MIAMI (WSVN) - The Museum of Miami is preparing to unveil a new exhibit that showcases the hurricane that devastated the rapidly developing city of Miami 100 years ago and forced it to rebuild from the ground up.
Paul George, Ph. D., the museum’s resident historian, noted the importance of chronicling this chapter of South Florida history.
“I think this shows in detail a particular era in our history and the general ignorance of what these storms could do,” he said.
The exhibit, titled “Caught in the Eye: Remembering the 1926 Hurricane,” revisits the 12-hour disaster through curated photos, film, newspapers and personal letters from those who experienced it.
“We have accumulated so much, and we needed to showcase this, and here we are 100 years later,” George said.
The exhibit explores the hurricane’s damaging strengths, including estimated winds of over 130 miles per hour.
“Most people not understanding hurricanes, that meant probably 99% of the population at the time, said, ‘Well, that’s over,’ you know, ‘there’s almost like a little break, we can see more light than we had, you know, five minutes ago, let’s go out and assess the damage,'” George said.
With a recent real estate boom in Miami at the time beginning to wind down, the storm was a perfect combination of devastation.
“Not only did we have the boom dissipate, but we got hit by this hurricane, too,” George said. “You would have thought that most people would have said, ‘Hey, I’m out of here, this place is jinxed,’ but people kind of hung on.”
The exhibit dives into those recounting the deceptive calm before landfall, the fury of the winds and the false hope of the eye’s passage catching so many residents off guard.
“We didn’t have buildings that were able to hold off the wind and water surge. They were wood-framed buildings primarily, and roofs were torn off, walls were knocked out,” George said.
People drove toward the damage to survey the scene, only to unexpectedly experience the second half of the storm. Over 100 people died, and half of the city’s population, around 40,000 people, was left homeless.
“We had martial law for a couple of days,” George said. “Florida state’s version of the National Guard came down, Red Cross came in and took over sort of everything.”
The exhibit also connects the storm’s lasting impact on Miami a century later, from the city’s society, economy and politics, to how it shaped South Florida to be prepared for hurricanes today.
“We’re so much better today. We kind of accuse, I guess, the media of overkill when it comes to covering storms today, but I think it’s better to have that than the general ignorance that we had at that time,” George said. “It was just a shock to people.”
“Caught in the Eye: Remembering the 1926 Hurricane” starts Friday at the Museum of Miami, located at 101 W Flagler St. in downtown Miami.
For more information on the exhibit, click here.
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