The Great Hurricane of Labor Day, 1935. I had already concocted the 1935 history-mystery with the need for a storm in the story of the disappearance of Fritzi Bright when, much to my amazement, I discovered there had actually been a hurricane on that very day. And what a hurricane it was! At that time, it was the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the United States, and remains one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to strike the contiguous U.S. to date. As reported by Anabeth via the microfilm in Chapter 5, it caused great destruction when it made landfall in the Florida Keys, with 185 mph winds and inundation from 15- to 20-foot storm surges which destroyed much of the Florida East Coast Railroad. The hurricane then made its way up through North Florida into Georgia and the Carolinas, eventually affecting most of the eastern seaboard up into New England. I’ve used poetic license with the timing of the hurricane’s arrival in North Carolina; it would, of course, have been days if not weeks after Labor Day when the storm hit Elk Station.
