Boca Grande and Hurricanes: 1910 Hurricane
Betsy Fugate Joiner recently shared a transcript of a 2001 History Byte which featured Doris Bishop, Pansy Cost and Margaret Fugate presenting the history of hurricanes on the Island. While they focused on 20th century hurricanes, the late Robert Edic in his book Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor cites studies that report 64 tropical disturbances affecting Florida between 1830 and 1900.
At the History Byte presentation, Doris began with the 1910 hurricane during which a number of Cuban fishing boats were in the lee of Cayo Costa “and when the wind began turning, they decided that they would take shelter on Bokeelia. When they got there, the water went out and they were in the wind and the ships ground to pieces on the bottom. Most everybody was killed except for one young man. And a lot of the bodies washed ashore on Cayo Costa in what is now called Dead Man’s Cove.” Bob Edic adds that many of the bodies are in the island’s Pioneer Cemetery.
Boca Grande resident, Tommy Parkinson, reported that two men, John Padilla and Walter Coleman, crossed the harbor from Punta Blanca to Cayo Costa on the roof of one of their damaged houses.
Carey Johnson noted in his book, Boca Grande: The Early Days, that his father, a port pilot, alerted the residents of the Port to the storm and a group walked through heavy wind and rain taking two hours to find shelter at the Little Inn located at Fourth Street and Palm.
A new bank building which was under construction at Fourth Street and East Railroad (now the United Telephone Building) was damaged. Pansy Cost noted “that the railroad had just started construction and that the storm washed everything out and they had to redo it, had to pump in, and that was when they filled in the Narrows.”