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Florida Hurricane Literature * personal favorites |
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ACTUAL
HURRICANES
Non-Fiction:
*Barnes,
Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. Foreword by Neil Frank. Chapel
Hill: UNC Press,
1998.
Dickinson,
Jonathan. Jonathan Dickinson's Journal. 1699. Recounts a hurricane-caused
shipwreck (September 23,
1696) on the coast of Florida, near Jupiter, and its aftermath.
Doehring, Fred. Florida
Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, 1871-1993: An Historical Survey
(Higher Education
Administration Series). Florida Sea Grant College Program, 1994.
*Douglas,
Marjory Stoneman. Hurricane. 1958. Rev. ed. with Afterword by Dr.
Neil Frank.
Atlanta: Mockingbird Books, 1976.
Drye,
Willie. Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. National
Geographic,
2002.
*Hemingway,
Ernest. "Who Murdered the Vets? A First-Hand Report on the Florida
Hurricane." New Masses (September 17, 1935): 9-10. Rpt. in The
Key West Reader: The
Best of Key
West's Writers 1830-1990. Ed. George Murphy. Key West: Tortugas Ltd. 1989:
112-17.
Kleinberg, Eliot. Black Cloud: The Great Hurricane of 1928. Carroll & Graf, 2004.
McGrath, John T. The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane. UP of Florida, 2000.
Mykle, Robert. Killer ‘Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928. NY: Cooper Square Press, 2002.
The News-Press. Savage Storms: Hurricane Season of 2004. Ft. Myers: News-Press, 2004.
Palm Beach Post. Mean Season: Florida's Hurricanes of 2004. Longstreet Press, 2004.
Peacock, Walter. Hurricane Andrew. Routledge, 1997.
Provenzo,
Eugene, and Asterie Baker Provenzo. In the Eye of Hurricane Andrew (The
Florida
History and Culture
Series). UP of Florida, 2002.
Scott, Phil. Hemingway’s Hurricane: The Great Labor Day Storm of 1935. International
Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2005.
Standiford, Les. Last
Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the
Railroad That
Crosse the Ocean. NY: Crown, 2002.
Will, Lawrence E. Okeechobee Hurricane and the Hoover Dike.
*Williams,
John M. and Iver W. Duedall. Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
1871-2001.
Expanded ed. Gainesville: U Press of Florida, 2002.
Fiction:
Key
Hurricanes 1906-1935: Oct. 17, 1906; Oct. 11, 1909; Oct, 1910
- 30 hour “Loop” hurricane; Sep. 2, 1935 – great Labor Day hurricane whose
storm surge wiped out 40 miles of the Key West Extension rails and fill and
killed hundreds of inhabitants and WWI veterans working on the Key West Highway.
Smiley, Nora K. and Louise V. White. Hurricane
Road. St. Petersburg, FL: Great Outdoors,
1954. Historical novel about the
building of Flagler's Key West railway.
October
17-18, 1910 Hurricane: “…the
Great Hurricane of 1910 did a loop north of the western tip of Cuba (Norton,
1949), passed through Key West, and entered the coast near Fort Myers, where a
low pressure of 28.20 inches of mercury was reported.
This was probably one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit Florida,
a Category 3 storm” (Williams and Duedall 11). “Destruction was widespread
throughout Southwest Florida…. a one-armed man and a baby drowned in the
vicinity of the Thousand Islands….the total number of deaths that
resulted…was estimated to have been at least 101” (Barnes 94).
*Matthiessen,
Peter. Killing Mister Watson. New York: Random House, 1990.
First novel in Matthiessen’s trilogy about the life
and death of J. Edgar Watson in the Ten Thousand Islands at the turn of the
century.
1926
Hurricane: “The Big Blow” “killer hurricane of 1926”
– destroyed Moore Haven (Okeechobee dike
broke), damaged Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Dania, Hollywood, Hallandale.
Ended the real estate boom. Death toll: 325-800.
Mink, Charles. Princess of the
Everglades. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1991.
1928
Hurricane: “San Felipe,” “The Great Okeechobee Flood"
— in the telling of Florida’s hurricane
history, no other hurricane disaster can compare to its toll of at least 1,836
dead in Florida, as well as another 1,575 in the Caribbean.
At the time of the catastrophe, many in South Florida said the actual
death count there was over 2,300; some say it may have been as high as
3,500….It arrived on the coast of Palm Beach …and like its predecessor cast
its most sinister blow on those who lived on the
southern edges of Lake Okeechobee” (Barnes 127-28). Category 4 storm.
*
Smith, Patrick D. A Land
Remembered. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1984.
August
24, 1992: Hurricane Andrew: category 4 storm;
landfall in South Dade County – Cutler Ridge, Homestead – with 145
mph winds gusting to 175 mph – crossed the Everglades and entered the Gulf of
Mexico near Naples, landfall in LA between New Iberia and Lafayette.
*Hiassen,
Carl . Stormy Weather. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
August
13, 2004: Hurricane Charley: – landfall near
Punta Gorda and Sanibel, tore through central Florida ravaging Arcadia.
Mankowski,
Sarah . Wind Scarred. Merritt Island, FL: Fallen Palm Press, 2005. Based
on the
Web Drama, Blossom
Lake:
http://sarahmankowski.com/
1944
hurricane that flooded
Sanibel.
LITERARY
HURRICANES
1870: Unnamed
hurricane:
swept across Upper
Matecumbe: "That wave, they said later, must have been ninety feet high, and
our topmost wind gusts here were reckoned by the Key West people at 250 miles an
hour. What's more, the barometer there registered 26.31 inches, which was
the lowest in all of the history of that place" (Taylor 336). |
*Taylor,
Robert Lewis. A Journey to Matecumbe. New York: Avon, 1961.
Made into a 1976
Disney film The
Treasure of Matecumbe, starring Peter Ustinov
and Robert Foxworth
1887: Unnamed hurricane: caused
the Great Wine Wreck off Palm Beach
*Pratt,
Theodore. The Barefoot Mailman.
1943. Rpt. St. Simons Island, GA: Mockingbird Books,
1971.
1920s: Unnamed hurricanes:
*Rawlings,
Marjorie Kinnan. Jacob’s Ladder. 1931. Rpt. Coral Gables: U
of Miami Press, 1950.
1930s:
Unnamed hurricane:
*Pratt,
Theodore. The Big Blow. 1936. Rpt. as My Bride in the Storm.
New York: Avon. 1950.
Also The
Big Blow with script by Theodore Pratt, produced by WPA Federal
Theatre
Project in NYC,
Oct. 1938 - Feb. 1939.
1947:
Slattery’s Hurricane: threatened Miami curved
NNW to come ashore near Palm Beach
Wouk,
Herman. Slattery’s Hurricane. 1949. Rev.ed. NY: Perma Books,
1956.
Made into a 1949 film
starring Richard Widmark and Veronica Lake.
July or August 1968: Hurricane
Connie:
Stansbury, Henry
Hayes. Hurricane in the Keys. New York: Popular Library, 1968.
Late 1960s:
Hurricane Margo: -- landfall at Palm Beach with wind gusts up to 150 mph
Newhafer, Richard.
On the Wings of the Storm. NY: William Morrow & Company, 1969.
August
21-27, 1977: Hurricane Claudine: -- landfall at Islamorada on August 21,
travelled through Big Cypress Swamp, hairpinned and crossed south of Miami ,
across the Bahamas, and curved back towards the US, landfalling at Manalapan at
10:40 on August 27. Sustained wind speed -- 215 mph; highest storm surge -- 18.9
feet; lives lost -- 11,340; injuries -- 23,189; homes destroyed or with major
damage -- 58,000. Palm Beach totally destroyed and turned into a state
park.
*Davis,
Robert P. Cat Five. 1977. Rpt. NY: Pocket Books, 1978.
August 17,
1970s: Hurricane Ella: -- landfall in "Palm County," south
of Sarasota County; 15 foot storm-surge destroyed at least 3
condo-complexes on "Fiddler Key," wiped out "Beach Village,"
formed a new pass on "Seagrape Key" and two new passes on
"Fiddler Key;" washed out US 41 in "Athens;" over 450
lives lost.
MacDonald,
John D. Condominium. 1977. Rpt. NY: Fawcett, 1978.
1987:
Hurricane Aline: -- “The first hurricane of the 1987 season turned out to
be the most deadly in decades, ravaging the Caribbean, littering the beaches of
Haiti with fishing boats and bodies. Then
she sped through the Florida Straits, turned north and slammed into the
southwest coast of Florida.” (Parrish 15)
Parrish,
P.J. Island of Bones. NY: Pinnacle, 2004.
September
24, 1997: Hurricane Cerberus:– landfall near a village called Mexico
Beach. “Property damage estimates for the Big Bend are in the billions. Lethe,
alone, lost eight houses and another twelve sustained serious wind damage.” (Fowler 265)
*Fowler,
Connie
May. Remembering Blue. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
Dorsey,
Tim. Hammerhead Ranch Motel. 2000. Rpt. NY: HarperTorch, 2001.
June 2004: Hurricane Danielle: landfall
on Tango Key -- a twin of Hurricane Andrew, 12 years later and few miles
south
MacGregor, T.J. Category Five. NY: Pinnacle, 2005.