanes. Turtles laying their eggs high upon the beach, saw grass blooming early in the everglades, and Gram-pa's stiff leg acting up was also sure fire predictions of impending hurricanes. 1900-1915. There were four hurricanes plotted by the weather bureau, none of which struck South Florida. One of these storms killed 6000 people in Texas. 1916-1932. Five hurricanes were plotted, two of which hit South Florida. The Sept. 11, 1926 hurricane that had wind gusts of 132 miles per hour in Miami killed 287 people. The Sept 26 1928 hurricane with 75 miles per hour winds killed 1836 people living around Lake Okeechobee when the lake overflowed its banks. 1933-1934 produced six hurricanes of which only one struck South Florida coming ashore at Jupiter inlet with winds of 125 MPH killing 2 people. 1935-1940. Four hurricanes were produced. Two hit South Florida. One called the "labor day storm" in 1935 killed 408 people in the Florida Keys with recorded wind gusts of 200 MPH. On November 8th 1935, the so called "Yankee" storm, so named because it doubled back from the N.E. off the Carolina coast, cut back South and across the Florida Keys doubled back and came ashore at Tampa on the West coast, killing 5 people. 1941-1945. Four hurricanes were recorded with one of them coming ashore at Dry Tortures in the Keys on Oct. 23, 1944. The other one coming ashore on Sept, 20, 1945 at Miami, killing 4 people. 1947-1949. Six hurricanes were recorded, of which 5 of them struck South Florida. Two of them came ashore at Pompano. The first arrived on Sept. 21, 1947 with recorded winds of 155 MPH before the anemometer at the Hillsboro Lighthouse blew away. This hurricane killed 51 people. The second struck Pompano on Oct. 16, 1947 killing one person. This storm coupled with the Sept storm and being a "wet" storm produced very heavy flooding in Pompano and South Florida. On Sept 25th, 1948 a storm struck Key West killing 3 people. On October 15, 1948. Sombrero Key struck by hurricane with 100 MPH winds, no casualties reported. August 31, at Jupiter Fla. with winds of 153 MPH killing 2 people. 1950-1954. Produced 5 storms of which only one struck land at Miami and killing 4 people with winds of 140 MPH. This was the first of the named hurricanes named 'King'. 1958-1961. Produced 4 hurricanes of which only one struck South Florida, on Sept. 13 1960 "Donna" landing at Ft. Myers. This hurricane killed 50 people. 1964-1965. 4 hurricanes plotted of which 2 of them struck S. Florida on onSept 16, 1964 "Dora" with 5 people killed. Sept 20, 1965. Hurricane "Cleo", no casualties. Both storms hitting Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. If you are ever in the presence of anyone that advocates having a "hurricane party" when there is an approaching hurricane, then you are in the presence of an "idiot" and you had best seek saner company. The hurricane I shall relate is one of the 1947 hurricanes that absolutely flooded S. Florida and was the direct cause of a large portion of S. Florida to have the flood-control dikes and pumps west of here. This storm caused massive flooding and loss of property and put most of Broward county under water for the better part of two months. Even Old Dixie Highway was impassable between Pompano and Deerfield. The Sept 1947 hurricane could be called a "dandy". My family as always when we had a hurricane went to the Pompano High School auditorium to ride out the storm. We carried blankets, water, pillows, canned goods, flashlights and anything else we might need. The shelters provided nothing other than refuge from the storm. This hurricane roared on all through the early morning hours and we watched as the palm trees and the rubber trees on the school grounds bent almost to the ground from the force of the wind and rain. One by one the rubber trees would be up-rooted and blow down while the palm trees just bent with the wind and with the shape of their fronds and slender trunks they hardly ever toppled. Sometime at the height of the storm, police officer Morgan Ritter pulled-up on the lee side of the building and told several of us about a family stranded in an apartment on the beach and there was to much water and debris and downed electric wires for anyone to reach them One of the boys, name slips my mind had an old Willis four door sedan parked beside the building and we quickly decided we would go to the beach and get these people out. Me, Robert Mitchell, Do-Do Smith and the car owner piled in and away we went. It was a whole lot different being in a car out in this wind and rain than being in the school house. We decided it might be best to take N.E. 1st Street to N.E. 13th Avenue where it ended, because there were less wires to contend with, then take Ocean Drive (Now Atlantic Blvd) on out to the beach. Things went fairly smooth along the road, we dodged down poles, wires and other objects in the road and made good progress until we reached Federal Highway. There was a gradual decline in the two-lane road about where N.E. 22nd Ave is now close to where the McIntosh house bordered the road. The wind and rain was something fierce, with visibility almost zero and as we carefully went on to the East, we were suddenly in water that came up into the car and quickly covered the seats we were sitting in. This immediately drowned out the car and we came to a quick stop hardly knowing what had happened. Getting out of the car we were standing in the road in about four feet of water and we were a good half mile from the bridge and further than that to the beach. Shouting to be heard over the wind we decided to try and walk the rest of the way to the beach. We knew if we could cross the bridge at the East-Coast canal it was up-hill on to the beach and we could get to the stranded people. We began our walk and it was a real job making any progress in the wind, rain and water. The waves just sloshed right over us. The farther we went the deeper the water and with the wind blowing in excess of a hundred miles an hour it was all we could do to keep our footing and heads above the water. We decided at just about the same time there was no way we could get to the beach. The inter-coastal canal was out of its banks and almost all the way to federal highway. We made our way back to the Willis, pushed it back out of the water, got it turned around and could see there was no way we could dry out that ignition and get it started. We did the next best thing, we opened up all four doors, gave it a little push and away we went, back the way we came, using wind power to move us along. There were times we reached thirty-five miles per hour and most of the time with the car in gear trying to get it started. We traveled towards town with the wind at our backs blowing us down Ocean Drive, dodging trees, poles, wires and not daring to stop and hoping there was not any real large objects in our way. We continued on and decided it might be best if we just keep going straight until we reached N.E. 1st Ave turn and go West on N.E. 1st Street until we reached the recreation hall (poolroom) on Flagler in Old Pompano. We pulled-up in front of the hall and were just glad to get back to safety. The family that was stranded rode out the storm although their apartment was nearly washed away. The ocean had washed over the beach road and carried sand almost to the intercoastal bridge. This was the only time I have ever seen the water that far to the west of the bridge and never that close to Federal Highway. It could happen again. This was only one of the hurricanes I was involved with. I never looked upon a hurricane as anything but that, something to be respected. You cannot imagine what its like until you experience one, then I'll bet you won't look forward to another one. If and when we get another hurricane alert, pay attention, do as you are instructed. That's the safest way to ride-out a storm. Double headers are a real possibility, maybe even more in a year. Its happened before, it could happen again. They are no fun.