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Survivors never forget the sound of the storm
©Associated Press, published May 27, 2001
John W. Williams remembers the sound of the fury.
The noise was deafening. The sound of gravel pounding aluminum shutters like bullets, the ripping of shingles from the rooftops, and the screams of two angry cats.
Five decades later, Williams vividly remembers Hurricane King, which struck the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area on Oct. 17, 1950, with 150 mph winds and a storm surge of 19 feet. The storm left three people dead and $28-million in damage.
For Williams, it was his "first land hurricane." He earlier endured a hurricane while on an Army troop transport ship.
Williams went on to become a hurricane expert. He forecast hurricanes at the National Hurricane Center in Miami and is co-author of Florida Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, along with Iver W. Duedall, a Florida Institute of Technology professor of oceanography and environmental science. After getting a running start in the Caribbean, Hurricane Kingclipped the western tip of Jamaica, traveled across Cuba and slammed into Miami and western Fort Lauderdale, hitting Williams' home in Plantation.
Williams, who was at home on leave from the Army, recalls the deafening noise, followed by the absolute silence as the eye passed over his family's concrete block home.
The eye, he said, had a peculiar smell that he cannot describe.
"You felt like you had to take a breath once in a while," Williams said.
Minutes later, without warning, the category 3 storm was roaring again from the opposite direction.
"The noise was terrific," Williams said.
After the storm, Williams' family ran outside to examine what King had done to them and their neighbors.
Williams, who grew up in Iowa seeing damage from tornadoes, was awed by the destruction. Of six orange and grapefruit trees, only one was left standing. Half of the roof of the family's home had been ripped asunder.
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King was the second hurricane to hit Florida in 1950.
About a month earlier, Hurricane Easy hit Cedar Key off Florida's Gulf Coast, causing three deaths and $3.3-million in damages. The deaths were caused by electrocution from fallen wires.
The storm formed south of Havana, Cuba, and remained stationary for two days. Then it moved 200 miles in less than 10 hours, stalled again and skirted the Gulf Coast. Then it moved ashore at Cedar Key, smashing Cedar Key and Yankeetown with 100 mph winds for more than 12 hours.
The category 3 storm, with winds of 125 mph, destroyed the Cedar Key fishing fleet with winds and waves. The tide in Tampa Bay rose 6.5 feet and Yankeetown received 38.7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, a state record.
Grady McLeod, 76, was a University of Florida student in Gainesville when the hurricane hit Cedar Key. He was able to sneak back onto the island by hopping in the back of an Army truck.
His family was able to escape serious damage because they lived on one of the island's highest areas, he said. "My family was scared of hurricanes and respected them very much."
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