Record of the Storm
RICHARD W. GRAY, meteorologist, has been in charge of the Miami Weather Bureau office since it was established in 1911. Prior to that time Miami was only a co-operative station, and for many years the records were kept and the signals hoisted by Dr. E. V. Blackman, who was performing such duties October 18, 1906, when the hurricane of that date struck the lower Keys and caused the loss of many lives and the destruction of much property on the Key West extension of the Florida East Coast railroad, then being built by Henry M. Flagler.
Dr. Blackman and other of the older residents who retain vivid recollections of that storm are still living in Miami. At that time Miami was populated by only a few thousand, and Miami Beach was a mangrove swamp. The storm tides flooded the island just as they did during the recent hurricane, and when the waters had receded heavy timbers and other wreckage had been lodged in the tops of the mangroves showing that they had been submerged with much force.
The greatest collective loss of life in the 1906 storm was caused by the sinking of a vessel loaded with workmen bound for the construction camps on the Keys. This was due in a large measure, if not entirely, to the stubborn unconcern of the captain, who sailed out of Biscayne Bay in the face of hurricane signals. In those days storm warnings were displayed on a tower near the Fair Building at the foot of Flagler Street, from which vantage they were readily seen by shipmasters and others engaged in shipping on the Bay. Some of the experiences of those early weather men, stationed at various points along the lower coast, were dramatic, even tragic, but it has fallen to the lot of few in the service to pass through such a weird night as that endured by Mr. Gray and his associates on September 17—18, 1926.
Mr. Gray remained at his post all night, and when the lights failed he had a most difficult task in watching and adjusting the delicate instruments in order to preserve a record of the storm. This he describes in his official report, which was transmitted to the Chief of the Weather Bureau under date of October 1, 1926.
The period of the storm from its origin in West Indian waters until it spent itself over the Texas plains, was September 14—20, seven
