FLORIDA HURRICANE.

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16947, 9 November 1926, Page 5

FLORIDA HURRICANE.

ENGLISHWOMAN'S EXPERIENCE. TERRIBLE TIME IN MOTOR-CAR. We' publish below a letter from an a direct account of the hurricane which devastated Miami and district. It is from Mrs Ralph Sands, of Ilialcah, to her mother. Her letter, dated September 22, says:— "About 0 p.m. on Friday a wind started, and got up, and Ralph said: 'lf I am not mistaken that sounds to me very much like the beginning of a hurricane,' because, of course, he has been always used to these. His home in Nassau has walls 3 feet think of solid stone. "At 3.30 I wakened him and said I thought it was getting bad, so he listened to one gust when he jumped up and said: 'Get dressed at once in your warmest things, and wc must leave here at once—this house won't stand, and wc arc going to have a full hurricane !" I got some things on quickly and wrapped big blankets around the babies, and he got the car somehow round the south side of the house, and came back for me just as a terrible gust eanic and moved the house on its foundations. Fourteen Hours In the Car.

"So lie got me in the car and ran back for Gcorgic, and as tie came out and closed the door the kitchen window blew in, and before we had gone any distance Lho wind gushed in witli lerrific force (about 120' to 130 miles per hour) and took the roof off and blew the walls Hat.

''The door remains, but is right off llic block foundations, and everything lias gone 1 don't know where. The fowls were blown against Llic wire and crushed and entangled in it and all killed but two or three.

"Well, after a bit, for :l i hours we sat in our little car and battled it —only Ralph's wonderful manipulation saved us at all. Hut when the storm turned south it was at its height. Wc dared not move it —even to turn it head on—so we had to stay broadside on during the worst.

"1 had baby wrapped in a big brown blanket on my lap, and Gcorgic at the side with his head leaning over on my lap, and that child never moved or made a sound from about 5 a.m. till after mid-day. It was after 4 pm. before we could think of moving the car. "Touch-and-Go."

"Then wc decided that, although it was blowing hard still, we would try and make the house of some friends in Ilialcah who had a rather substantial one. On several occasions it was just touch-and-go as to whether the car would stand up to it or blow over. "All my treasures —everything is gone to smithereens. We got down lo the house, and they were In pretty good condition (about the only one in Hialeah) and were at once taken in and given clothes. "By-by, we shall manage through it somehow!"