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Arts & Culture : Books Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


Bahamian meteorologist releases his latest hurricane book
By The Bahamas Weekly News Team
Jan 8, 2015 - 9:11:33 AM

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Nassau, New Providence - Bahamian meteorologist, Wayne Neely has released another book about hurricanes, and this time it's on the Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928.

"For the last two years I had the opportunity to write and compile a comprehensive book called , The Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928-The Story of the Second Deadliest Hurricane in American History and the Deadliest Hurricane in Bahamian History.  This book is based on the great impact this storm had on the Caribbean, The Bahamas and the United States in 1928," said the author who's last published book was The Great Bahama Hurricane of 1929.

If you live in the Caribbean or Florida, you’ve probably heard tales about the Great Okeechobee Hurricane, which killed thousands and left behind wide swaths of destruction. Also known as the Saint Felipe (Phillip) Segundo Hurricane, it developed in the far eastern Atlantic before making its way over land and taking the lives of Caribbean residents, Bahamian migrant workers and Florida residents. This thoroughly researched history considers the storm and its aftermath, exploring an important historical weather event that has been neglected in previous studies. Through historical photographs of actual damage and personal recollections, best-selling author and veteran meteorologist Wayne Neely examines the widespread devastation that the hurricane caused. Through unique historical photographs of actual damage and personal recollections, author and veteran meteorologist Wayne Neely shows the widespread devastation left in the wake of this catastrophic hurricane.

You’ll get a detailed account on:

• Workers who were caught unprepared on the farms in the Okeechobee region of Florida;

• Challenges that those involved in the recovery effort faced after the hurricane passed;
• Personal and community turmoil that took decades to fully overcome.

This book is available locally at Logos Bookstore in the Harbour Bay Shopping Center, Cole Thompson Pharmacy Downtown, Nassau Stationers on Rosetta Street opposite Insurance Management, Chapter One Bookstore opposite the College of the Bahamas, Book World and Stationers Mackey Street, LPIA Concessions Store in the Domestic Terminal, Concessions Stores in Atlantis Hotel and other local bookstores. 

For those not in the Bahamas it is now available from the publisher www.iuniverse.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com and many other online and local bookstores throughout the United States, Canada and Europe as a hardback, softcover or e-book.

Highlights of this massive storm:

1) This storm damage amounted to over $25 Million (In 1928 US Dollars) in Florida alone and over $75 Million (In 1928 US Dollars) in the region.

2) This storm caused at least 2,500 deaths in Florida, of which approximately 1,400 were Bahamian migrant farm workers and caused an additional 1,607+ deaths in the Caribbean (including 312 in Puerto Rico, 1,200 in Guadeloupe, 42 in Montserrat and 18 in the Turks and Caicos Islands).

3)  Read about how a young girl in Florida was rescued in the storm from sure drowning by an alligator.

4) This storm is the seventh most intense landfalling US hurricane at 929 mbar (hPa), ninth deadliest hurricane in the North Atlantic hurricane history and deadliest hurricane in Bahamian history.

5)   Prior to 2003, the 1928 storm’s official US death toll was 1,836, and that number, assigned by the American Red Cross and Florida state officials in the weeks following the disaster. Too many people were hurriedly put into mass graves, stacked in piles and burned, or found as piles of bones years later in the Okeechobee fields. The volume of death was so staggering to the pioneer region of Florida that after a while, people just stopped counting. Historians suggest that 2,500 to 3,000 is a more realistic number, so in 2003 the National Hurricane Center upped the death toll to ‘at 2,500.’ This was not as a result of any new evidence, but reflecting a need to have a more accurate number in time for the storm’s seventy-fifth anniversary. The storm would then be officially classified as the second deadliest disaster in American history, behind only the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people, surpassing the Johnstown Flood of 1889, which killed 2,209 persons.

6)   Early on September 17, the storm made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida with winds of 145 mph making it a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. In the city, more than 1,711 homes were destroyed. Elsewhere in the county, impact was severest around Lake Okeechobee. The storm surge caused water to pour out of the southern edge of the lake, flooding hundreds of square miles as high as 20 feet above ground. Numerous houses and buildings were swept away in the cities of Belle Glade, Canal Point, Chosen, Pahokee, and South Bay. At least 2,500 people drowned as the hurricane flooded the Okeechobee region with lake surge. After this storm, the Herbert Hoover Dike was built around the lake to prevent future devastations like this one from occurring from a hurricane ever again.

7)   A sloop on its way to Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands to be registered was lost, with 18 people drowned. In the capital city of Nassau, 10-year-old Hilda May Sturrup died when she ventured outside just after the storm had passed. She fell into an open trench filled with water and drowned.

8)   In the Bahamas, major damage was done to shipping in the Nassau Harbour, and many schooners, such as Carkum and Capt Charley, and some other mailboats, were totally destroyed by the hurricane. Some of the mailboats that were destroyed were the San Salvador Guanahani and the Andros Island mailboat, The William Carlos. The Mayaguana mailboat Non-Such sank in the Nassau Harbour, opposite Malcom’s Park. A small harbour dredger also sank in Nassau Harbour and turned over. The five-masted schooner Abaco was blown out of the harbour and sunk east of Athol Island. Several small boats sank opposite Malcolm’s Park and over at Hog Island (now called Paradise Island).

9)   In the Bahamas, the western portion of Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church roof was torn away, and the interior badly damaged. The roof of St. Mary’s Church, Virginia Street, and Wesley Church in Grant’s Town also suffered some damage. The northern half of the Higgs’ sponge shed near the sponge exchange was blown away. The roof was blown away from the Munson Steamship Line building on Bay Street. The roof of the West India Oil Company on West Street was blown away.

10)  On Cat Island, major damage was reported as many roads, bridges and homes were destroyed. In Arthur’s Town, the Public Wharf, the doctor’s residence, churches and about one hundred homes were destroyed. In the Bight alone, about sixty houses were badly damaged or totally destroyed. Many roads were either washed away or rendered impassible after the storm. Meanwhile, on the island of Eleuthera, the winds were estimated at around 100 mph during the peak of the storm. The storm destroyed 128 homes, and an additional 154 were badly damaged. At Harbour Island alone, it was reported that about 95 houses, including a few churches such as the Church of England, were badly damaged or totally destroyed.

11)  The island of Bimini reportedly sustained winds of 140 mph during the peak of the storm. Major damage was reported to several buildings, and nearly every home on the island was reportedly damaged or destroyed. Bimini’s famed “rum row,” the waterfront dock where smugglers picked up contraband rum and liquor for the short run across the Atlantic to the Prohibition-defiant United States, was reported to have sustained heavy losses in this hurricane. The wharf was badly damaged, and numerous small ships sunk.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wayne Neely is an international speaker, best-selling author, lecturer on hurricanes, educator, and meteorologist. Travelling extensively, Wayne addresses critical issues affecting all aspects of hurricanes, especially Bahamian Hurricanes which is one of his central areas of expertise. In addition, in most of his books he also includes controversial topics such as, Global Warming, El Niño and man’s overall impact on the weather and climate of this region and the rest of the world. However, if you were to ask him where his loyalty lies, he would tell you that he specializes in and have a great love, respect and appreciation for Bahamian hurricanes and their impact on the islands of the Bahamas. The central themes of his books are always on hurricanes in general and the impact of hurricanes on all aspects of mankind’s ever expanding society. He’s a Weather Forecaster in Nassau, Bahamas and has been there for well over 24 years. He has a great passion for writing and does it in his spare time. Wayne Neely is a certified Meteorologist working at the Department of Meteorology in Nassau, Bahamas-prior to that he majored in Geography and History at the College of The Bahamas in Nassau. He then attended the Caribbean Meteorological Institute in Barbados where he majored and specialized in weather forecasting. He has written nine bestselling books on hurricanes.



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