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Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935

Willie Drye (Goodreads Author)

4.13 · Rating details · 217 ratings · 28 reviews

In 1934, hundreds of jobless World War I veterans were sent to the remote Florida Keys to build a highway from Miami to Key West. The Roosevelt Administration was making a genuine effort to help these down-and-out vets, many of whom suffered from what is known today as post-traumatic stress disorder. But the attempt to help them turned into a tragedy. The supervisors in ch ...more

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Paperback, 400 pages

Published August 1st 2019 by Lyons Press (first published August 1st 2002)

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Sep 28, 2020 Tam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow - what a read! I felt like I was right there looking at the aftermath. I felt people's sorrow and anguish. What a tragedy! This is an awesome recounting told in such accurate and chilling detail.

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

#StormoftheCenturylabordayhurricane1935 #NetGalley ...more

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Apr 11, 2020 Michael D. Alligood rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: onmyshelf

Very well researched book and nicely written. I will say that having a list of characters (persons) would have greatly benefited the narrative as there are a lot of names to follow and keep up with. But the author does a great job keeping you on pace with the pre and post game analysis of the worst hurricane in history to strike the US coast.

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Dec 09, 2019 Doninaz rated it really liked it

I grew up in South Florida. Trips to "The Keys” were a joy. I remember fishing from the old 7-mile highway bridge, built on the original railroad bridge after the hurricane destroyed the railroad. I also went through several hurricanes. But even then, the Hurricane of 1935 was seen as cataclysmic. I sought to read first-hand details about that event. But envisioning it was a horror.

Storm Features at Landfall
• The storm surge reached 19 feet. (The sea level at the Upper and Middle Keys was 5-7 f I grew up in South Florida. Trips to "The Keys” were a joy. I remember fishing from the old 7-mile highway bridge, built on the original railroad bridge after the hurricane destroyed the railroad. I also went through several hurricanes. But even then, the Hurricane of 1935 was seen as cataclysmic. I sought to read first-hand details about that event. But envisioning it was a horror.

Storm Features at Landfall
• The storm surge reached 19 feet. (The sea level at the Upper and Middle Keys was 5-7 feet.)
• Sustained winds were 185 mph.
• With a barometric pressure of 892 millibars (26.34 inches), even today this storm remains the most intense U.S. landfalling Atlantic hurricane.

In Storm of the Century, author Willie Drye does an excellent job of recreating the background that led the veterans to the keys, the hurricane’s landfall with its tragic losses, and the aftermath of investigations and whitewashes. This period covered about four years. Drye concludes with a “where are they now” retrospective and a recent update on the area’s storm history.

The author’s thorough research leaves the reader well-informed. To provide first-hand details, Drye examined past newspapers and periodicals, and visited local libraries and archivists. He also interviewed survivors and relatives of those in the storm. His material is generously annotated at the book’s end, although not indexed within the text.

The Story

The book’s early stages focused on the Depression era “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans who demonstrated for an advance on their bonus payment for wartime service. These desperate individuals converged on Washington D.C. and erected a tent city. Their encampments became an embarrassment to the administration (Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s). A veterans work program in the Florida Keys could extract the demonstrators from Washington. So, the veterans were sent to the Keys to work on an “overseas highway,” a project they would never finish.

The Florida Keys in the 1930s were nothing like today. Facilities, transportation, and communications were primitive even by standards then. The main mode for remote travel was by train to Key West or South Florida via an overseas rail line. No connecting highway existed. The native population was sparse: probably under 1,000 outside of Key West. The storm’s target was Islamorada, a strip of land 20 miles long and, at its broadest point, no more than one mile wide.

In 1935, hurricane forecasters lacked weather satellites, hurricane reconnaissance aircraft, and technological equipment. Position reports originated from passing ships. A barometer could detect an approaching storm, but could not accurately predict its intensity or direction.

Additionally, administrators without hands-on experience were unlikely to be savvy about the tasks and durations needed for hurricane preparation and evacuation. These shortcomings would be exposed during this worst-case storm that changed its direction and rapidly intensified close to shore.

Worst off were the vets. Their camps were shoddily built and dangerously located. Lack of advance planning and bureaucratic inertia delayed their evacuation until it was too late. Over 400 people died; more than half, vets. ...more

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Oct 01, 2020 Tim Schneider rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I don't know from hurricanes. Blizzards...sure. Earthquakes...yeah, we get the odd one. Volcanoes...well I live in a lava field, not that we've had one recently. But hurricanes are something that happen on the other side of the continent. But I was intrigued by this book and I wasn't disappointed.

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (this was before they were named) was probably the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. It's the one that they mention in the movie Key Largo. It had maximum sustained wi I don't know from hurricanes. Blizzards...sure. Earthquakes...yeah, we get the odd one. Volcanoes...well I live in a lava field, not that we've had one recently. But hurricanes are something that happen on the other side of the continent. But I was intrigued by this book and I wasn't disappointed.

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (this was before they were named) was probably the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. It's the one that they mention in the movie Key Largo. It had maximum sustained winds at landfall of 185 mph and barometric pressure of 26.34 inches of mercury. I didn't know what that last one meant until I read the book, but apparently that's lower pressure than most barometers at the time were able to measure. It was, by any measure, a monster storm.

But beyond its severity, it hit the Florida Keys at a politically sensitive time. The 1936 political campaign was in the offing. And on Labor Day of 1935 there were hundreds of World War I veterans in the Keys that had been sent there by the Roosevelt administration to work on the Overseas Highway under the direction of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. 695 veterans, most of whom had been members of the Bonus Army, were in three work-camps in the lowlands of the Florida Keys. The camps were not well constructed, were not well placed and while there was somewhat of a plan for evacuation in case of a hurricane, it was not well thought out and it was, ultimately, not implemented...or at least not on time.

Drye does a good job of giving us the background leading up to the hurricane, both the political situation with the Bonus Army and the new Administration and the background on the Keys and hurricanes there. The story of the hurricane itself is well told and it's told in a manner that allows for someone with very little knowledge of these types of weather patterns to understand what was going down. It would be easy for Drye to point fingers at the FERA officials for the scope of the disaster that lead to the death of 251 of the veteran workers and to an extent he does. But he also makes it clear that there were several breakdowns in the management of the veterans and the camps and that there were certainly people within the FERA and associated agencies who had been urging better planning and a much earlier evacuation than was attempted. Drye also does a good job of showing that even the Conchs (natives of the Keys) were taken surprise by the intensity and power of the storm and there were significant civilian

I think that if there's one knock on the book it's that there's a large cast of characters and they tend to run together. I'm not entirely sure what Drye could have done to differentiate them, but at the very least a list of the "cast of characters" with a describer of who they are would have been helpful. But that's really the only nit I have to pick in a very enjoyable book.

My thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for a preview copy in exchange for my reviews. ...more

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Oct 06, 2020 Stephanie Lopez rated it really liked it

My opinion of this story may be biased since I live on the coast and have lived through hurricanes, including Hurricane Alicia, and more recently, Hurricane Ike and Harvey. But, as someone who was born in Galveston, Texas, and who still lives on the Texas gulf coast, I enjoy picking up a book about hurricanes that have hit the coastlines all around America. The hardest part of reading books about devastating events is reading about the aftermath and learning how many people lost their lives. Thi My opinion of this story may be biased since I live on the coast and have lived through hurricanes, including Hurricane Alicia, and more recently, Hurricane Ike and Harvey. But, as someone who was born in Galveston, Texas, and who still lives on the Texas gulf coast, I enjoy picking up a book about hurricanes that have hit the coastlines all around America. The hardest part of reading books about devastating events is reading about the aftermath and learning how many people lost their lives. This book was WOW! An eye-opener to the devastation mother nature can bring.

While reading, I felt as though I was in the story, fighting the storm, trying to get out of my coastal home. Attempting to make my way further inland or to the train that so many felt would provide shelter and take them to their haven. The energy this storm brought to the Keys was like no other I have read before. The wind speeds this hurricane produced were terrifying. I pray every summer that Galveston never has to go through something so deadly.

Storm of the Century is a well-researched book that sucks you in with vivid images; it's tragic, powerful, and very well written. The one thing that kept me from giving this book 5 stars was keeping up with all the different characters and the multiple storylines taking place at once.

As I was reading about the men on the shore fighting to get out of the storm, or rushing to save their families, the next paragraph would jump to the Dixie cruise ship and go right into the disasters they were facing. I had to take a minute to change direction in my head, remember their situation, and their most recent position. Then the story went back to the men at the shore.

If I had a list of persons before reading, I might have kept up with the changes as quickly as they came. Either way, this book is going on my shelf of favorites in nonfiction. Willie Drye, thank you for your research and story. NetGalley, thank you for providing me with a copy of this novel to read. This story stays with you long after you've finished reading. ...more

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Oct 01, 2020 Cat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have read short accounts of this hurricane over the years, but it's the first whole book I've found devoted to it. tragic story all round. Being from Ohio, I never really give to much thought to hurricanes (other than the large ones that pass over us and dump torrential rain) It didn't exactly surprise me that the government didn't take blame for this event and the loss of life, it never does. But that the whole grave situation of the deceased should still be ongoing in the 21st century is jus ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Dale Dewitt rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book it was one of the best books about hurricanes that I have read. I did feel that after the hurricane the author took too much time explaining the congressional investigations that followed with really no outcome other than to say that the government swept it under the rug but I felt that there were some corollaries between the 1935 hurricane and Katrina. I also love the focus on the keys recovery after the hurricane and the impacts That hurricane still have on the keys ...more

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Sep 11, 2020 Lisa Konet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, history-us, netgalley, nature, omg-shocking, nonfiction, recommendation-reader, so-emotional, this-happned, to-reread

Holy cannoli! This actually happened and during war time. This shocked me to the core in some parts, but this was also before more accurate forecasting for hurricanes and other weather. These men really suffered and I felt like I was there with them through all the horror. Highly recommended if you like weather related events that are a part of history.

Thanks to Netgalley, Willie Drye and Lyons Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already available: 8/1/19

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Oct 20, 2019 Joe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the tragic story of how two ignorant men indirectly caused the deaths of over 400 people including over 300 veterans from WWI. Then politics created a massive coverup so that none of the guilty were ever officially even blamed, much less charged. It also gives a sobering account of the true power of these storms from the ground level.

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Oct 28, 2019 Jacqui H. Travis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Excellent historical depiction of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, that devastated the Florida Keys, but written in the style of a good suspense novel. A real page-turner... was hard to put it down once I started reading it.

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Sep 14, 2020 Darren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I got this as a e book for my i pad from net galley. I enjoyed reading it. It is a book about a storm that happened in the us. It is my first book read by this author. I hope to read more books by this author.

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May 31, 2020 Ron Bergquist rated it really liked it

Shelves: americana, history, on-the-shelf

p. 296 - "One day, unfortunately, that debt will come due." ...more

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Jun 12, 2019 Norma Dulac rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Well written account of the events leading up to the hurricane and the effects of bureaucracy's decisions on the people in the path of destruction. ...more

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Mar 09, 2020 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Detailed and accurate account based on the same data seen in the Museum of History in Islamorada.

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Aug 23, 2013 Mary Shafer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: weather, nonfiction, us-history

Excellent, comprehensive and informative documentary treatment of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, one of just three Category 5 storms to make landfall in the US to date, since such records have been kept. Along with great weather data made accessible to the lay reader, this book also reveals the story of the "Conchs," Key West's inhabitants and fishermen's families who knew something bad was coming; and of course, the terrible tragedy that struck the camps full of WWI veterans who had been ship ...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Eric rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, american-history, history, modern-history, natural-disaster, non-fiction

This is an excellent account of the most powerful hurricane to have hit the United States. This was one monster storm, awing even the long-time FL residents who had lived through previous bad storms. The author does a nice job of setting the scene by introducing the characters and recounting what they did to prepare for the storm.

The description of the storm itself and its aftermath are especially vivid and riveting. We're talking wind speeds around 150 to 200 mph, strong enough to lift grown m ...more

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May 08, 2015 Harold Crowder rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When In Doubt, Get Out!

Mother Nature and Human Nature ARE Unpredictable, waiting could very easily make for a very bad outcome.

Then, there's Murphy's Law:"If something can go wrong, it will.” An addition to this law reads, “and usually at the worst time.”

And then, there's the finger-pointing, second-guessing, scapegoating and cover-up!

WHAT a tragedy! Unfortunately, despite all our technological advances, we're not much better off at understanding the phenomenon of "bombing out" today then we wer ...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, natural-disaster, non-fiction, replaced

AMAZING!!! I am a big fan of hurricane books. This is in my top 2. This was a tragic and powerful event in Florida history. I am a Florida native and have been to the Keys many times. I also have been through the eye of 4 hurricanes in my life. (Andrew, Francis, Jean, Wilma) I can only imagine what a Category 5 hurricane would do to the Keys, but this book covers it perfectly and makes one heck of an amazing book. The tragedy, politics and intense storm set the stage for a story that reads like ...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Peg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book details the category 5 hurricane that took a devastating toll on the Florida Keys in 1935. Being a frequent visitor to the Keys, I was able to identify with many of the places in the storm's path and once again realize what a fragile chain of islands make up that area. All in all, it is a compelling read. ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Ideally, I would say this book is a 4 1/2 star book but I am giving it the benefit of 5 stars since I can't do that. I love books about natural disasters and this one was very well researched. It is an exiting read and very hard to put down. ...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Robert rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I tend to like storm porn. This falls in that genre. It does a good job of following those impacted by the storm and the history of the storm. The first few chapters are hard to sort through, but once the storm moves in, it draws you along nicely.

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Mar 08, 2015 LOL_BOOKS added it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history, american-history

I LEAVE FOR FLORIDA ON THURSDAY. REC RECS FOR BOOKS I SHOULD PUT ON MY KINDLE FOR MY WEEK AT THE BEACH! NOTHING DEPRESSING OR THAT REQUIRES REAL EFFORT TO READ, HOBVIOUSLY.

SINCE YOU'LL BE IN THE AREA, THE LABOR DAY HURRICANE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE LOCAL HISTORY TOPICS. ...more

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Mar 12, 2010 Mark Rast rated it liked it · review of another edition

Odd and underrated, but very interesting.

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Mar 11, 2013 Richard Boyett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Five star read all the way but being a Floridian I'm prejudiced. I have experienced my share of hurricanes and the only one that was fun I wasn't old enough to know better. ...more

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Mar 21, 2016 Weatherbrains rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fascinating account of the strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States.

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Jan 15, 2012 Larry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Well written, well researched and an incredible story of errors compounded upon each other in the face of a killer hurricane.

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About Willie Drye

Willie Drye

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Willie Drye has been chasing stories for more than 30 years and has written about everything from urban planning to wedding planning for magazines and newspapers across the US and Canada. His work has been published in the Washington Post, Toronto Globe and Mail, and other regional and national publications.

Drye is a contributing editor for National Geographic News and has written about hurricanes ...more