The picture to the left was taken just after Hurricane Dora in September of 1964.

The worst hurricane and worst disaster, in terms of death toll, was the Galveston, Texas Hurricane of 1900. It killed over 6,000 people.

Then there were the storms of 1926 and 1928.

Long before I had read about them, I knew of them.

My mother used to tell about how one night she woke up and saw my father standing at the window. When he noticed she was awake, he said "Susie, come here and look at this." My mother went to the window and dark clouds were just whipping by the moon. My father said "There is sure some bad weather somewhere."

People did not have television back then, and poor people did not have radios, so it took a couple of days for the news to travel; but, they heard about this terrible hurricane that had struck Miami and killed all these people.

The year was 1926.

It was two years later that the Great Okeechobee Hurricane struck. It killed nearly 2,000 people is considered the second greatest natural disaster to strike the United States. In the Caribbean this storm is known as the San Felipe. Before striking Florida it had killed over 1,000 people in Puerto Rico.

Once again it would be quite some time before my family would hear about it. Anyway, they had their hands full!

My father and Uncle Nelson were at work. My mother took Walter and Mildred and went to visit my Aunt Della.. Della's twin sister Mae happened to be there, as she often was.

They noticed the sky was growing dark and the wind was starting to gust. My mother always especially remembered how the wind was bending the tall grass so that it lay almost to the ground!

"There is some real bad weather coming!" The three women agreed. Mae insisted that that they go to her house and ride out the storm. It was a better constructed house than either my parent's or Della's and was also on somewhat higher ground.

So that is what they did.

No sooner had they got in the house than Mae remembered her cow which was out at pasture far from any shelter!

By this time, the storm was really raging; but, Mae insisted on going after the cow. She was gone quite a while as the storm continued unabated. My mother and Della thought she was a goner!

Then they heard something at the door! It was Mae hanging onto the cow for dear life!

Mae had originally intended just to go get the cow and take it to the barn; but, when she got to the cow, she couldn't make it back because that would have been against the wind; but, she hung onto the cow and it took her home!

Mae brought the cow into the house.

"This cow saved my life." she said. "The least I can do is give it shelter from the storm!"

By this time, it had rained so much, the water was starting to come into the house!

They took brooms and tried to sweep it out; but, it was coming in faster than they could sweep it out.

Next thing my mother knows, Mae and Della are on their knees praying. This made her mad!

"Get up and help me get this stuff out!" she told them. "We have to keep trying."

But they kept praying and my mother kept sweeping and eventually the storm ended.

In the meantime, my father and uncle had tried to get home; but, the wind was so strong the car skidded and rolled over across the road.

Neither one was hurt!

Somehow, my father finally found my mother; and, carrying Walter, in my father's arms, and Mildred, in my mother's arms, they wadded in knee deep water back to their house where water was several inches deep but the beds were dry!

Several days later, they heard what had happened down south.

On Labor Day of 1935 the strongest storm to ever strike the American mainland devastated the Florida Keys. My mother had no stories about that one!

Although great in strength, this storm was small in size and never touched northeast Florida.

When I was quite small, maybe about three or four, a hurricane or tropical storm flooded our yard very badly.

I remember sitting on the backporch watching a log float by in our backyard. The water had a yellowish tint but was quite clear. I looked down into it from the porch and saw a large earthworm wiggling at the bottom. Like I said, I was very young; but, my memory of that is very vivid!

In 1960, about the time when the little picture on the left was taken, Hurricane Donna hit the Florida Keys and then swept up the coast.

Here in Jacksonville, we really were not expecting much from her. At least, 14 year old me wasn't! I went to bed that night expecting to wake up to a normal day.

When I did wake up. It was daylight. The electricity was off. Outside it was raining hard and the wind was blowing pretty bad.

I searched the kitchen for something to eat. We had not prepared for a storm and generally had hot breakfasts; so there was no cold cereal or anything like that in the house. I finally settled on a cold wiener on a bun along with a drink that that was still reasonable cold.

We had no battery operated radio in the house, so my father decided to go out to the garage and listen to the car radio. That meant going out in the storm. My mother did not like it; but, he insisted.

After a while, we hear a pounding at the door and open it. My father runs in minus his pants and the boxer shorts he generally wore underneath. Somehow, he had lost them in the storm!

My mother and I had a good laugh!

This picture might give you some idea of why my father was on the losing side of his battle with Hurricane Donna!