The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 109

worst form fee? jo mm Candidate The hurricane of 1945 is rated as one of the most financially destructive in Florida history 11- and mechanical refrigeration fails Stock up tSEffiTTH I o1" I aaianm I KT Jc ILL I iK iifr hangar number two was in flames. There was nothing to. be done but attempt to avoid loss of lives. Ten miles farther south the hurricane had struck with staggering impact. The very center of the storm had passed through Homestead about 6:30 p.m.

At 10 p.m. the town was in complete darkness. Krome Avenue, the main street, was completely under water, as was the main floor of the city hall and fire department. Virtually every house in the area suffered some damage- Two large plate glass windows in the front of the building housing the Homestead rationing board had been hoarded up. They shattered.

The Home Hardware building, which had had a wall blown out in the 1926 hurricane, suffered the same fate again. The Church of Christ, a frame building, completely collapsed. Packing houses at the town's railroad crossings were among the first buildings to suffer damage. A freight car on the Florida East Coast railroad broke loose, and was driven pell mcll down the tracks by the winds, finally being halted by debris across the tracks. Traveling back from Homestead to Miami, observers ntoted that three out of every five power poles that carried power to South Dade county were down all the way to' South Miami.

At Goulds, the FEC station had Damage to trees alone in the Homestead area was placed at crop loss at $2,000,000. A record lime and avocado harvest was blown down. Packing houses and the equipment therein were smashed. Trees were either uprooted completely or at the very least twisted out of shape. (Immediately after the storm the people set about replanting the uprooted trees and pruning damaged limbs performing a remarkable salvage job.

A drastic manpower shortage threatened to aggravate the situation, but an imported labor force, including 407 German prisoners of war and 200 Bahaman laborers, (Continued on page 28) THE FINAL EDITION OF The Miami Daily News reached the streets at about 1:30 on the afternoon of Sept. 15, 1945. It proclaimed, in large, black tvpe: "Hurricane Will Strike Keys This Afternoon." The subhead stated that Miami would receive winds of 75 miles per hHir. In a bold faced paragraph preceding the regular story, however it was reported that Grady Norton, chief forecaster of the U. S.

weather bureau, had said Miami definitely would miss the worst of the hurricane. Miami did miss the worst of it. Power lines snapped, debris, piled up. But the storm damage in the city itself was minuscule when compared with the havoc wrought in the Homestead area and at the Richmond Naval Air Base, southwest of Miami. There the hurricane was a smashing devastating storm that destroyed nearly worth of property.

In the midst of the hurricane, a roaring fire struck the three gigantic hangars at Richmond. The hangars burned and literally were swept away by the fierce winds. In addition to the loss of the three hangars, valued at each, 366 airplanes and 25 big blimps were destroyed. -Damage was" figured at $40,000,000. First reports listed 200 or more casualties, but this proved the grossest of exaggerations.

Ten search parties combed the wreckage and the actual toll shvwcd one death and, 26 teriotisly enough injured to require hospital treatment. The lone casualty was Harry Schultz, chief of the station's civilian fire department. Ironically, a false alarm preceded the tragedy. At 5:31 an automatic alarm sounded front hangar number one. Investigation revealed nothing wrong.

Eleven minutes later the same hangar burst into flames. lust as the fire-fighting apparatus began fighting the blaze in hangar one, hangar three, 1,200 feet away, started blazing. The tar-paper roofs of all three hangars started to give way before the winds and in a matter tf minutes' mrr 9 1 Jhr Vs Piano ctnrlc VI ON CITY ICE befor powr faih Avoid janglJ mtnt mmi dtsappoitmt bf stopping early our conveniently located, bright YELLOW, RE3 lettered CITY Id venders. Cfck Thit List For Operated ice venaingj Machine Nearest You Tliese Ciry Products Imrollotions Stand Reody Te Serve Toe wrysroi vieor Cube or Block lee ot Any nour or Night. N031TH MIAMI BEACH (1) U.S.

No. 1 at 163rd St (Sunny Isles Road) NORTH MIAMI (2 Dixie Highway at N.E. 128th St MIAMI SHORES (4) N.E. 87th St. at Biscaynt Bl MIAMI (3) N.W.

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at 54th St. (7A) N.W. 17th Ave. at 50th St (6) N.W. 7th Ave.

at 36th St (9) Okeechtbee Road at 4th Ave. (Hialeah) (10) 2637 N. Miami Avenue (11) N.W. 17th Ave. at 20th St (12) N.W.

14th Street at F.E.C. R.I (13) 645 N.W. 13th Street (14) N.W. 7th St. at 17th Cowl (15) 4941 S.W.

8th St. (Acroit from Granada Entrance) (IS) Coral Way at S.W. 12tti At (17) Bird Road at S.W. 73rd Court (18) 3954 Red Road (North of Bird Road) (20) Grand Ave. at McDonald St Miami PALM BEACH JESPANOL NEWS, Aujusr 4, 1957 27G Coin Jl (Mm FT.

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36 IV 5-3340 WIST HABLA MIAMI SUNDAY Here's a portion of the fruit crop loss, estimated at $2,000,000, destroyed during storm. Many packing houses were also demolished. FLORIDA LIVING.