Miami, Florida

October,5,1926

My Dear Children;

I expect you have been looking for a letter long before this, but if you could have seen what I have had to do, you would not wonder at the delay. I will try to tell you of some of the experiences we have passed through in the past nearly twenty days.

In the first place, two weeks ago Friday P.M. Pa came home from town, as he had went down in the afternoon and Pa and Bertie ( from her work ) rode home with Robert as he came home from work, to supper and Pa bought an evening paper, The Miami Tribune and in it was a warning that the worst hurricane that ever struck Florida, would strike Miami before morning and said that down town people were making preparations and taking what precautions they could, that they had put on extra Police to help out in case of an emergency.

Well, we thought this house might not be very safe in case of a hard wind and as Cullen had asked us why we did'nt get in the car and come over to his place? When we had that storm a while ago and I thought maybe it would be as well to go over there. When I read the warning, Pa said that Robert had better run the car out from under the house and I said I thought we had better all get in the car and go over to Cullens, As he said before, if another storm came that we had better come over there. So after supper we hurried up and done the dishes and Bertie and I got ready and we shut down all the awnings and fastened them and we took our night clothes and I put in a big loaf of bread, some oatmeal And coffee in a sack and took with us, as I thought it would help out on breakfast and I did not want to go in on Nellie, so many of us and her not expecting us, and being so near the last of the week and that she might not be prepared for so many. You know they are staying at Cullens while Elsa is gone. They looked kind of funny when we came in, guess, they had not given much credence to the atom warning. Robert pretty near had a fit because we wanted to go over there, he said he wanted to stay home and read and then go to bed and sleep, but we told him we wore going whether he wanted to or not, it did not look particularly like it would storm much, altho it begun to sprinkle a little just as we got there. Cullen told Robert to put the car in stall #6, You know he has forteen garages and most of them were occupied. There were ten that had apartments over them and that was the one that blew down. Then on the north lot there are four more that face the south and a little store building facing the east and at the west end is the four garage building. He had a little shed for his garbage cart, that shed blew down but not the four stall garage and that was where Nellie said they were sleeping when she wrote to Dolly. The roofing blew off the little store and it was the big garage on the west end of the lots that blew down and there were people living in part of the appartments. The way you went to those appartments, you came in the big house and go up-stairs and along the hall and there was a bridge across to the garage Apts and that was the first to go down, WE had all gone to bed about 11 oclock and when it got to storming, we all got up and dressed. Well I can tell you it got pretty exciting from then on, it blow off cement blocks from the top of the building and blew in the windows and the rain (which was salty ) poured in and the plaster fell. There were two men and two women, or girls about like Bertie, up in those garage appartments when they went down, and there were cars in every one of those eight stalls, ours got the windshield broken and top neartly crushed. There was a lull in the storm, just after daylight and the men got out what cars they could and it was a good thing they did too, for when the wind started up again, it blew from the other way and they all would have been crushed, ^I started to say, one of those two men jumped out of a window and the two girls' (sisters). jumped after him. They were not hurt but one of them was hysterical and

The men got an old owning that Cullen had in the house, In the storeroom, and stretched it up in one of the rooms over our bed and all that could, got under it. There were other people there that had rooms and appartments in the big house and we all got together, kind of in the hall and Cullen hunted out coats for most of us and had us put them on so we would not get wet and pillows to put on our heads so the blaster would not hurt us if it fell on us. After it got daylight and the 2nd storm had ceased somewhat, Roland, Kate and little Roland, came. They had got out of the house and got down in a hole in the ground and put blankets and things over their heads. While the men were working to get the ears out of the garage wrecks Nellie, Bertie and the woman that rooms there and runs the little grocery store, took a kettle and some coffee and went over to a neighbors, who had an oil stove, the gas was shut off and the water at Cullens was out of commission, and they got some water to make some coffee and they got trapped over there during the second storm and it blew that house nearly all down while they were there and they could not get back. Finally some of the men went after them and, Oh, I cannot write half of what happened. The men and some of the women finally managed so that we all got a little bite to eat, just standing around after the storm had quieted down some, I have no idea what time it was, but I guess a little after noon. Some of the men struck out to see if they could find a place so we could get into the dry, you see there was about two inches of water all over the floor in Cullens house and we could not stay in there. Well they found a big new appartment house about two blocks from us that was not hurt much and the people said for us to come over there, so some man took the women in his car and took us over there and they had some seats and we all sat in the hall. After a little they came and asked us if we would like some coffee, they made some coffee and had us come up on the next floor to a table but they did not have anything else as they said they had run out of food. There were a lot of other people there too. Well, Cullen &, George and some of the men went over to Cullens place and carried some boards and put them on the ground in the garage that had not blown down, and carried some bedsprings and mattresses that were the driest and some blankets and fixed up for some to sleep there, then we divided up and Pa and I and Bertie and the woman who run the store, stayed there and Cullen, Nellie & Geo, & Helen, Roland, Kate & little Roland and Bob and a man by the name of Andrews that roomed at Cullens, went over and slept in the garage and those four other people & a woman they call, Bobbie, that has an apt. at Cullens and another man and his wife by the name of Stephens, hunted a place somewhere else, that was Saturday night and we did not know what had happened out here. The next morning we went over to Cullens, we had a little bite of supper at that rooming house the night before and the men got some bread some where and some cans of baked beans and some glasses of dried beef and Nellie and I made some coffee on the peoples stove, they had cooked some eggs and we all had a little except Robert, he trotted off with a couple of fellows he knew and when he got back there was nothing left, sombody else was taking their turn getting them-selves somthing to eat.

The next Morning ( Sunday ) when we got over to Cullens, Mr Andrews and Harriett the woman who run the store, had made some coffee some way, I dont know how, but they had got water and fire, I guess where they had made coffee the day before, they had got in Cullens house and got a couple of teakettles and had strong coffee in one and hot water in the other, so we had a cup of coffee but nothing to eat. In the mean-time there was a little loaf of bread in Cullens car and a glass of dried beef and a head of lettuce and I fixed Robert a sanwich as he had not had anything to eat since the morning before. Then Pa & I & Bertie & Robert got in our car and came out here, Nellie, Geo. &, Helen had already gone out to where they had been living before they went to Cullens to stay. They found their house all blown to pieces but managed to get their bedding out of the wreck. Then they came by and looked at this place and got a few things here. This place was blown partly over and standing on one end

somone had been here end took Pa's razor, Bertie's wrist watch, a looking glass, a string of beads of Bertie's and a string of mine that Nellie had given me and I think they took a piece of new satan that Bertie had given me to make a skirt, I haver never found a sight of it.

You ought to have seen this place inside. I guess I told you, the partitions were made of celotex ( that is a kind of wallboard made of cane stalks ground up and pressed and is similar to a thick pasteboard made of straw, and it was all torn to nieces and a lot of papers & magazines that laid on a table of Nellie's, and everything that was in the house, our clothes, bedding and chairs were all in a tumbled mass & all wet & some thing's the color had come out and stained other things. You just cant imagine such a mess, the awnings were all torn off and the screen door torn to pieces and most of the screen off the windows, the pump bent over with the house so we could not get water and part of the things were blown clear out of doors and tangled in a barb wire fence and a lot of trees blown out by the roots and the ground just covered with oranges and grapefruit everywhere. The fruit was just about ready to begin to ripen, in fact some of it was beginning to turn. There will not be any now as it is all blown off and a good share of the trees torn up by the roots. The house blew right on the King orange tree and the big tangerine was all torn up, we had been planning on sending some boxes of fruit up there when it got ripe. You know how it looks when a cyclone goes through, well, that is the way it looks here only it is not just a little streak, but the whole place and then some. I started to tell you, we came out that Sunday and on the way through town, the water was so deep it stopped our car and we had to be pulled through the water and charged us two dollars. When we got out here we picked up a lot of stuff and went back with it to Rolands and hung a lot out to dry after having spread it out which Robert did most of. Bertie & I got somthing to eat,about 4 oclock Roland and Kate came but we could not get a bite of bread but had some potatoes and a can of corned beef & coffee, That was all we had that day and the next morning Kate made some baking powder biscuits and some coffee and applebutter for breakfast and then we came out here ( home ) and Cullen & Geo. came also and the men let the house on down and I made some pancakes & syrup and we got a can of sweet-potatoes & eggs & coffee & canned beans and that was not so bad.

The people from the Telephone office came and took Bertie away before we had dinner, as they wanted her to make out the pay-roll. Then when she got that done, they brought her back, before they came she had got all the clothes hung out, which I can tell you, was no small job and I was in here getting things straightened out enough so that I could get somthing more to eat. It did not break any dishes, only one glass an two lamp chimneys. We still could not get any bread, but there was a girl that Bertie goes with quite a little and who lives between here and Coral Gables, and she drove over here and said if Bertie would go with her, she would take her over to the Coral Gables store and by telling them she lived there, she could get a permit from the City Hall for one loaf if there were four in the family, two if there were eight. So Bertie went with her and got a permit for two loaves and by that time it was so late they were not going to let them out of the City, But Bertie told them that she just had to get home, so after quite an argument they let them come but told Dorris she must come back the same way she went. The next forenoon after we got the house let down so we could stay in it, Bertie had to go back to the office and Robert went down to get his paycheck from the week before end an officer stopped him and asked him if he was working and he never thought and said, no and the officer took him and set him to work in the hospital where they were taking care of the wounded, there were an awful lot killed and lots more badly hurt, I tell you, we were lucky that none of us were hurt to speak of. Geo got his finger pretty badly cut and Cullen got a rap on the side of the head with a trap door he was trying to get in place & fasten down.

And a girl there got cut on the leg, just above the ankle with a piece of flying glass and the blood ran down over her shoe. Helen got a hankerchief and Bob tied it around the cut and stopped the bleeding. Otherwise no one was hurt there, but Cullen has a pretty badly busted thumb & bad leg, or had Sunday when he was out here. I told him to go to the Dr. with it then, before they caused him trouble and I do not know but what they will anyhow.

Elsa has not got home yet, or had not Sunday, her mother was buried about the same time we had the storm Cullen got a telegram from her that Sunday night, in the night. The next Sunday A.M. the Red Cross brought us a box of groceries, there was in it, potatoes,10 lbs. a loaf of bread, 1 lb. coffee, 1 lb snowdrift, 1 can tomatoes, 2 cans baked beans, 1 can corn, 2 cans tomato soup, 1 pkg salt, 1 can salmond, 1 can roast beef, 1 can corned beef, 3 lbs. onions, 3 lbs rice end 4 lbs sugar, so that helped and they told us if we needed any clothes, where to go to get them,but we did not go after any.

We had picked up ours here, some of them were ruined so we cant use them any more, but I have washed up a lot of the things and still have a lot to do. Am going to wash some more tomorrow, Bertie's hat was ruined and her silk hose stained so she could not wear any of them to the office. I can hear some negroes over in Floyds orchard working, I guess they are trying to straighten some trees up.

It blew all the fruit and leaves and some of the bark off the trees, but the trees are starting to leaf out again, some of them will come out alright, that were not blown clear down, and they will straighten up a lot of them.

Well, I guess you do not want to hear any more about this, so will close now.

Mother  

Contributed by:  Holly Yankovich