Labor Day hurricane
The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 was a powerful and devastating storm that formed as a tropical storm east of the Bahamas and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane as it approached the Florida Keys. Striking on September 2, 1935, the hurricane had sustained winds of 185 miles per hour and recorded a barometric pressure of 892 millibars, the lowest in the North Atlantic until 1988. The timing of the storm coincided with significant infrastructure work in the region, as over 600 unemployed World War I veterans were building bridges on the Overseas Highway. Tragically, the hurricane resulted in the loss of more than 425 lives, with a massive storm surge complicating rescue efforts. Following its initial landfall in the Keys, the hurricane continued to wreak havoc across the Florida peninsula, eventually re-entering the Atlantic. The impact on the Middle Keys was catastrophic, leading to nearly total destruction of property and significant disruption to the local economy, which relied heavily on tourism. The long-term consequences included high unemployment and food shortages in Key West, which struggled to recover during the challenging economic landscape of the Great Depression.
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Labor Day hurricane
The Event Powerful hurricane that devastated the Florida Keys
Date August 29, 1935, through September 10, 1935
Place Florida Keys
The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 was the most intense hurricane to have a U.S. landfall during the twentieth century. In addition to the loss of life and damage it caused in the Florida Keys, it destroyed the scenic Florida Overseas Railroad to Key West, which was the island’s only connection with the mainland during the Great Depression.
The Labor Day hurricane originated as a weak tropical storm east of the Bahamas on August 29, 1935. As it approached the Florida Keys, it rapidly intensified to become a hurricane, striking the middle Florida Keys on Monday, September 2, 1935 (Labor Day). The storm destroyed all the weather instruments, but an analysis of the damage indicates the storm had sustained wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, placing it in Category 5 of the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. The barometric pressure of 892 millibars was the lowest barometric pressure measured in the North Atlantic until 1988.
In 1935, the Overseas Highway to Key West was under construction. This Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project was designed to put unemployed World War I veterans to work during the Great Depression, more than 600 of whom were building bridges on Long Key and Lower Matecumbe Key as the storm approached. A ten-car rescue train arrived from Miami just as the storm struck, but a twenty-foot-high storm surge washed it off the tracks. More than 425 veterans and residents died. The storm continued up the west coast of Florida, had a second landfall at Cedar Key, crossed the Florida peninsula, and re-entered the Atlantic, where it once more reached hurricane force before finally blowing itself out.
Impact
The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 was one of only two Category 5 hurricanes to have a U.S. landfall during the twentieth century. The damage to the Middle Keys was severe, with hundreds of lives lost, almost total destruction of property, and nearly fifty miles of the Overseas Railroad washed out. The storm severed the only link to the mainland for Key West, which lay just ninety miles away. With the Great Depression under way, and tourists unable to get to a city that depended on them for its economic base, Key West faced high unemployment and food shortages for years.
Bibliography
Barnes, Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. 2d ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Fitzpatrick, Patrick. Hurricanes: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio Press, 2006.