The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926

In light of Hurricane Sandy I have decided to chronicle another notable hurricane in history-The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.

In 1926 there were not as many advances in technology that allowed the public to be notified of an approaching storm as quickly as we can be notified today and for that reason "hurricane warnings were not issued until midnight on September 18th, which gave the booming population of South Florida little notice of the impending disaster." When the hurricane reached South Florida it was a Category 4 hurricane and it traveled directly over Miami Beach and downtown Miami. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "this cyclone produced the highest sustained winds ever recorded in the United States at the time, and the barometric pressure fell to 27.61 inches as the eye passed over Miami." All of the buildings located in the downtown district of Miami sustained damages or were completely destroyed.

Before this hurricane, South Florida had a booming economy; but because of all of the destruction it caused, this storm marked the end of their prospering economy. In today's dollars, this hurricane would have been a $90 billion disaster. "With a highly transient population across southeastern Florida during the 1920s, the death toll is uncertain since more than 800 people were missing in the aftermath of the cyclone. A Red Cross report lists 373 deaths and 6,381 injuries as a result of the hurricane."

Here are a couple of maps of the path that The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 followed.

For more information on The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 click here.