Mobile, AL Wind Storm, Jul 1916

1916 - MOBILE IS SWEPT BY 85-MILE-AN-HOUR WIND

ALTHOUGH no lives were lost within the city proper, the violent tropical hurricane which swept Mobile on July 5, 1916, caused property damage estimated at approximately $1,500,000. Newspapers in other cities—notably the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Montgomery Advertiser, and the Birmingham Age-Herald— carried stories placing the loss of life as high as 22 persons and estimated damage at $8,000,000, causing The Register’s indignant editorial comment: “Certainly, more was expected of The Times-Picayune than that it should consent to be represented by a correspondent so careless of the fact as to assert that ‘twenty-two lives were lost,’ when, in truth, not a life was lost in Mobile and the loss of life in the waters bordering the Gulf was only nine.”

Within the memory of many present-day Mobilians, however, is the terrifying northeast gale which broke over the city about 5 o’clock in the morning of July 5th. As the day wore on, the wind increased in intensity until it averaged from 80 to 85 miles an hour—sometimes as strong as 105 miles an hour, according to statements by Weatherman Albert Ashenberger. In the late afternoon, the wind veered to the south, blowing the water out of the bay up into the city. At 7 o’clock the water was running two feet deep across Royal Street. A few minutes later it was a foot deep across St. Joseph Street and business houses on both sides of Royal and in the district between Royal and the river, were flooded. Meanwhile, a heavy rainfall added to the water damage, as scores of structures were unroofed.

Highlights of the storm, as reported in Mobile newspaper accounts, ran as follows:

“The Municipal Dock was unroofed and Pier No. 1 of the M. & 0. Railroad Co. was partially destroyed. . The smokestack of the Battle House and its two wireless towers were blown away; some of the roof was torn off and thrown to the street below. . . Cotton, sisal, staves and cross-ties were washed out of the municipal wharf up St. Michael and St. Francis Streets. . . Street car service stopped about 1:45 o’clock in the afternoon. Hundreds of people were marooned downtown, and had to spend the night at hotels. . . Scores of persons, including a number of prominent Mobilians, county workers and court attaches fled from the courthouse into the jail. There, they remained until about midnight, as guests of the sheriff. . . In the height of the storm, The Register was informed that Mr. and Mrs. D. P. Bestor and Mr. and Mrs. LeBaron Lyons were missing aboard Mr. Lyons’ yacht Princess. However, it was later reported that the four made it safely to Magnolia Springs, from Dauphin Island where they were cruising at the time the high winds struck. . . The engineers’ docks at Fort Morgan were destroyed.. . A big plate glass window was blown out at Hammel’s. . . Roofs of both wings at City Hospital were removed by the wind, forcing inmates to move to other quarters.. . The county courthouse was severely damaged, and faces of the clock on all four sides were blown off. . . The courthouse tower was wrecked and rain poured into the court rooms. . . The roof of the Cawthon was ripped into shreds, hundreds of windows smashed and the furnishings of many rooms were water-soaked. . . The Mobile Yacht Club’s building was wrecked. . . Many buildings at Monroe Park were badly battered. . . The grandstand and fence at the baseball park were blown down. . Train passengers were marooned at the L. & N. station, but were finally rescued after an appeal for police aid brought a fire wagon to haul them out of the flooded area. . Live wires were a constant menace to life, and power company executives issued warnings against coming in contact with them. One such wire killed a horse at Conception and St. Michael Streets... Every house on the bay front from Bay Avenue and Shell Road was demolished. Old St. Matthew’s Church was destroyed. At least a dozen houses were blown down in the Oakdale area. . . The Bay boat Pleasure Bay sank at the mouth of One-Mile Creek and the Carney went to pieces and to the bottom at the foot of Dauphin Street. . . The river steamer City of Mobile rested on the wharf in front of the municipal wharves; nearby was the three-masted schooner Joseph T. Cooper, a portion of her stern torn away.. - The new mail boat Harry Lee was damaged, and a sister ship was reported to have sunk in the harbor. . - The bay steamer Beaver sank. . . The mail boat Uncle Sam went down opposite Monroe Park, her crew saving their lives by swimming ashore.”

Sensational accounts of the storm appearing in other newspapers throughout the nation, aroused a deep feeling of resentment in Mobile, as expressed in an editorial in The Register on July 10th, five days after the storm:

“People outside are always alarmed when they read that the hurricane has come, that the wires are down and Mobile is shut off from the world. Newspapers have been known to print in red ink and largest letters ‘Mobile Is Wiped off The Map!’ but it has never happened, and if we judge by what has been experienced in the past, it will never happen. Mobile is the most comfortable place we know of in which to have an attack of hurricane.”

Highlights of 75 years in Mobile, Mobile, Ala.: First National Bank of Mobile, 1940, pages 78-79
__________________