property loss is concerned. The depression of the barometer at Miami was the greatest ever recorded in any storm in the United States.
The first information concerning the storm was received from the Central Office at 11:30 a. m. of the 14th. No vessels bound for the Bahamas left Miami after that date. Advisory messages relative to the intensity and progress of the storm were received at regular intervals from the 15th to the 17th inclusive, and these advices were given such wide distribution that it can be safely said that the entire population of the lower east coast of Florida were informed of the approach of the storm.
Northeast storm warnings were displayed, by order of the Central Office, at noon of the 17th. The afternoon newspapers published the warning, and it was otherwise disseminated by telephone and telegraph. From the early afternoon of the 17th until the wires were blown down, telephone calls at the Weather Bureau office were answered at the rate of two to three per minute. In addition to the telephone service from the Weather Bureau, the Miami Daily News kept a special telephone operator on duty to give information to those who did not succeed in getting telephone connection with the Weather Bureau. A representative of the News remained at the Weather Bureau office throughout the night of the 17th-18th and kept his paper informed of all available information until telephone connection was severed.
The message ordering hurricane warnings at 11 p. m. of the 17th was received at 11:16 p. m. The warning was displayed from the roof of the Federal Building at 11:25 p. m., and from the stormwarning tower at the City Docks, one and one-half miles from the Weather Bureau office, at midnight. Before leaving for the stormwarning tower, I gave the hurricane warning to the long distance telephone operator, who repeated it to the telephone exchanges at Homestead, Dania, Hollywood, and Fort Lauderdale. The warning was also telephoned to the chief dispatcher of the Florida East Coast Railroad, and several efforts were made to get telephone connection with Fowey Rock Lighthouse and the Coast Guard base at Fort Lauderdale. Telephone communication had not been interrupted, but the operator reported that repeated calls failed to get any response from Fowey Rock or the Coast Guard station.
Shortly after 10 p. m., I began to give out the information that the rapid fall of the barometer and the direction and increasing velocity of the wind indicated that the storm was rapidly approaching this coast, and that, unless it recurved to the east of Miami, winds
