Florida Hurricanes

the newsletter still has not arrived it's been a very crazy month with the hurricane and we've had cancellations of programs anyway I'll film you all in on that but I'm glad you came thank you this is the right start of the season the hurricane the program and the lyric will have to be canceled they had problems the only thing I could do was go to the office and leave a message and put a sign on the door I the lyric is canceled and rescheduled for May and it will be into the preservation month and it will be on the preservation of the lyric but she will include most of the program that was supposed to

be done the other night the newsletter did not show up today we went through that a little bit it will arrive and it's beautiful it has the 49 picture of Ben hakar in front of the old Rexall and an article by my mother Bruce Walton about how we survived the hurricane this house is that are those two houses that are in there I don't know who they are did you get the newsletter you gave it to me today oh I gave you two best friends he could get the two that I had sent downloaded so he just put two hurricane pictures I want to give you word on Alice Lockhart our corresponding secretary had a

heart attack during Hurricane Irma and then it was scheduled for a triple bypass the next day and couldn't have it till the next day and she got out of there and went to rehab and when they checked her room it was infected she went back to the hospital and has had it straight and cleaned many times and it's still been there she's hoping I heard from her today she's hoping to be released Maybe by Saturday if the last inspection comes back good she'd been through a really terrible time so I hope you all give her your thoughts and prayers the program for tonight was supposed to be Mr Prairie I don't think he's here but

he couldn't do it and so I had just one that I had done years ago and I just added something to it if you've seen it before I don't know that you'll remember that much of it but it's still interested our programs schedules keep changing because people keep canceling but the one for November there's a lady sitting in here and she cancels I'm going to be very upset saying Thurlow is going to do a program on the 25th opening grand opening of the Stewart Heritage Museum which was in November of 92. I'm looking forward to Sandy is handling battles is it an extra plug man just give it an extra plug or I just hope

you are welcome because the museum is a miracle and I have lots of things to share with you and founder of Stuart Heritage is back in town Bob Armstrong so I will be there and I hope I contacted many of the people that lay the foundation and they they will come I hope you'll talk it up I think it'll be a good good program and I believe hi and it's going to be right here and it's going to be 14th of November and because of that new mother having a problem this time I have my text to turn in tomorrow I didn't want to turn it in today when Mary had a perfect today but

we'll get it off so we'll get our new sweater in time that would have probably put me over the line and then I wanted without another thing that I am up to is I have been just really so loving these letters that were written by UC Richards in 1880 people do not realize how rare to have something that's firsthand that was written when this was such a Wilderness and this area of South Florida was the most Wilderness of all my goodness and and so I have been working hours and hours on on them again I used to I worked on them some years ago but I'm giving the program at the Susan Johnson Victoria with

Susan Johnson was a founding member an early member of Steward Heritage and she gave the money to the college to have this beautiful room and the Chastity Center and it's state of the art and so I have a college girl that helped me will be reading the letters and I'll do the comment and I have photographs but I didn't have before so it's at one o'clock on Friday the 3rd of November and I would appreciate it a few of you will come out we're looking forward to it to start our program tonight I have to read you the Stewart Heritage Museum's hurricane policy because we really are strict about people working during hurricanes so this

is office procedure covering storms and Office closing as we watch the progress of the storm the following are the guidelines based upon the Hurricanes intensity hurricane category one no excuse for being late I mean early to give time to employee to fall on trees and limbs category two Betty are you listening due to the horizontal rain you may wear jeans category three whereas most of the area will be flooded we suggest that you avoid wearing open-toed sandals when coming to work canoes will be provided to get to the building safely without getting wet category four there will be no electricity so we will have manual typewriters available to all staff members please pay extra caution

and wear waterproof makeup and category 4 or 11. category five velcro will be provided to give you to keep you attached to your chairs when the windows work for those that survive we will have a coffee cake in the back room at three o'clock have a nice day that's what videos okay I think we're ready to start our program um let's see if we need to go okay Debbie let's go to one this is going to be the 1928 there has been many many hurricanes as all of you know in the State of Florida but we are only going to cover the ones that have directly impacted Us in 1928 there was a terrible hurricane

not so bad here but in the western Martin County it was one of the biggest disasters of all time our new audience were the column about that storm he was in California at this time it says Florida's destroyed was a Newsboys cry in California in 1928. on the morning of September 18 1928 I was walking down Main Street in Los Angeles when I heard a Newsboys shouting far and destroyed Florida destroyed this being of some consequence to me I squandered a nickel for the extra and read at manager's Associated Press account of the great hurricane which breached the love walls of Lake Okeechobee and ground 2400 persons into everybody's on the night of September 6th

and the terrible early morning of 17 and of course we all know that's been upgraded to at least 3 500 there's never ever an account according to count let's put it that way the damage here did not begin to approach the disaster in the Everglades but things were badly torn up it was the first newspaper man to get the news out and on the wires to do so he had to drive around the Masons of Fallen trees and electrical poles to Melbourne before he could find a telephone line that was connected to the outside world hurricane was the third greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States being overshadowed only by the Johnstown

Flood and the San Francisco earthquake and I realized this was written in 1963. um no one will ever know how many figures it took 2400 being a conservative figure the great was strong not only by the white farming and business population but also by hundreds of imported Bahamian laborers there to harvest steroid cropsy when wind with winds above 160 miles an hour hit in the reverse cycle of the storm that literally lifted the Lake of the trophy out of its bed and put 10 to 12 feet of water over the glazed towns sweeping many victims back into the Sawgrass Waters for more than a week after the bodies were collected in a pal they have

some gasoline and cremated that terrible storm of 25 years ago resulted in the building of Heaven that Herbert Hoover died around the southern semicircle of the lake by the U.S Corps of Engineers that was really one of the worst things you could possibly imagine and it's still I believe it was in the spring they had a memorial over at Fort Bianca for the people that were lost in that hurricane I have several articles here that I want and in the museum and finding things in there as we went and we went through stuff we found a lot of things now this article has no name on it I do not know who wrote it it's

typed but it is very interesting so I'm going to read it to you I've tried the same as many things as possible um these are some of the pictures still from the 1928 hurricane it was estimating that 40 of the city's residential and business buildings had severe damage and 90 would need repair a jump to the 49. sorry this is the 49th vote Debbie put it on the 49 please I want to talk about this just a minute before I start reading that I found this a handwritten note from Brady Norton now last time somebody knew who he was he worked at the at the weather viewer did anybody now remember who Grady Norton was

if you can read what that says that number up at the top is our number from the museum but it says Stewart Airport barometer broke at 210 miles per hour winds exceeded 230 miles per hour Miami weather here reported that this hurricane I have the actual and it got cut off of there Miami weather reported that the hurricane went to see over an unpopulated area between West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce now everyone to read to you what it has to say I can't believe that but I could believe it because we always heard him do the win clock off at 160 miles an hour anybody that lived here that's what we heard go ahead

after you showed me that I went and Googled him and he was head of the Miami the the hurricane mural in Miami and someone here he was great New York yeah so this you know you'll never know how authentic it is but that's way over what we've ever been told and anybody that lived through that hurricane Lori and I Gloria uh where is she for and she's talking about that how it sounded like a train the wind and when you when it was over the trees had no leaves we have not experienced anything like that yeah I know Gloria's here I saw it okay okay I'll let all of you talk after it's over but

I wanted to read what some people had to say um in August 26 1949 a hurricane it was estimated that 40 percent of the city's residential and business buildings had severe damage and 90 would need repair of some sort besides the Dewey Hayes and the web Ordway buildings the orthoped Home Building also had severe damage that lost many women on the first and second floors and the stores and offenses in that building suffered accordingly judge Harry Dyer's office and his Law Library were completely stoked the Citizens Bank building and had heavy water damage when the building's roof was punctured and a window blew out the East half of the Holleran building roof was blown away

the roof of the Rowell building was stripped and crossed water damage for their merchant types the victory Hotel building had broken windows and water damage the Stewart Hotel had front porch damage and a rip roof and used and the Kruger building had many windows out at the France apartment windows were blown in and portions of the roof blown off Lang's body shop in North Stewart was destroyed George Keith's home suffered severe roof damage the roof of the golf ball plant was torn off Wiley's garage lost its roof the lighthouse Pier was destroyed and the building damaged the Stuart mcmur section was heavily damaged hardly any of the buildings that escaped the fury the Macedonia Baptist

Church and Little Dixie Baseball Park were destroyed the Pelican Hotel only had minor damage and it was closed for the summer it opens Saturday to accommodate incoming repair Crews it was reported a full house on Monday after the cruise left it was closed again the maple pairs before reopening in December the Palm City Bridge remained stable by the railings were ripped away from both sides the bridge tenders house and the railing on the draw remained intact and this is where I think my mother wrote this because half of it's almost it the Palm City Bridge you're in pain or see the Palm City store building was left leaning and had to be torn down edmac

reported the ground and his road was covered with Citrus and about a third of the trees were uprooted the way to promote house and support Sewell was a total loss of building and contents the old house with Refuge remained as ever had through all the ocean series for a half a century the Phillip Fagan house withstood the storm it restored it the next morning that poultry looked about as they wandered wondered what had happened the snack shop at Jensen Beach also came through okay there was a different story south of the House of Refuge the storm winds off the ocean made a pile of rubble of five reinforced concrete Beach cottages unlike previous hurricane the

buildings were not inundated nor buried in weight loss sand but actually wind looked into piles of wreckage fruit stands and small buildings along U.S one from Jensen cut off to Hope Sound were tossed around the area of the soil gas station was demolished the Big Barrel a luncheon curio shop had severe damage from the roof and ceiling blew in most serious damage in the hometown proper was at the Olympic Ice Company where the rear of the plant and housing its Machinery was blown away Fallen trees Falls and other debris clogs the streets throughout the areas during the storm you can hear objects flying through the air and felt hitting your building once again I have

no idea of the revolution the other side of our place kids I got drunk around anyway she starts off with it it can happen here and it did happen here they didn't have names for Hurricane sins or were they listed as categories numbers but after it had come and gone we all knew it would be classified as a bad storm Old Timers at the time described it as the first worst hurricane this area the winds exceeded 160 miles an hour and some have said it was 200. this is where we get into the different recordings the velocity was recorded at 162 miles an hour at the Jupiter Lighthouse and the Very barometric readings very lowest

reading in Stuart first station was 2852 at 9 25 on Friday and at Port miyaka was 28.36 8 inches of rain fell during the storm storm had a large eye and its northern side was the strongest Steward experienced a law as the eye passed on its Southwest side but it was found by the powerful Northern side estimated damages were 4 million in 1949. now that was I'm sorry that was for red Apartments does anybody here remember somebody named Arthur Brannon do you I don't know this this is by Arthur Brannon the day was August 25th 1949. and Firestone tires uh this one I found this in the museum instead of just in a pile of

papers and it has his name on the bottom and it is a very good piece of writing so Sunshine bright blue skies clouds versus scattered in the sea of blue and the most refreshing trees were offered to those who share called early for an Awakening the breeze had been prevalent for two or three days prior to each day our family it can be looked upon now as a superficial decoy a failure to determine the reactions of mankind concerning his feeling of immunity from I'm going to skip that paragraphs the true warning had been here for three days managed more in the form of advisories were being received hourly people began to take notice and there

was a story a puzzle a Milling of poor souls to provide and secure ourselves against the elements their early morning hours lost their Right View and the wind became stronger there wasn't tenseness in the air which a few hours before had not been men's small sense of security against the elements had been shattered the wind became Fierce and it was a sting of a lash looking from all directions the wind the wind the wind olives path bowed to the superiority of the force the desert no it gets a little crazy there it came out of the southeast in the Northwest sort of Direction leaving what seemed to be a wild Stampede of a thousand horses

it was an unrelentless ride from dusk Into Darkness on the mainland from The Horizon became Fierce and eerie destruction was the lead course they gave the masterful demonstration and the handling of this Swanton Force it rode into our little town from the southeast and then circled and came in from the south and the north then went up to calling hard with everyone rich and poor like broken windows and unbrews homes collapsed buildings of rooted trees communication flying torn twists seals and endangered travel Halt and worldly positions torn asunder we did not awake in the next stage of Realty we had not slept we had lived and that was a blessing never had a desire to

see or fail the votes of such a right that means hurricane more pictures she can change to the pictures go ahead Debbie put the pictures back up that was sitting for a few minutes that's Dewey Hayes garage and then change them as we next the last one is I love this story because I actually lived it that is still gooey Hayes's garage it was another view she wrote about what happened to us I was four years old but it was one of them of my life that I never forgot we had a garage we had a big two-story house right she crossed into Palm City and it was very sturdy very well built and daddy

put shut up on thinking that we would be safe but as the storm progressed the garage blew down and the wind is and the debris from the garage knocked all the shutters off uh it was turned into a mess I'll read it in Mom's word she makes more sanitizer we had our storm shutters on and everything fastened down as best we could by early afternoon we did not have TV or a very good very radio so we still did not know how bad the storm would be nor exactly where it was coming ashore I had given my family an early stuff or hoping to have everything taken care of before Life come out my husband

Craig was the superintendent of the water company for the city of Stuart and left the house about 5 PM to go to the water plant hoping to return soon the big diesel engine had to be started on the water from the town as we lost the power we have been through numerous hurricanes and knew what to expect it was so dark and stormy I got our four children ready for bed as soon as possible our bedrooms were upstairs I feel where our lights went out and the telephone was dead and the wind continued to increase I realized Fred was not going to be able to get back home and then I heard something hit the

couch breaking the shutters off the living room windows and shattering the glass underneath when the rain began began flowing across the room and later I found out it was the garage roof hitting the house sitting while I was coming down the chimney running out onto the floor and I slipped as I burned around trying to move furniture so it couldn't get wet I was very frightened for the children's safety and decided to bring them down to the kitchen we had a closet under the stairs with no window what we call the pantry I threw iron was in the floor and carried the sweet controller down we spent the rest of the night in that closet

the wind was blowing so hard it sounded like a train the French doors that opened out onto the porch were shaking and rattling and I could hear things hitting the house and glass breaking I thought a house would go over we would all be killed my husband and two men who were our neighbors maybe Worley and Tony Priory who had also been to Stuart and were trying to get home trying to get across the Palm City Bridge about 5 30 a.m they said the wind was still blowing at a hill but they had to try to reach their families the first attempted to drive down Palm City Road but could not get past it down

to Australian pines then they came around past the cemetery on Indian Camp Road left the truck at the East End of the bridge and crawled across the bridge in the Wind and Rain the bridge really went from nearly all down nail and the spider boards were everywhere and was pitch dark they made it to their homes and found while I was alive but badly frightened we could not believe that no one had been killed when it got daylight we'd go outside and it was like a bad dream all the trees and bushes were bare along the way everything was neat down water stood all around and the sky was a strange shall we should cover

the property damage was severe but no Vibes were lost our friend's friend Judy Joseph was two blocks away on the corner of Cornell and second and a new home we're in their back bedroom with their three children when they began to notice that I am like that Jerusalem was flowing the blocks and the wall was near the ceiling it was storming so bye they took the tour and got in the Concord in the car and stayed there all night and there was a blue wall it was found several blocks away they were not lost Lots they were able to say that they put it back on and believe it or not that house my daughter

lives right beside it so it's still there to this day and in the morning they found the roof was completely gone from the house offset the carport their home was like a doll house with no top everything they had was ruined but their lives were spared they are located most of the roof dragged it back and Salvage Park to put it back on several weeks that we were without electricity in Palm City as all clients had been rebuilt as far as I know the only families in Palm City that had electricity after the storm or the hippie and Williams family who had a generator that furnished life to their Wells and pump water that way

we carry most of our water and buckets into the house people who have kerosene or masks though were able to cook with those with electric appliances use cancers or substitutes way of cooking or went out to the neighbors the gasoline stations in Stuart could not pump gas unless they had some way to do so by hand there were several days before the storm Keepers would get their stores cleaned up running into business the ropes were so full of down poles and trees and trucks could not get into town and bring anything everyone pitched into the rose helped their friends and neighbors repair roofs and board up broken windows it was some time before you could

buy glass and fire with another building materials we know how helpful you are when the fury of the hurricane arrives and advised anyone who doesn't know not to be clueless get ready and get your family in a free place don't take any chances many times we put on the shutters taken off the plants and the outdoor furniture stock up on food and water filters batteries for flagships and kerosene for lamps and found not necessary but would it be a shame to be unpreferred for the next one that could be a killer we do have so amazed morning when a hurricane is approaching hurricanes do not come suddenly like I said come on March tornado we

do have time to prepare and protect our homes and family our father is being prepared and she did she lived when after daddy died she called a two-story house drove underneath it and then went to our top and she made sure she had shutters paid for well for our primary and shutter guide sitting in the front Road over here and every time a hurricane got Within well probably three thousand miles to Florida he went on the ladder put up all the hurricane Jokers went back and took them down and here comes the next one up they go and now they have him I think he went up and down then so many times put those

shutters up but she after that was terrified of hurricanes and none of us really knows we haven't seen one yet many of us work here for the 49. but a lot of people have no idea and now people are just going to drive off and say oh that was nothing compared that's my mom's mom she knows okay let's they went for many years without hurricanes we had a little one called David and we had several tropical storms and brush bars but in 2004 we had friends and she came to visit uh in September 4th 2004. she blew down our fences and all about it it had been almost 50 years since we'd had a hurricane

and what we had not taken care of was taken care of for us and that you know that was bad enough but then Here Comes Gene three weeks later and to make it even worse we didn't have power for two weeks the boat in front of our house went there and of Alabama power like truck pulled up out there and got us we were all oh we were so happy and five days later or six days later it went down it doesn't take too much during that day never have I seen anything like that and my observed up on that one turned around and started back as none of us could believe it it was

unbelievable then in October of 2005 we had Wilma well the David Wilma was going to strike Sydney and my son were putting up Mom's shutters and we got a phone call that our son-in-law was in the hospital in chance in critical condition and we left and we left our house uncovered he had helped our son and our daughter and we didn't have time to move on so we left it well we had windows that nearly blew out so we decided after the hurricane that we were going to get impact glass if we didn't do anything else and we did and believe me this hurricane was in Notting the word near as bad as the others

as far as trying to get ready I wish it had been been a long time ago then we thought well we've had Francis and Gene and Wilma we won't get another one for 50 years Matthew decided to come and it was a bad one we were lucky that it went off the coast and turned and went away from us and did not hit us we had to be thankful for that so this year we have Irma coming as another killer hurricane and we have to be thankful that Irma decided to visit the west coast and not for them my granddaughter worked over there during the horrible hurricane and she worked for a TV station she

worked 48 not for four days straight never got to leave they'd let her go anywhere cotton lay down and come back out and they really got hit very badly in Key West and the West Coast so we hope now we are done for a while and I would like to let some of the people that lived it talk s really well we're not going to invite it to join us wouldn't some of you that would like to tell us about what happened to you from 49 hurricane we still have another 25 minutes I know I was talking to Gloria Gloria do you want to tell about how you all survived 49 hurricane thank you it

has certainly stayed in my memory I was nine years old and we had just moved into a new house it was concrete block and it had Asbestos and shingles on the roof they were born I picked up shingles for six months and it tore just about every single off the roof but we didn't have any any other damage however the noise I'll never forget my father's brother Gus Avery lived down the street and his son Gary who some of you might remember he remembered them I don't know um was in Good Samaritan Hospital with a with appendicitis and this happened just before the storm hit they had to rush into West Palm because surgeons in

Stuart in 1949 anyway all night we're trying to get through on the phone to see how he was doing and the noise got worse and worse and honestly that is the part that I truly remember was the noise I mean you all have been through hurricanes here but the noise of that one was just I there's no way to describe how horrible it was you you think it's worse than what it really is I mean what what's going on outside that is what I remember and then we had a lot of water react to to feed a water we have a low place in the back I lived in Casa Terrace in back of where

McDonald's is and it was a very low feel and thank goodness there was water there because we called buckets to flush the the Johns and of course everybody filled their bathtub so you'd have water though wash your hands and face and flush Yarns but the noise that's what I remember truly thank you Gloria all right there's more people that live through that than us Sydney you want to tell about hanging with your dad's truck over to the beach okay yeah with that everyone went across the Chesapeake Chicago I think the time it was just a Wood Bridge a little bit closer he had an army carryover and uh we're spoke with somebody out there there's

two houses out there at the beach you know people out there and see if anybody like that with that Awards flashing over the bridge in the truck I'm saying I'm right with my dad you know at least we're here do you have a story yeah Mrs Spicer had a big ficus tree and my mother claimed that saved our house because the wind was coming from that direction and it saved our house hahaha other things us one and Fourth Street and my uncle has actually took pictures during the hurricane that wouldn't come somewhere I'm gonna see if I can find him yeah but nothing really happened to that either one of those houses what you need

to do with those is take them and have them made so we can play them nobody has anything left that you could play them on that's we last Richard about that yeah have pictures from 1949 you know what in the world would you find to play them on yeah but is it I know there was some more of you here anybody else have a story they want to tell okay well I'm gonna let you I'm going to apologize because this was just thrown together at the last minute and we didn't have time I didn't have time to make it better because hurricanes are very important to all of us it's part of your life when

it happens Joanne you were here yes yes we were where were you we lived in pop City uh where right now we're the Presbyterian Church is out there on September 14th and in that hurricane we were young too but uh an Australian pine hit our little house and I remember daddy tied us all together with her throat and we had a cat and he put the cat in a croaker sack and we had to leave the house in the storm and go up the yard to my grandmother's house in the front and our old house had to be repaired and stuff like that but we remembered bridge and the Little Country Store and stuff like

that but we were in Palm City in the early years I've been told when I wasn't old enough for school and I I'm sure you were in elementary school are getting ready to start didn't the school buses have to go around all the way around the Arundel shop road to get to school every day and the kids had to leave at least an hour early to get to school did you write that bus people don't have any idea uh I know that you know the things from the Hurricanes were very very bad but being without powers for months not things being without gasoline and food it was it was a great it was a big

storm and hopefully we don't get one of those again can you show me just a quickie sure Pete Meyer I wasn't here for the 49 hurricane but I started over at outdoor Marine in 1970 at the Quonset hut building because of that building was built in 28. and the floor of that building was about six feet above being high water and I always remember when I started there was a line on the wall that the water level was two feet over the floor floors and then it was up about at least eight feet in the beginning of it again Corky was here I know he was here have you got a minute to tell us

okay remember him 4K microphone she goes back another place and after the storm is over the sun came up we all broke down to look at the bank to see if it was okay it looked beautiful we opened the great big doors just went back and they were six inches of water the hurricane had shut the tarpable right off the road everything in the bank was stood coming to Perryville Alabama and made everybody cover to add machines and attack riders with their they all came in covers plastic covers and so that'd say to them so my dad said all right you get the hunting buggy and we didn't have a Jeep so we took the

hunting dog in he said you go to Hobe Sound and get the roofer there and I can't say his name I've been trying to think of it but he was a hell of a nice guy in an excellent River and he's he was telling him that we really need him up here in a hurry to get the spank going and uh he talked very slow like this originally he said Son you tell your dad that I'll be there first thing in the morning to go get that bank right out and drag it down US-1 to get those sound in the woods buggy all every telephone pole was down across the road and they had like

five yards yard arms of wires there were hundreds of wires and I'm driving across all of those copper wires and going around the poles wondering if I was going to get electrocuted but then so then when I got home my brother and I and my dad spent the next two days on step ladders taking the acoustical tile off the ceiling that had been glued on and the glue was softening and the wetness and they were falling and that said we can't have this happen to one of our customers thank you Daniel yeah he talked very slowly yeah again thank all of you and if nobody else was here we'll close it out unless they're ready

tell me you were here tell history well we had the Boatyard out in Port Charlotte we also had a stories he went away in the southern restored it up from God's story you know on one side of the earthquake they already had it foreign way and they floated not away from anything but they just floated floated the rocks out front and there was a chopped countless wood blocks and the wooden blocks about it because other mostly a different way but it didn't hurt him now got this land under progressions and then the uh all of the booksters smaller walls can put in The Boathouse door and then the bay approached me into hang out with

him never get too high to get up in the public can take the big boats out and we didn't have any problem with any of the boat was in the water all he went towards was the one that's on the land that was it had been in dry stores until the flood came during the hurricane and they floated just mess up the voting angles and stuff but didn't really hurt any of them oh yeah we had coconut treated all the way around the house where we live and when we got through we looked and then every coconut tree was down but it all went right around the house and then hit the house and they

were all the way four feet in the house did not want them hitting the roof of the house now just went around in circles all the way around the house but I wasn't lucky in the house but we were quite like or anybody else that would like to tell their story I don't have to I don't want to tell a story but I think it's interesting that today we have the fortunate to have all the preparedness that we can have today we didn't have a lot of that before we didn't have the the noise I mean the newspapers and the TV stations before but today we're so blessed to be here where we can we

can shut her up and we can prepare and we've been really fortunate I had a woman working for me for a while that was in Andrews in Miami and she said that you cannot imagine and when this last one came here when they were saying 185 mile an hour wind I mean we were panicked I mean you know and I know she said down there when that hurricane hit it that um after it was over they had held a mattress to a door to keep their door in that wall from going in and she said when it was over there it was nothing but Darkness there were no lights there was nothing and people didn't

know what streets were what or where they were and she said they would come around at night and hand out flashlights to people because they didn't know what street was where and and I know in our town after that they came around and marked our intersections on our streets in big white letters and things so that if that did happen out here they would know but we are we are really fortunate where we live and we know how to prepare today and I think a lot of people that come here and have never been a nurse and they get in the car and leave you know but us that live here and we're fortunate enough

that we can prepare and I think that's a really good thing for today and smoke that we're having oh you can't come here I'm Jay Smith Joanne's husband uh in 1949 I was a young kid who had a Cushman Motor Scooter I used to get around a lot my folks were friends with the box office they had a sign company here it Boswell and Charlie Wilson well we lived in a little Camp Murphy house at the foot of where the uh Tennessee bridge is now and if Foxwell they just built a hurricane-proof house about a quarter of a mile south of us on the river everybody called my dad Smitty he says Smitty you've got

to get your family out of that house and bring him down to my house since I've got this brand new hurricane house you all come down here so we did we packed up one down in Boswell's house on the river everybody mentions the wind the wind was terrible all night long that wind blew that water blew under everything in that hurricane-proof house my job was to take the towels out from under the doors and bring them out of the garage we had the crawl space open into the island to keep the check on the roof finishes just like that roof was breathing all night long well the next morning we survived that the house period

of time the next morning we went down to check where our Lord with frame house from Camp Murphy couldn't drive down lower trees all over so hard we got down to the house we walked down open the front door the house was fine nothing wrong inside the crown of it coconut palm next to the house on the Lee side had broken off and blown out of the tree hit the ground and it bounced up and broke the glass out of the window on the east side of the house we didn't even get rain in the house so we survived that fine with the house but I have another little interesting story talking about the winds

at that time I was I don't think I was a senior no I was a junior in high school here so I worked weekends at the airport with I got so much uh flying time and so much pain well after the hurricane I took my scooter came down the runway from St Lucie Boulevard over to the Administration Building and it was gone and lost standing in the middle of where the administration building was was the partition wall on one side of the wall was a bookcase full of letterheads envelopes texture everything in that bookcase was intact none of the papers blew out of there to make thank you I say she was talking about having

things that we didn't used to have like Mom said we didn't have TV and we didn't have radio we didn't have anything we didn't have a radio but we didn't well we have TV during if it sprinkles DirecTV goes out do you know that we never lost TV one time during the hurricane now you can figure that out how you can lose power when there's nothing but a little green turtle out there and a hurricane is and it never went out we did not lose our power this time I think it works in Cycles because we were without like I said two weeks before and then almost another week again this time we never lost

power so you know for God's would be you just don't know but the DirecTV we all said it'll be gone within the first few minutes that's weird okay we are prepared and we need to stay prepared and I want to tell you that museum unbelievable you can sit up there when the wind's flowing and the building just kind of sways it would take a mining storm to blow it down I didn't say that because we don't want it to get out too loud but I would not be afraid to stay in that old building ever and that's the way old Florida melons are absolutely the best there is and we need to appreciate how smart

our ancestors are foreign oh yes and by the way stop and look at the new shutters yeah I'll never need but we haven't so they put behind the shutters on there the city did on the top and around the sides and then the front all locked down including the doors and it it does really look beautiful so I want to thank all of you and for your patience and get storm and your newsletter should be there tomorrow but don't come back thank you very much thank you