1925-1929

1925

Only four storms? Season cancel. Anyway, one kinda cool storm: a minimal hurricane that made landfall in SW Florida. Lots of rain, lots of citrus damage. The hurricane also sank a few ships. The kicker is that it made landfall on November 30, the latest known landfalling hurricane in the US.

1926

Speaking of Florida...the season started quickly with an intense July hurricane that in particular fucked up Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. After that it made landfall on Florida's east coast, near Melbourne. It was the strongest recorded July hurricane until 2005. Rather more significant was the Miami hurricane. I mentioned the Florida land boom earlier; this hurricane ended the boom. The storm, unlike Andrew, passed directly over downtown Miami, causing tremendous amounts of damage. If this hurricane occurred today, it would likely be the costliest ever. The storm also swelled Lake Okechobee (foreshadowing) and damaged Mobile and Pensacola pretty good. The University of Miami sports teams are named for the storm. As a kind of bonus, a hurricane in October passed just offshore Miami and the Keys.

1927

Not much in this season. The worst storm was the first, a rare Canada hurricane - the extratropical remnants struck Nova Scotia. The storm destroyed a bunch of crops and fishing boats and apparently is considered to be one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit Canada.

1928

There was only one important storm this season, and it was one of the US's worst hurricanes ever, the Okeechobee hurricane. So what did it fuck up? Some islands that nobody cares about first - the worst hit was Guadeloupe, where 1000 people died. Next, it hit Puerto Rico as a Cat-5 storm. Several hundred died - only several hundred, because the people were effectively warned. (Hey, that's a pretty good death toll, considering that hurricane force winds lasted for up to 18 hours on the island.) Anyway yeah crazy amount of damage. This might have been Puerto Rico's worst hurricane ever. The storm then hit West Palm Beach in Florida, causing a fair amount of damage. Inland, the storm caused Lake Okeechobee to overflow its dikes. The massive floods and strong winds were a lethal combination, and many people living near the shore of the lake perished. The storm was the ninth deadliest Atlantic hurricane, and second deadliest hurricane in the USA.

The storm actually reminds me a lot of Katrina, partly because of the overflowing of the Okeechobee or New Orleans canals, partly because of the race thing. A lot of the folks who died in both hurricanes were black.

1929

Only three storms (presumably) formed this season. One hurricane struck (naturally) Florida - the southern tip, around where Andrew struck. Its strongest impacts were in the Bahamas. The storm then hit Florida as a cat-3, but did not do much damage. It did spawn several tornadoes and caused some flooding, but only three people died in the US.