1921 Hurricane in Tampa Bay
Impact on Florida
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Date of landfall: October 25, 1921 |
Lives lost (FL): 8 |
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Category/wind speed: 140 mph |
Cost of damages: $5 million |
Nicole Cox (2008), in an article for Tampa Bay History, discussed how the media coverage of the 1921 Hurricane, among others, was skewed by the state, county, and city desire to expand. In the 1920s, Florida was experiencing a boom in the land and housing market as people from all over the nation were sold the Florida dream in magazines, newspapers, and movies. From early on in the coverage of the impending hurricane, the potential dangers of the storm were downplayed. Meteorologist W. J. Bennet hypothesized that the storm may pass the Tampa area all together in an article run in the Tampa Tribune the day the storm would eventually hit (Barometer Falls as Hurricane Heads in to Florida’s Coast, 1921). The same article underestimated the coming winds in what could have been an attempt to lull recent transplants to the Tampa Bay area into a false sense of security.
The storm that hit the Tampa Bay area on the 25 of October, 1921, was the most destructive hurricane to hit the area since 1848, with winds over 140 miles per hour (category 4). It made landfall in Tarpon Springs as a category 3 (National Weather Service, 2021). A storm surge of 11 feet, rose through Tampa Bay, into homes, businesses, and the power house, leaving the city in darkness (National Weather Service, 2011; Associated Press, 1921). Jesse Rohrer, a botanist living in Tampa at the time, recorded her observations in her diary, which is held in the USF Tampa Library’s Special Collections.
"Tide rose through our woods and came within fifty feet of our house. Our lot is 627 to 596 feet deep. House stands 150 feet in all from street so water was over our lot 500+450 feet. 23 forest trees on our place were blown down. Our garage was unroofed. trees blown down were oak, cedar, red and white bay, myrtle, palmetto, mulberry, persimmon and [indecipherable] banana..." -- Jessie C. Rohrer diary. Jessie C. Rohrer collection. USF Libraries Tampa Special Collections.
Bay Shore Blvd was the most heavily hit and had the highest recorded surges (National Weather Service, 2021). Holes were made in the sea wall by the waves, roofs were blown off, and many houses were swept away, especially those in Palmetto Park and Ybor City (Associated Press, 1921). At the time, citrus growing was a ubiquitous industry in Tampa Bay. The hurricane destroyed entire citrus crop fields and ruined the harvest for the year (National Weather Service, 2021).
Within the space of two days, however, local leaders, including realtors and the press, were already downplaying the damage to protect the housing boom and ensure the continuation of money flowing into the area (Cox, 2008). A Tampa Bay Times article from October 27, 1921, estimated the winds of two days before at only 75 miles an hour. Though the article acknowledged the powerplant was flooded and trees were uprooted, it claimed no homes were lost to the storm. The efforts by local leaders to cover up the damages, and downplay any possibility of future storms to the area, paid off as more than three thousand people settled in Florida between 1923-1925. The land and housing booms would not go bust until after the 1926 and 1928 hurricanes (Cox, 2008).
