Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (Paperback)

Drye writes well and moves the narrative along. When writing of factual matters and the experiences of those who endured the storm, the books succeeds pretty well. However, he buys into some of the political mythology surrounding the events of the storm -- e.g., that World War I veterans were sent to the Florida Keys by officials of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration to prevent them from re-staging the 1932 "Bonus March" that gave such a black eye to Herbert Hoover. As Drye notes, vets also were sent to other locations, their activities were still followed by the national media, and their absence from Washington didn't stop other veterans from pressing for payment of the bonus. Sending out-of-work veterans to the Florida Keys as a labor force for highway construction can also be interpreted as an act of New Deal good intentions -- perhaps shortsighted but hardly malicious.

The actions of federal and state officials in the hours before the hurricane struck also are open to some interpretation, but Drye chooses to create villains and heroes -- in particular, Ray Sheldon, the man who managed the three labor camps that housed the veterans. No doubt, Sheldon was largely responsible for failing to arrange the evacuation of the vets well before the storm struck. The more intriguing question, which really isn't addressed in the book, is WHY Sheldon -- who had experienced earlier Florida hurricanes -- didn't order an evacuation train until the storm was almost upon the Keys. Was it pure miscalculation, denial, or was there some bureaucratic purpose in his delay? Here, some informed speculation would have been welcome. Drye doesn't really address the question; he simply portrays Sheldon as indecisive and, post-hurricane, a liar. These he may have been but such a portrayal doesn't get much below the surface of the issue.

This leads to the most glaring deficiency in Drye's work: His book is devoid of footnotes, and the origin of much of his narrative is obscure. (To be fair, the decision to omit footnotes and a comprehensive bibliography may have been the publisher's, not Drye's.) He does acknowledge assistance from several people and lists a "selected bibliography," both of which indicate some of his sources of information; but he doesn't list any of the National Archives resources or other official documents he must have consulted, nor their locations. Nor does he give sources for certain opinionated passages, such as his explanation of how the chairman of the congressional inquiry into the Labor Day disaster rigged the hearings to exonerate Roosevelt's officials. This is a major failing of what should have been a much more useful study of this event. The book also could have used a more comprehensive index and perhaps a "cast of characters" that would provide a convenient reference to the dozens of people mentioned, especially the myriad of bureaucrats. And, particularly for demonstrating the degree of miscalculation and faulty judgment involved in this disaster, a timeline of events also would have been welcomed.

Stories about natural disasters can be approached in essentially three ways: (1) Bravery/survival in the face of adversity, (2) Managerial competence and ineptitude in the face of adversity, and (3) A cautionary tale for the future. Drye does all three, succeeding fairly well on (1), stumbling somewhat on (2), succeeding commendably on (3). If you're a relatively new resident to South Florida (especially the Keys)or know someone who's planning to move there -- of if you think riding out the eye of a hurricane would be a "neat" experience -- this book, with all its flaws, is worth a read. One of the contemporary emergency management officials for the Florida Keys, quoted by Drye, hits it on the head regarding the next big Keys hurricane: "It's not if. It's when." Hurricane Andrew, another "rapidly intensifying" storm, devastated my home town of Homestead in 1992; had the eye made landfall twenty miles further north, it would have flattened Miami. Hurricanes are the price one pays for living along the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and anyone contemplating residence and property ownership in those regions should know what happened on Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys on the evening of Sept. 2, 1935. This book is a good place to start learning how high that price can be. (...)

Many were curious and most unafraid when they heard a hurricane was coming. What was some wind and rain compared to bullets? Alas, the Labor Day Hurricane was perhaps the most powerful to ever assualt the U.S. mainland, moving across the Keys with 200-mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge.

More than 400 people died, including many of the veterans in their makeshift work camps. Drye's well researched narrative provides not only an hour by hour account of the storm track, but also chronicles the political fallout in it's aftermath.