Florida Hurricane Literature

* personal favorites

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.
*Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1937. Rpt. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1978.
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/  
*White, Randy Wayne. Dark Light. NY: W.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006.  Also invokes the Oct. 19, 
            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, TheodoreThe Barefoot Mailman. 1943. Rpt. St. Simons Island, GA: Mockingbird Books,
           1971.

1920s: Unnamed hurricanes:
*Rawlings, Marjorie KinnanJacob’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, HermanSlattery’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.

  December 2000: Hurricane Rolando-Berto: landfall at Pasco County Line -- "more remarkable for its insurance totals than loss of life...." (Dorsey 342).
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.

 

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