HURRICANE'S OF FLORIDA
Below is an off site link to the 11 worst hurricane's of Florida. I know a lot of them didn't hit the Orlando area where I live but some did. Donna was a bad hit for this area but we had just left here and was back in New York State. But since 1962 I have been here for them all. Except I think it was Jeannie in 2004. I was surprised Charley in 2004 didn't get on the list because it did a lot of damage with buildings being torn apart and a lot of trees uprooted. After the 2004 storms it took months to clean up. People from all over came to help. A car or truck with a hand made wooden trailer became a common sight. Power was out for about 2 weeks. Unless you had underground cables you lost power. I remember my sister Nancy and husband Dave had their under ground power back on in hours. So I with my grandchildren spent some time with them. After two bad ones and small ones in 2004 when the third bad one was coming we packed up our car and with another family decided it was time to visit my son and family in North Carolina for a week. But we did get a lot of rain on the drive back. Even if they don't hit us direct we still get the wind and rain from them and sometimes tornado's they send out. The sky right now is a yellow shade from the 2008 Bertha that I don't think will even touch Florida soil. If you have never been in one there is no way I can describe it Everything will take on an orange yellow look and then the wind will start, rain you have to stay inside. All stores and etc. close and board up and when the eye goes over there is a deadly silence and a hollow sound and then the wind and rain comes back blowing from the opposite direction. After Charley we went out the next day to buy a generator and every store we found lines and no generators the next year I bought one and still haven't used it but if I need to at least I have one. My grandparents were in Jacksonville when the bad one of 1926(or 1928) hit Miami Beach. It drove a big ocean liner up on the beach. My Uncles Charles & Ross were young men probably 18 or 19 or so and they wanted to go to Miami to see what damage it had done. When they got there Marshall law had been declared and they were told at gunpoint to take a body bag and walk the beach looking for any bodies. They said they would come across a persons hand or shoe ( with a foot inside) and they would dig until they had uncovered a body. I think they spent a week in the summer heat doing that under threat of being shot if they left before they decided they would never check out anything like that again. I have heard Grandma tell about it many times. Next is an article my sister Nancy wrote about it at least a couple years ago.
1926 Miami Hurricane
This is the hurricane Uncle Charles and Uncle Ross found Themselves involved in. The Weather Channel says the actual hurricane took place On September 17, 1926. The City of Miami soon proclaimed 'Martial law' , and Everyone able was ordered to join in 'picking up the clutter'. Grandma Vincent reminded her two grown sons (probably about ages 18 and 20) Not to go down to Miami that there was enough trouble going on, but they were Curious, and they jumped into-I think their yellow roadster they drove to Florida In and went all the same.
They arrived in Miami just as Martial law went into place. Soon after they found Themselves on the beach doing body detail. Suddenly, the second disaster connected With this particular hurricane-apparently-days after-a huge 'tidal wave' started in. I don't know how much warning they had... But, evidently not much, because Ross and Charles were able to seek shelter in a huge Oil storage tank, which saved their lives, along with a handful of other men who Were working in the same area. This took place-as I understand it- after the main Hurricane-and many people had come down to the beach to see what damage the storm Had wrought. Most were caught up in this second fury with disastrous conclusions. The boys said they talked to a friend when 'things quieted down'. This man had held His young child over his head, while standing in the attic of his house, on a chair Or table top...many hours...in order to save the young child's life. The water Finally receded, and they both survived the ordeal. Nancy (Dickinson) Chamberlain Year 2007.
(NOTE: I have heard this story told by Grandma Vincent many times. I have also heard Both Uncles Charles and Ross 'refer to it. As they were to say in later years they learned their lesson not to run off seeking excitement.)
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