90 years later: Floridians remember historic hurricane that devastated the Keys

A historic hurricane slammed into Florida s southernmost point years ago and countless residents declared it s a storm they will never forget Residents like Alma Pinder Dalton and others mentioned the Florida Keys in was gorgeous beautiful and starting to grow He had just built a new house stated Alma Pinder Dalton a resident who lived through the hurricane We had a two story home on the beach mentioned Norman another resident who lived through the hurricane Back in that time people built their wood frame houses right on the beach There were roads and cars but no bridges from island to island so people had to use the ferry To link the islands a YouTube video shows the overseas highway under construction A thousand World War I vets were recruited to come down and do the highway construction work Then on Labor Day of word started to spread that there was a storm coming The weather bureau revealed we wasn t gonna get it declared Pinder Dalton Pinder Dalton lived through the hurricane She remembered the weather bureau saying the storm wasn t coming but she commented her dad disagreed We re gonna get something So we shuttered up the house and moved over to uncle Russell s to sit the storm out noted Dalton At the same time the U S executive sent down a train to evacuate the veterans but it wouldn t make it in time As the sun set each family tried to find the safest closest house We moved up to a little cottage noted Norman As it grew dark the wind picked up and the nightmare began The water started coming up I remember the water around my feet and the roof went off reported Norman We all got to the back door to go out We were following my daddy out and the house went to pieces declared Dalton The wooden houses were destroyed Mothers fathers sons daughters were left struggling in a foot wall of water that swept over Matecumbe and Islamorada I was just hanging on to uncle Fred commented Dalton We re floating now we re a raft we re floating over the trees stated Norman At the same time the wind estimated at miles per hour roared through A devastating Category storm Everybody s ears were peeled from the wind and the rain It was terrible explained Dalton It was hard to breathe because of the pressure issue reported Norman As the sun came up Norman will never forget what he saw A lot of us didn t have any clothes because the wind had blown our clothes off stated Norman And the beautiful Florida Keys were gone Complete desolation stated Norman Everything was flat It was just flat There was nothing noted Dalton The train that came to rescue the workers was torn from the tracks Sadly there were fatalities from the storm Sophie and aunt Camille was exposed under the refrigerator revealed Dalton Agents noted people died including civilians and veterans So a large number of bodies they were tied to docks and stacked on land Too a great number of bodies to bury so they cremated a large number of of them You re looking at the dress that Alma Pinder Dalton wore in the hurricane disclosed Barbara Edgar a hurricane historian Barbara Edgar is now trying to preserve the history of the storm in honor of her father He started researching it years ago and of discipline talking with the locals that went through it revealed Edgar Irving Eyster hosted various of the ceremonies at the monument to the sufferers in Islamorada and longed to be sure the legacy of this storm lived on And if another one heads toward the Keys Norman says remember the storm and do something simple Secure what you got and leave explained Norman It was good advice years ago it s still good advice at present