Southern, FL The "Labor Day Hurricane", Sep 1935

MORE THAN 100 REPORTED DEAD IN STORM.

HURRICANE RECURVES TO LASH WEST COAST WITH FULL VIOLENCE.

ST. PETERSBURG AND TAMPA BEAR BRUNT OF BLOW; PRESIDENT ORDERS ARMY, NAVY AND RED CROSS TO AID.

Miami, Fla., Sept. 3 -- (AP) -- Leaving more than 100 reported dead in its path through the Florida Keys, a tropical hurricane tonight swept northwestward along the west coast and lashed the resort city of St. Petersburg and Tampa, center of the state's cigar industry.
The reported deaths, most of which lacked confirmation, were said in meager advices received here to have occurred largely in war veterans camps in the Florida Keys.
As the storm, reported with a 100-mile-an-hour velocity at Boca Grande, south of St. Petersburg, whipped into Tampa Bay, three fishermen were reported missing in the gulf and distress flares were seen in the stormy sky out in the gulf.
Most of the communities along the Tampa Bay and gulf waterfront were evacuated late today but grave fears were felt for several thousand persons who usually live in exposed places.
Torrents Of Rain.
With the hurricane winds at St. Petersburg came torrents of rain and most of the city where thousands spend their winters basking in the sunshine was in darkness. Few persons ventured outside the buildings.
Waterfront sections of the city were reported flooded.
Pres. Roosevelt tonight at his Hyde Park, N. Y., home ordered the army, navy and Red Cross to render all possible assistance in the hurricane area and asked Gov. Sholtz if any additional federal aid was needed.
Acting a few hours later on the president's order the navy department at Washington informed commanders of the fifth and sixth naval districts to give assistance and plans were made to aid in rescue work.
The Miami headquarters of the coast guard had received a report 75 war veterans building a long highway along the keys had been killed as the hurricane passed the east coast last night. Three bodies were recovered at Tavernier, on one of the keys and brought here. The following storm victims, suffering from various injuries, were temporarily lodged in the First Baptist Church at Homestead:
N. E. HEWELL of Franklin, Va; H. GAINES of Kansas City, Mo.; W. N. NEPSHA of Minneapolis, and his brother, JOSEPH; HARRY U. BAKER of Washington and FRANK HIGGINS of Youngstown, Ohio.
The 12 beds at Homestead's post-graduate hospital were quickly filled.
The barometer at Boca Grande dropped to 28.80 and torrents of rain fell, but the reports made no mention of property damage.
Broken communications prevented, definite confirmation of the deaths along the keys, except those of the three persons at Tavernier. The bodies were brought here.
Coast Cities Ready.
St. Petersburg and Tampa, the largest cities on the lower west coast, made ready for the approaching storm. The barometer at St. Petersburg was falling steadily. Early tonight there was a 68-mile wind recorded.
The report to the coast guard concerning reported deaths at the Rock Harbor camp was from a radio report and the source was not given.
Rock Harbor is on Plantation Key about 16 miles north of Tavernier on the same island. Upper Matecumbe is the next key in the chain going south. The war veterans were in the camps building a long overseas highway to provide a direct over-water route between Miami and Key West. Permanent camps are situated on the two Matecumbe Keys, one camp temporarily was at Rock Harbor.
Fishermen Missing.
Three Gulfport fishermen still were missing, St. Petersburg reported. They were last seen yesterday as they took off in a 26-foot open boat for the gulf fishing banks.
Sponge fishermen were notified by a coast guard plane to turn into safe ports.
The wind whipped through the streets and residential sections of St. Petersburg but at 8:30 p. m. there had been no damage except to shrubbery. Street lights were turned out as a precautionary measure.
At 9:30 p. m. the weather bureau at Jacksonville ordered up hurricane warnings from Punta Gorda to Carrabelle on the west coast and southeast storm warnings up on the Florida east coast from Miami to Jacksonville. Previously the hurricane warnings only extended north on the west coast to Tarpon Springs.
On Broad Recurve.
The bureau said the storm was moving north-northwestward "apparently on a broad recurve attended by shifting gales and winds of hurricane force near the center." The forecaster warned of high tides at least as far north as Cedar Keys.
At that hour the storm was reported approaching Tampa Bay.
The refugees from Upper Matecumbe, wounded when their frame dwellings and hospital crumbled like matchwood in the face of the storm, told tales of horror and narrow escape from death as waters rushed over the key like a mill race.
All but one of the 64 buildings in the camp were leveled by the wind, and in the one small shack still standing rescue workers found ten of the most seriously injured of the victims on the bare floor.
"I would rather face machine gun fire again than go through an experience like that once more," said GEORGE SENISON, 39-year-old veteran.
FRED GHENT, director of the veterans camps on the Florida Keys, told the Associated Press over long distance telephone tonight he did not believe there had been any great loss of life at camp number one; south of Snake Creek.
Appear Unperturbed.
GHANT said he had gone to the northern side of Snake Creek this afternoon and tried to shout to a half dozen men at the demolished camp.
They did not appear to be greatly perturbed, GHENT said, and gave no signals which he interpreted as meaning any men had been killed.
GHENT said he believed all the men in the camp except the few he saw had boarded the rescue train, yesterday afternoon as it proceded southward.
GHENT said he had no way of knowing the conditions at the two camps farther south.
The director added every building at the camp had been flattened.
He said he thought there were not more than 450 men in all at the three camps.
JACK DANIELS, FERA tow boat captain, said he counted 15 bodies without search of jumbled wreckage at the upper Matecumbe camp.
Many bodies, he believed, had been washed to sea by the high water which menaced the inhabitants after their buildings had been demolished.
Reach Stricken Camp.
Not until late today did rescue workers reach the stricken camp. It had been cut off from Plantation Key to the north when both railway and highway bridges were destroyed by the wind and raging torrents of water.
During the day, first one, then two of the refugees made their way from the camp four miles below to the north end of Upper Matecumbe and frantically signalled to the handful of rescuers on the opposite shore.
All boats, except one with too deep a draft to navigate the creek, had been wrecked in the storm. Capt. E. NABLE, foreman of the camp who was in Miami when the storm broke, tried vainly to swim the swift current but turned back.
Later HENRY DAY, 25, of Homestead, a life rope about his waist, swam the current to the first bridge abutment and was about to start on the final lap when a small row boat, salvaged from the bottom of the creek and manned by two men, made the stream.
It was the first rescue vessel to reach the stricken camp and the two men, BUCK HAMILTON and JACK DANIELS, returned with pleas from the refugees on the opposite shore, for immediate medical aid.
Coast guard divisional headquarters at Jacksonville received a report tonight that volunteer workers were bringing women and children and "seriously injured" across Snake Creek.
Death Toll "Unknown."
The radio message, from the Miami air station, said an unnamed state board of health official had returned from Tavenier to report the number of dead and injured in the Florida Keys "unknown."
He was quoted as saying conditions south of Tavenier were "deplorable."
"Women and children and seriously injured," the message said, were being brought across the creek by volunteer workers "with inadequate equipment."
First to be taken from the stricken Matecumbe Island was little DOROTHY VAN NESS, 6, whose father, BENNY, two brothers, BENNY JR., and EUGENE, and sister, KATHERINE, reportedly lost their lives when they took refuge in the frame hospital building in the camp.
Her face scarred and legs cut by falling debris, she and her mother, LAURA, saved themselves from drowning by clinging to wreckage throughout the night.
She had cried until she could hardly cry any more.
"Papa is gone," she replied to questions as to the whereabout of her father.
"My big brother is gone, too. So is KATHERINE and so is GENE. ALl are gone except me and mama."
Se ran to her mother's arms as MRS. VAN NESS arrived on the third trip of the little rescue boat.
MRS. FRANCES CRUSOE, 30, wife of veteran JOSEPH CRUSOE, her elbow injured and her body badly bruised, had not heard from her husband since the hurricane leveled their little frame dwelling. She was not sure of his fate.
She suffered from exposure and spoke with some difficulty. She related how she escaped from her home just before it collapsed, only to be struck by flying debris.
Relief Ordered Out.
Soon after reports reached here of the deaths in the veterans' camp and of the distress there, the navy station at Key West radioed that a fleet of motorboats and trucks was being prepared to go to the veterans' aid. Medical supplies, food and water were to be taken. Florida emergency relief headquarters also planned to rush aid from Miami and Key West.
Gov. DAVE SHOLTZ ordered a company of national guardsmen from Miami to proceed into the lower keys area tonight. The Miami Red Cross asked for the troops to police the area to prevent looting and also to render aid to the victims.
Hurricane warnings were standing along the West Florida coast as the storm, apparently of diminished intensity, swept up the Gulf of Mexico.
A 70-mile wind was reported early tonight at Punta Gorda.
Meteorologist GORDON E. DUNN of the Jacksonville weather bureau said there was slight evidence that the storm might recurve to the north-northwest, but was definite enought to warrant a warning to the Florida west coast.
Winds of 50 to 60 miles an hour as far north as Tampa were expected during the night. Forty-five mile gales were blowing at Sarasota and Bradenton.
The veterans' camps along the keys, where the storm appareently struck its most furious blows, were established more than a year ago to provice workers for construction of the overseas highway linking the Florida mainland with Key West.
Some of the veterans encamped there were members of the bonus army which marched on Washington a few years ago.
One of the camps was the scene a few months ago of a strike among the veterans over wages and alleged unsanitary living conditions.
The little island towns of Tavernier and Whale Harbor were said to have been flattened by the storm.
Although the lower mainland in the path of the storm is sparsely settled, truck and citrus crops suffered heavily.
A stretch of the Florida East Coast Railroad below Tavernier was washed out. TED RAMSEY, a Miami newspaper man, returned from the keys area to tell of the destructive force of the storm.
RAMSEY said the winds sent solid walls of water pouring over the overseas highway leading to Key West. He was almost trapped by the water as he pushed his way by automobile into the area, he said.
Visible from the highway were houses flattened like eggshells, RAMSEY said. He said at lest 30 of the 50 houses in Tavernier were demolished, and houses along the highway had been picked up by the wind and moved.
From HOMER DE LEACH, a bakery house manager returning tonight from that section, came a description of the havoc wrought in the veterans' camp No. 1 where the deaths were reported.
The hospital building, the largest there, he said, was gone, along with the 20 or 30 other buildings. Sixty patients were reported in the hospital.
He viewed the scene from across Snake Creek.
"We met six of the veterans just standing around in the rain near the bridgehead," he said. "They had been north of the creek and knew nothing of what had occurred in the camp except for the destruction that could be seen."
The veterans were asked to return with DE LOACH, but said they would rather stay and try to get back to the camp.
Clearwater Beach residents began evacuating their homes and moving away from the waterfront.
Some moved into the Peace Memorial Recreation Hall, which the Red Cross offered.
The barometer dropped from 29.69 at 3 p. m. to 29.48 at 6 p. m. (EST). Tides were rising.
At Tarpon Springs sponge vessels returned to port early in the afternoon when the barometer began to fall. The community, located on the gulf coast, took precautions after weather bureau officials warned of possible danger.

The Galveston Daily News Texas 1935-09-04

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TROPICAL STORM HEADING INTO GEORGIA.

FORCE DIMINISHING AS LAND TRAVERSED; HAVOC MARKS ROUTE.

TOLL OF LIVES UNOFFICIALLY FIGURED AT 200 to 500; NO ESTIMATE OF CROP AND PROPERTY DAMAGE.

Miami, Fla., Sept. 4. -- (AP) -- The raging tropical hurricane which swept the Florida Keys with an unofficial toll of from 200 to 500 lives was headed back northeastward across the state tonight with apparently diminishing force.
LEONARD K. THOMPSON, Red Cross disaster relief chairman in the hurricane area, advised his Washington headquarters tonight he believed the death toll woul dbe less than 200. This estimate, he said, was made after contact with all hitherto unheard from points in the area.
No estimate of the crop and property damage could yet be obtained and it was likely a factual total of the loss of life would not be available for days. The Red Cross figure was the first of a semi-official nature to be announced. Rescue forces were being organized in all parts of the affected area, however, and it was hoped restoration of communication lines would quickly reveal the extent of the storm.
There were reports of high winds in Northwestern Florida tonight and some property damage but no indication of loss of life. At 7:30 o'clock tonight the weather bureau at Jacksonville said the disturbance, gradually diminishing to storm winds, probably would pass just north of Macon, Ga., and move out into the ocean through the Carolinas.
Coast guard headquarters at Washington were informed tonight by its Jacksonville station that between 200 and 400 persons were dead at Matecumbe, where a number of world war veterans were engaged in a road building project.
An estimate that the deat in the keys would not exceed 300 came from DR. JOE STEWART, who late today completed an aerial survey of the storm swept keys.
GEORGE BRANCH, station master at Islamorado toward the north end of the island chain, reported to the Florida east coast railroad he had counted nearly 150 bodies and estimated the storm had claimed several hundred lives.
From JACK COMBS, a Miami undertaker who led a rescue expedition into the storm stricken keys, came a report that between 400 and 500 persons may have died.
Progress Watched.
While struggling against odds to render help to the injured and homeless and obtain an accurate survey of the damage wrought by the disturbance, Red Cross and other relief workers kept a close watch on the progress of the storm, which tonight presented a new menace to the northern section of the state.
Crossing the western coast of the peninsula north of St. Petersburg after swinging out over the gulf, the howling hurricane passed inland again in the vicinity of the little sponge fishing village of Cedar Key, and apparently took up a north-northeast course. No serious damage was reported threre.
The territory immediately inland from Cedar Key is more or less sparsely settled and is composed largely of farm and timber land. Farther back from the coast line toward the Georgia state line, however, are such cities as Cross City, Live Oak, Lake City and Madison.
Report To Capital.
In his report to Washington, Disaster Relief Chairman THOMPSON said the 100 known dead wre from the neighborhood of world war veterans' Camp No. 1, located on upper Matecumbe Key. One out of every three persons at that camp was said to be dead.
Rescue workers still were having difficulty reaching two other veterans' Camps, Nos. 3 and 5, located on lower Matcumbe, which was isolated when winds and flood waters carried away the bridges, highway and railroad tracks that linked that island in the key group.
It was in the vicinity of Islamorado, to the north, in the vicinity of Camp No. 1, that Station Master BRANCH reported he had counted nearly 150 bodies.
A radio message from a coast guard amphibian plane flying over the storm-stricken keys said only 70 men remained alive in Camps Nos. 3 and 5 on lower Matecumbe. It added that three doctors were on hand and that survivors were being taken aboard three yachts and a coast guard cutter to be transferred to Miami.
Some Vets Away.
The FERA headquarters said it was not known exactly how many veterans were in the camps when the storm struck, but that there were housing accommodations for about 683. Some of them, however, were away at the time.
The veterans were engaged in a FERA project of building an overseas highway linking Key West with the Florida mainland. Some of them were among the bonus seekers who marched on Washington several years ago. They came from all sections of the country.
Co-operating with coast guard, Red Cross and other relief agencies, the Pan-American Airways turned over a number of its airplanes for relief work. A complete radio station was flown to one of the lower keys and set up to establish contact with the affected areas. Four Miami doctors were flown into the stricken section to aid the injured.
Red Cross Leader.
Intercepted on his way to Kansas City for a speaking engagement, DR. WILLIAM DE KLEINE, medical director of the National Red Cross, entrained from St. Louis late today for the storm-swept area of Florida. He said the National Red Cross has 11 rescue and two hospital units in that area.
Trucks loaded with medical supplies, food and clothing supplied by the REd Cross, national guard and volunteer groups, rumbled southward from here on errands of mercy to the injured and those left homeless by the storm's fury.
Pres. Roosevelt personally ordered all available federal forces to render aid and coast guard ships were dispatched to act as hospital bases in the isolated keys.
Confronting the rescue workers was the grewsome task of removing to Miami the bodies of all those who perished on the keys, some of which are reachable now only by boat since highways and railroad beds were washed out.
Some rescuers reported bodies could be seen pinned under the wreckage of their homes and others were strewn out about in the open. Belief was expressed that some of the bodies may have been washed out to sea by the high tidal wave that struck the keys.
Heartrending Scenes.
Scenes of death, misery and destruction greeted the eyes of those who journeyed today to the rugged keys to lend a helping hand to the hurricane victims.
Houses and other buildings were crushed like matchwood and strewn about the countryside by the wind's fury. Highways were flooded and bridges and railroad tracks were washed away, completely isolating many of the keys.
To some of the islands, boats were the only means of communication and going was rough and hazardous. Heavy seas still were pounding and the weather was damp and dismal.
Until rescue workers can reach the ragged keys rarther south, belief was expressed by many of them that the heaviest loss of life probably was felt on Matecumbe keys and fishing villages on Plantation key and key Largo.
DR. JOE STEWART, who flew in a Pan-American survey plane over the storm-ridden keys late today, reported by wireless that all except 11 persons at Veterans' Camp No. 5 had perished.
Reports On Camps.
FERA headquarters previously had stated 192 veterans had been stationed at that camp, but that it was possible a number of them were away on leave of absence.
Camp No. 5 and Camp No. 3, located farther south on lower Matecumbe key, have not been reached by foot by rescuers, who have been halted by washouts just south of Camp No. 1, to the north.
The FERA had estimated that 250 veterans were originally located at Camp No. 1, 192 at Camp No. 5 and 241 at Camp No. 3.
"Survivors of Camp 5 numbering 11 are at Camp 3. All others perished. At Camp 3 are 45 known dead, 25 wounded and 75 refugees. Plenty of food and water. Coast guard cutter just arrived."
Pilot ROY KEELER, flying the survey plane, also reported to Pan-American:
"Conditions on keys from Tavernier to Matecumbe most serious. Many dead laid out. Great many people walking around without any shelter at present. Waiting for Red Cross party to return medicine to lower Matecumbe."
That message was timed at 12:40 p. m. (EST).
Horror and Misery.
Heart-rending tales of horror and suffering were brought out of the wind-wrecked keys today by survivors. Typical of them was told by DR. LASSER ALEXANDER, medical examiner at one of the veterans' camps on Matecumbe key.
"I was at Snake Creek Hotel, which was used as a hospital. This collapsed about 10 p. m. with many persons under the ruins. There were about 40 patients in this building, about half of them women and children. Out of this number, there were only seven men and three of four of the women saved."
"When the building toppled over, I was able to walk out through a hole in the wall into about three or four feet of water filled with floating timbers and debris. The wind was about 50 or 60 miles an hour and carried flying timbers that caused most of the casualties."
Graphic Story.
JOSEPH FACTSAU, timekeeper at Camp No. 3, was the only known person to have escaped alive from that camp. He was taken to a Miami hospital for treatment to an injured spine, and told a graphic story of how he saw his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren perish in the storm.
"The building we were placed in lasted only an hour," said FACTSAU, a former army aviator. "I tried to make a human chain from the building to the railroad track to get all the women and children to safety, but I was washed into the gulf by a high wave. I swam back as quickly as I could and reached shore just as the hospital (the Snake Creek Hotel) collapsed. I heard my wife calling my name but I was not able to get to her in time. They were all killed under the ruins."
Investigation Asked.
Congressman J. HARDIN PATERSON said at Lakeland he had wired HARRY L. HOPKINS, federal relief administrator, asking for an investigation of the deaths of war veterans in the keys. He wanted to find out, he said, why the islands were not evacuated when notice was given of the storm's approach.
"They had plenty of notice, and I want to fix the responsibility," MR. PETERSON said.
He said he was asked by ARTHUR R. BORING of Plant City, state commander of the American Legion, to take the action.
Steady rain at Quitman, Ga., heralded the advance of the storm in that vicinity. Greenville, Fla., 30-miles south of there, received high wind and much rain.
Farther north, as far as Beaufort, N. C., residents along the coast boarded up their homes, moved their boats to safest possible harbors and prepared for the storm in the event it should strike there.
Presumably the storm passed into Georgia between Tallahassee and Madison. Once over land, when it encountered trees and other obstacles, the wind gradually diminished in intensity. The weather bureau said points farther north might not get much more than high winds.
Gainesville, Fla., where the State University is located, escaped with only minor damage to trees. A huge pine tree fell on the campus, however, and smashed windows in the engineering building.

STORM TOLL IN FLORIDA AT A GLANCE.
By Associated Press.
Areas hardest hit in the Florida hurricane, which took an estimated death toll of from 400 to 500:
Tavernier, Plantation Key -- Red Cross reports at least 100 killed. Twelve to 15 houses left standing in town of 400.
Matecumbe Key -- Two war veterans' construction camps demolished. Many crushed in collapse of hotel used as hospital. Washington relief officials estimate 150 veterans killed. Rescue train wrecked; crew saved.
Rock Harbor -- Meager dispatches report 75 or more dead.
Key West -- Associated Press corresondent, on aerial survey, finds railway to Florida mainland twisted and broken; miles of track lifted from roadbed. Trees flattened on crushed houses.
Vaca Keys -- Ferry station wrecked.
Isla Morada -- Station master estimates several hundred dead; only 25 residents saved. Island housed 250 fishermen and families. Estimates of dead may include veterans on lower Matecumbe, nearby, railway officials believe.
Clearwater -- WAYNE OLIVER, managing editor of Clearwater Sun, on survey to Tampa, lists damage in that area chiefly to crops.
Cedar Key -- Island of 1200 population, 90 miles north of St. Petersburg, awaits storm. Buildings mostly old, of flimsy wood. Evacuation started.
St. Petersburg -- Tide rises, sea heavy, as storm swerves up west coast. Property damage reported "considerable." Messages say none believed dead, but "have no knowledge of conditions at Clearwater and Tarpon Springs."
Miami -- "All down the keys isolated frame houses have been crushed," reports Associated Press correspondent after flight over area. "About them there is no sign of life."
Cedar Key -- Most of 1200 in village connected by single strand to mainland huddle in school and other buildings as high winds blow; craft shattered; no injuries reported.
Sarasota -- Buildings unroofed, communication lines cripples but no loss of life. Beach cottages hardest hit.
Bradenton -- Heavy property and crop damage, power lines down, but no lives reported lost.
Long Key -- Every building demolished, but 14 residents of this fishing resort escaped deaths says message to Jacksonville telephone official.
Greenville -- Heavy rain and high wind. No loss of life.
Tampa -- Sixty-five wind uproots trees. Some roofs torn, windows broken. High tide subsiding after washing out part of bayshore drive. Three naval destroyers on training cruise held in port.

The Galveston Daily News Texas 1935-09-05
(Transcriber's Note -- One source I found stated the total death toll at 423 victims. The Weather Bureau recognizes the total at 408 victims.)
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!