MANHATTAN — Americans spent the weekend remembering Hurricane Katrina’s assault on the Gulf Coast five years ago and as Hurricane Earl strengthens and bears down on the East Coast this week. But state climatologist Mary Knapp remembers another hurricane even worse – the so-called Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys Sept. 2, 1935. A small but concentrated Category 5 storm packing winds of nearly 200 miles an hour, the Labor Day hurricane had barometer readings of 26.35 inches at Long Key, the lowest ever recorded in the continental U.S., she said. The storm ripped into the Keys, into the Gulf and up the west coast of Florida, across the state and up the east coast of the U.S. The storm may have killed up to 800 people, she said. The storm’s death toll includes more than 400 people, mostly World War I veterans, building bridges between the Keys for U.S. 1 connecting Miami and Key West. The storm swept off trains off the adjacent railroad bridge between Miami and Key West and did severe damage to the tracks and the railroad never recovered, she said. The piers for the railroad bridge are used for the Key West highway. Since the storm, Florida authorities have been particularly sensitive to evacuating people from the Florida Keys in the face of major hurricanes, she said. The 1935 hurricane was a key element in the Humphrey Bogart movie “Key Largo.”
Tuesday, Aug. 31, 7:30 a.m.
