Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928
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Product Description
Killer 'Cane takes place in the Florida Everglades, which was still a newly settled frontier in the 1920s. On the night of September 16, 1928, a category 4 hurricane swung up from Puerto Rico and collided, quite unexpectedly, with Palm Beach, killing over 2,500 people in Florida alone, making it the second deadliest storm in U.S. history.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
For the Love of Muck
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Comment:
A natural disaster looms on the horizon but government and financial leaders play down the danger because of the possible loss of tourist and investor dollars. The public is than caught completely off-guard when the disaster strikes and the carnage is far worse than anyone could have predicted. If this scenario sounds familiar it's because Hollywood has served up this basic formula for years in films ranging from "Earthquake" to "Jaws." Robert Mykle has given us the very same plot in this book but in this case the story is horribly real.
In the early twentieth century there was a land boom in Florida as the wealthy discovered the warm climate and farmers discovered the extremely rich soil around the Everglades. World War I caused a great demand for vegetables and the rich "muck" of the Everglades could produce two or three excellent crops a year with green beans being the prime crop. With vegetable prices at an all time high the farmers of the area spent a great deal of time and effort trying to push Lake Okeechobee back in order to uncover more crop land. It never seemed to occur to them that one day the lake just might push back.
In 1928 when the category four "Killer 'Cane" hit the area the lake did indeed push back and by the time the storm had passed most of South Florida was under two to three feet of water. Of course two or three feet of water isn't going to kill many people but the eighteen foot storm surge created on the lake was more than capable of taking many thousands of lives. As recently as 2001 human bones were still being plowed up in fields where they were buried by the storm in the muck they had so lusted after. Unlike the disaster movie villains Hollywood has produced however the Florida authorities didn't learn their lesson and managed to undercount the dead by at least a thousand people so as not to scare away the tourists.
Robert Mykle has written a very credible account of this tragic event and his method is one that makes the hurricane seem very real. Much of the book is taken in introducing the reader to the people and places that are about to be blasted by this killer storm. The author goes back many years in tracing some of these families and their migration to the Everglades and he does manage to make the reader feel as if they actually know some of these people. His method succeeds in making all of the death, suffering and destruction hit home with the reader but he takes his method to extremes sometimes and goes back a bit too far, making the story drag a just a tad at times. He also makes several historical statements that are simply not true and although they don't deal directly with the storm these kinds of errors certainly hurt the author's credibility. Just to quickly mention three of these errors; Andrew Jackson was not born west of the Appalachian Mountains, General Meade was never removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac by Abe Lincoln and there were no Axis Powers in World War I. It's picky I know but someone writing a history book just shouldn't make these kinds of errors.
Overall though this was a very good and readable book. The author does an excellent job of relating pertinent meteorological data such a way that it made it clear and understandable and in a book like this one that is a very important task. His verbal descriptions of the devastation are also very good and his blow by blow description of the storm as it pounded its victims was extraordinarily good. Mykle in fact had done such a good job of introducing some families that I found myself hanging on every word to see who survived and who didn't.
In short, there are some flat spots in this book but it contains a story that needs to be told and told with heart. Robert Mykle has accomplished this task admirably.
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Summary:
Unimaginable destruction................
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Comment:
Killer 'cane is a well researched book about the 1928 hurricane that swept through the Caribbean and the Bahamas as a category 5 and then hit the Florida coast around Palm Beach.
The research includes 20 original interviews of individuals by the author and several interviews done by others, as well as numerous documents, books, articles and pamphlets.
The lack of forecasting knowledge, the limited understanding of the potential danger and the desire to not frighten people ( tourists and land investors) all combined with the sheer power of an approaching category 5 hurricane to create unimaginable devastation and destruction.
Robert Mykle gives the history of the Lake Okeechobee area, explaining the richness of the land, the potential for farming as well as the hardships faced. The creation of the wall to hold back the water seemed so right at the time. Mykle puts the human face on the disaster by introducing the families that lived and struggled with life on the edge of the Everglades, the farmers, the entrepreneurs, the migrant workers. We see and get a taste of their hopes and dreams, and then we see it all wiped clean.
Mykle also includes enough meteorology facts for a basic understanding of hurricane formation and motion.
Forecasting has come so far and yet there is still so much that can change, unpredictably, in the blink of an eye, that this is an important book to read to remind us of the pure power that a hurricane can unleash on us.
After having been through Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, Dennis (in NC) Isabel (in VA) and Charlie & Frances (in FL) and currently watching the approach of IVAN I think it is important to not grow complacent and to be able to put a human face on the destruction a hurricane leaves in it's wake.
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Summary:
The Story of a Nightmare Come True
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Comment:
Every adult who lives within 50 miles of the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the United States should read Killer Cane. Hurricanes are deadly, but quiet hurricane seasons in the past decade have given coastal residents a sense that hurricanes won't hit them. But they will. I survived two hurricanes, and they were pure horror. They were Category One hurricanes, the weakest kind, but they tore off roofs and smashed property like gigantic maniacs.Robert Mykle's fine book describes a Category Four hurricane that came ashore near Palm Beach in 1928. A Category One hurricane causes some damage, while a Category Five causes complete destruction, so you can imagine the strength of a Category Four. But destruction didn't stop at the coast. The hurricane moved inland to rip into the farming communities at the south end of Lake Okeechobee, 40-50 miles inland from Palm Beach. Winds of 150 miles-per-hour and more than 12 inches of rain destroyed almost everything in its path, and killed some 2000 people. The real cost of this disaster is the effect on its victims, and Mykle introduces us to many of the doomed families as they go about their business, not knowing that the day after tomorrow will be their last on earth. We come to care about them. We mourn those killed and feel the suffering of survivors in the aftermath. This is a great strength of the book, and Robert Mykle has done a terific job of presenting a harrowing story in human terms. It is well worth reading.
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Summary:
Tells the story from the human perspective
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Comment:
In the early period of the last century three great hurricanes devastated Florida. Miami was hit in 1926, The everglades in 28, and the keys in 35. The Miami storm is known for finishing the land boom and the keys storm is famous for being the most powerful hurricane ever and killing WWI veterans on work detail. Mykle's book examines the least well known of the three, the storm of 1928. The everglades storm actually killed the most people by far, but is less well remembered because most of its victims were poor and black. But the hurricane makes for a fascinating story in any case. Mykle tells it through the lives of several everglades families who experienced the calamity, often suffering considerable loss. He covers the disaster from several angles, and so there is something in this book for everyone. My one fault with this book is that the author focuses a little too much on the individuals and not enough on other features of the catastrophe. We hear little, for instance, about what the hurricane did to Puerto Rico. But this should not dissuade anyone from buying the book on the killer Cane of 28.
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Summary:
Forgotten tragedy
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Comment:
I grew up in this area during the forties and fifties.I attended high school with many decedants of the victims and survivers of this disaster.The book seems to be quiet accurate and hits the nail on the head .It amazes me that it has to be the best kept secret of all diasters.I live in the neighboring state of Georgia,and when I ask people in this area about the storm no one has a clue.At the time it was the third worst disaster to have occured ,in terms of lives lost. What a shame.
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