Hollywood, Florida, 

 Septeiaber 20, 1926. 



mm MOTHERS 



I guess this is about Mondsy raorning but whatever morning It 

 is, it is early and I am going to write you as there is bo rauoh 

 f©r those few o^ us who are not injured to do* 



Yesterday between doing relief work, hanging clothes, rugs 

 and laatrosses out, I had a full day. I intended leaving here 

 Friday night for the north but couldn't quite make it. Also j 

 on account of the warning we had I thought I ^ould stay on 

 account of the house. However, had I had good sense or known 

 what I know now I would have been long gone. But I had no idea 

 it would be so bad. It began blowing in the early evening and ie 

 went out to the beach to see the ocean. The city had hundreds of 

 laborers filling sacks and building a sand barricade to protect 

 the broad-walk and buildings. It was low tide and though the 

 sea was running high and the wind was strong no one felt any 

 alarm. But the wind kept getting higher and I again went out 

 shortly after midnight and parked on the west side of the hotel. 

 The water was coming through the arcade of the hotel so i turned 

 around and came home. 



I left the Dodge out in front of the house as I knew I 

 couldnH open the garage doors. I then went e^ to bed and tried 

 to read the paper but the lights kept going on and off and I 

 got disgusted and turned the light off so that if it came back 

 on it wouldn't burn all night and bother me. ^aall chance fl 



Somewhere along about five o'clock Saturday morning I heard 

 Johnson calling me that the house was going to blow down. I told 

 him to go on back to bed and stop dreaming but he finally got 

 me awakened and I put the windows down in the front room and 

 saw the Docge down in front of the house. Sd had been sleeping 

 in the back room and the garage next door and our garage had 

 been blown away, also the roof on the back porch, ^hen I 

 got down stairs I looked out and the Dodge was gone! Later when 

 it was lighter I saw it down the street and at various times 

 it blew back and forth across the street but didn't upset U 



The wind at first was in the H.B. so we remained in the front 

 part of the house. A short tirae after I had gotten up I heard the 

 bang of glass upstairs and ran up. The roof of the house next 

 door had gone off breaking all the windows in Dolly's room and 

 the wind and water was coming in. So I shut her door and left 

 that room to its fate. The wind was terrible, the houses 

 shook and trembled and yet I felt the houses to the east 

 of us were protecting us. The wind changed to the east and the 

 tid e was hi^ and the water started to com© in. We watched 

 it cover the stceet, over the curb, sidewalk, yard and start 

 to come up the steps. It covered the porch several inches and 

 the house was surrounded with water several feet deep. Build» 

 ^ings were going down on all sides and no one could have lived 

 ^Itxtt in the wind, because of the blowing timbers And debris. 

 Vfo would see a dark object go flying by and it would be some 



