People say the Florida Keys have no seasons. It simply is not true. Seasons here aren’t limited to the traditional ones found in other parts of the country.
A prime example is hurricane season. It starts on June 1 and ends November 30. Historically, while hurricane history is generally concentrated between those two dates, the odd storm has stirred to life both before and after.
Hurricanes have pounded the island chain for thousands of years. Every year, storms work themselves into a fury and unleash their pent-up energy on whatever lies in their path. They do so without consideration. Steered by wind and the highs and lows of pressure systems, they go where they go and march forward until the forces that bound them together weaken, and they fall apart.
A September 1835 hurricane is generally regarded as the first recorded hurricane to strike Key West and the Keys. Key West, Indian Key and vessels north of the New River community that is now Fort Lauderdale suffered damage. The Key West Enquirer recorded the storm in its Sept. 26, 1835, edition: “RE gale of 15, 16, 17th – $500 in damage at least has been sustained it is said at Indian Key in the destruction of fruit trees etc.”
Since 1835, hundreds of storms have struck the island chain. The Great Hurricane of 1846 is considered the first documented Category 5 hurricane to hit here. It is sometimes called the Great Havana Hurricane. For a long time, it was considered a Category 4 storm. However, in recent years, experts revisited the historical records and upgraded it to a Category 5.
The hurricane devastated Cuba and the Keys and resulted in the deaths of at least 250 people. It passed over Key West on Sunday, Oct. 11. Lt. William C. Pease of the U.S. Revenue cutter Morris wrote a firsthand account of the storm. He and his crew rode the storm out at anchor in Key West’s harbor.
His observations first appeared in the New Orleans Daily Delta on Oct. 23, 1846. “At 4 p.m. the air was full of water, and no man could look windward for a second. Houses, lumber, and vessels drifting by us – some large sticks of lumber turned end over end by the force of the current, and the sea running so high and breaking over us brought lumber, casks, &c. on board of us and across our decks.”
Pease described the conditions on the island as well: “At Key West the tide was five feet high and running six miles an hour through the center of town. The citizens fled to the back part of the town, which is rather higher than the rest, into the bushes – laid down and held on, expecting every moment that waves would reach them. Parents were separated from their children, husbands from their wives, and all was confusion, terror and dismay. … There were not more than six out of 600 houses but are unroofed or blown down!”
Fort Zachary Taylor suffered tremendous damage. The Custom House and Marine Hospital both lost their roofs. Stephen R. Mallory, customs agent at Key West, wrote a letter about the storm to the United States Secretary of Treasury: “At this time, slates from roofs, boards and even heavy pieces of timber were driven through the air like straws, and one piece of plank, nine feet by fourteen inches wide, came from a distance like an Indian arrow and penetrated through the weatherboards and ceiling into one of the Customs House rooms.”
The hurricane destroyed both the Sand Key and Key West lighthouses. Pease wrote, “A white sand beach covers the spot where Key West Light-House stood, and waves roll over the spot where Sand Key was.”
At Sand Key, not only were the lighthouse and lightkeeper’s home destroyed, the little spit of land that is the island was washed away. Joshua Appleby was the keeper at the light when the hurricane struck. Unfortunately, Appleby had family and friends visiting. Appleby, his daughter Eliza, her husband, and their 3-year-old son, along with a family friend and her daughter, were never seen again.
At Key West, 14 people climbed the steps of the conical masonry lighthouse but died in the storm when the tower collapsed. When the tower was rebuilt and again lit in 1848, it stood 50 feet taller.
One unnerving aspect of the hurricane was that it unearthed the city cemetery. Before the hurricane, people were buried near what is now Higgs Beach. In Jay Barnes’ book, “Florida’s Hurricane History,” the following observation was shared: “The graveyard which was on the southern shore, was wholly uncovered, and bones, skeletons, and coffins, dashed about and scattered far and wide. After the storm subsided, one coffin was found standing upright against the bole of a tree, the lid open, and the ghastly tenant looking upon the scene of desolation around, as if in mingled wonder and anger that its rest has been so rudely disturbed.”
As the island was cleaned up, put back together, and in cases rebuilt, a decision had to be made about the cemetery’s location. It was decided to move it away from the island’s edge, where it was vulnerable to storm effects, to a place on the outskirts of town known as The Woods. It was here that many of the island’s people sought refuge from the rising waters brought in by the hurricane.
One spot in The Woods marked Key West’s highest elevation, one of three places in the Keys boasting an elevation of 18 feet. The other two locations are in the Upper Keys, at Windley Key and Lignumvitae Key. The highest point in Key West is now known as Solares Hill; if you want to visit it, walk, ride your bicycle or drive to the corner of Elizabeth Street and Windsor Lane. Windsor Lane leads to what became – and still is – the new location of the cemetery.
