1935 Labor Day hurricane
The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was a very compact and intense hurricane, which caused catastrophic damage on the island chain of the Florida Keys. He was one of only three hurricanes, which the U.S. with Category 5 intensity met in the 20th century. He was also one of only four storms with central pressure below 900 hPa and the only one with such a low pressure that hit the United States directly. The eye of Hurricane Allen missed the USA just barely. Because of its impact of this storm is also referred to as the " Storm of the Century ".
Genesis of Hurricane
The storm in late August was formed east of the Bahamas from a small tropical disturbance and moved west across the islands towards the Gulf Stream. American meteorologists were aware of the disorder and the possibility of a tropical storm have been aware of.
In the area of Andros Islands in the Bahamas this disorder gaining strength. He turned then to the northwest and headed for Islamorada in the upper Keys, where he met the " Labor Day" ( Monday, September 2 ) against 20 clock local time on land.
The assumed maximum sustained wind speed at landfall was estimated at up to 300 km / hr. Subsequent calculations of the NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HDR) go from around 260 km / h from. The air pressure at the center was measured at 892 hPa and thus represented the lowest observed in the Western Hemisphere pressure to 1988 Hurricane Gilbert surpassed this record. An unconfirmed report after the minimum pressure was in the center even at 880 hPa
Shore
The main artery, the Florida Keys joined at this time to the mainland, was the single-track railway line Miami -Key West, the "Florida Overseas Railroad ", which belonged to the Florida East Coast Railway. A train of ten cars, which had been sent from Homestead made to evacuate the Keys was flushed through storm surge from the tracks.
Overall, at least 423 people (164 residents and 259 veterans ) lost their lives in the hurricane. Even in Flamingo and Cape Sable, at the southwestern end of the mainland of Florida, bodies were washed ashore. By happy coincidence, visited about 350 of the 718 veterans on the occasion of Labor Day a baseball game in Miami, when the storm struck. Without this event, probably many of them would have lost their lives because their homes were in the Keys only rickety shacks.
The hurricane left a trail of destruction in the Upper Keys, especially where there is now the city of Islamorada. Almost everything has been damaged; Bridges and railway lines washed away. The railway line, roads and ferries that connect the Keys were destroyed. In this case, only the area around Islamorada was devastated because the path was narrower than most other tropical cyclones. His eye had a diameter of eight miles and the strongest wind speeds were only 15 miles required from the center, less than Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which is a relatively small but equally catastrophic level 5 hurricane was also. Many areas of the Keys were practically not hit by the hurricane. There was no destruction in Key West and most areas of the lower or middle Keys.
After the devastation of Hurricane Keys put on Florida's west coast to the north and met as a Category 2 hurricane on September 4 in the north of the state again on land. He then moved over Georgia ( with greater wind and water damage ), South, North Carolina, and on the coast of Virginia back to the Atlantic. South of Greenland, the storm was finally on September 10 to an extratropical system.
- Tropical Cyclone
- Event 1935
- Natural disaster ( 20th century)