Eclipsing Ian: The 1928 Florida hurricane

American Thinker ^ | October 18, 2022 | Tom Elliott

[artichokegrower]

The still uncertain but more than 100 death toll of Hurricane Ian and its vast devastation of Florida homes and businesses have evoked descriptors such as “historic” and “Biblical proportions.”

Those terms, while appropriate, are eclipsed in the timeline of Florida history by the hurricane in September 1928 that killed an estimated 3,000 people in the Everglades. That number not only dwarfs Ian, but also exceeds the 1,800 fatalities of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and is second only to a 1900 hurricane that killed 5,000 people in the Galveston, Texas area.

[artichokegrower]

Global warming!

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

That darn Henry Ford and his cheap-to-buy flivvers!

[unixfox]

How is it even possible to have a hurricane like this in 1928 without “Climate Change?”

[nathanbedford]

Some years ago when I was young enough to believe I had invented spring break in Fort Lauderdale, I related my experience in 1962 to my aging uncle just so that he would know what this phenomenon called "spring break" was all about. The movie had come out about that time featuring the Elbow Room on the strip in Fort Lauderdale which made that place the place to be.

My uncle indulged me, heard my story out and then told me that he went to spring break in 1928 and was having a grand time working in a warehouse enjoying the high life of Florida that he had enjoyed in his spring break when the hurricane of that year struck. Not only was his warehouse destroyed but every other business and building in the area was gone too, taking with them every chance of employment. So he came back to the Northeast to begin a business career that proved to be very successful.

Every year I enjoy these stories of the young bucks reinventing spring break.

[Nifster]

Oh noes!!!! We’re all gonna die

😱😱😱😱

[ArtDodger]

Back in the 70s, I talked to an old man who was in Galveston during the 1900 hurricane. His home was carried off and he was crawling along the ground trying not to join his home when he looked up and saw a woman flying through the air when a fence post, also flying, passed right through her and out the other side. He said he totally lost it then and when he came to, he was far from Texas and never went back.

[Bubba_Leroy]

After Katrina in 2005, we were told that Global Warming caused it and would result in more frequent and more powerful hurricanes every year. We then began the longest period without a single Level 3 or higher hurricane hitting the U.S. coast in recorded history (which is a relatively short period of time in climate or geological terms).

Now we are told that every incident of bad weather is the worst ever and is caused by man made Global Climate Change.

[srmanuel]

In the 1928 hurricane, how many weather satellites existed, ZERO, in those days people only had maybe a 1-2 day notice of an impending hurricane.

In those days they killed more people but did less property damage because not many people lived in Florida in 1928, things are totally reversed now, much more property damage and fewer deaths simply because of the early warnings of the impending hurricane.

[Sir Bangaz Cracka]

An (school teacher) elderly couple (dead now) I used to know, had come back to their home in North Florida, for a short stay. Then, as they were returning to their jobs in Miami the (dirt) road trip took them through the Lake Okeechobee region of Florida. They said the hurricane had hit and caught thousands of sugar cane workers working out in the low flat areas surrounding the Lake. They talked about seeing stacks of bodies, brought out and stacked next to the roadside.

[Honest Nigerian]

The book “A Land Remembered” includes that hurricane. The story covers over a century of Florida history from 1858 to 1968.
Author Patrick D. Smith describes three generations of the MacIvey family; they went from dirt poor to real estate empire - an absolutely fascinating story of how things were in Old Florida.
Highly recommended.

[Tucker39]

Rumors say Ian was actually not a naturally occuring storm like the others. Rumor has it that Ian was artificially generated and steered to the target area chosen by the Deep State in a desperate effort to cause nationwide panic. And that’s why it held together all the way up the coast nearly to the arctic. The weather operators wouldn’t let it fizzle out like a natural storm does. We won’t know for sure until a little later.

[Keyhopper]

The 28 hurricane washed out the south shore of the lake.

[srmanuel]

I’ve lived in Florida all my life, I’m familiar with the history, I was born in Clewiston, Fl which is on shore of Lake Okeechobee.

[Keyhopper]

Remember that little ice cream shop on the west end of town?
We stopped there everytime we went through there.
I was born and raised in Hialeah and my dad was raised in alapatta. Grandpa went through the hurricane of 1926.

[palmer]

It's a lot more than 1928:

In south Florida, there was a major hurricane every 3 years from 1920-1965 and a major hurricane every 9 years on average from 1966 to present. Missing from that graphic: Irma 2018 and Ian 2022 (which 6 major hurricanes in 56 years).

[nascarnation]

From 1950 to 2020 the population of Florida increased over 10X.
So it’s a popular place but any given storm is guaranteed to impact a lot more buildings and people now.

[palmer]

And that’s why it held together all the way up the coast nearly to the arctic.

That was Fiona. Blew through Newfoundland and dumped record snow (for Sept) on Greenland. Ian fizzled in SW Virginia and son of Ian, the nor'easter was born off the coast. But that lingered and fizzled eventually too.

[palmer]

The most expensive hurricane of all-time was Miami 1926. 15 foot surge 150 mph winds (not just gusts) and way over $200 billion in damage normalized to today.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

But can they top this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Bhola_cyclone

[Sir Bangaz Cracka]

Thanks for mentioning that book.