Florida's Great Hurricane/Chapter 7

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THE experience of nearly everyone who passed through the storm might well be said to have been thrilling, but that of Dr. George W. Woollard, who was in charge of the Coral Gables office at Miami Beach, was one of the most exciting which has come to my attention. This office was located opposite the Roney Plaza, overlooking the ocean. It was known as the Salon Maritimo. The cost of interior decorations and fittings of this office was $155,000. As one might judge from this it was a very handsome office, and contained many rare pieces that had been imported, particularly to give it the Spanish setting which the Coral Gables Corporation affects. There were, for example, some very fine replicas of Spanish galleons, antique imported chairs, deer hide chairs, bronze urns, marble cornucopias, of which there were two at the inner vestibule standing over eight feet high; two huge candelabra from a Spanish medieval cathedral, and seventeen rugs that cost a thousand dollars each. At the main entrance was a bronze statue, in front of which was a sparkling fountain of mosaic-tile with green frogs spouting water, a similar circular fountain adorned the solarium, with Piping Pan spouting water from the lutes. The light effects were carried out by antique wrought lanterns around the ceiling of the promenade, high bronze urns three feet high, with bulbs in center at every column, colored spot lights playing on both fountains and the ceiling of the solarium, which was sky blue, bordered with blue bays, a canal being built up with pecky cypress in tropical colors, hiding row upon row of blue bulbs which threw their rays upon the ceiling. The inner columns were adorned with wrought iron candle sticks. This description, abbreviated as it must be, may be sufficient to give the reader some idea of the manner in which this office was furnished. Dr. Woollard is a veteran of the World War and served many months in the trenches, and he told me he had rather go through his war experience again rather than pass through his hurricane experience if he were forced to face the ordeal of going through one or the other and had his choice. I shall let Dr. Woollard relate his experience in his own words, as follows:

My private office contained two Japanese hand embroidered silk panels, Oriental chairs, bookcases, steel filing cabinets, desks, buffet, besides other furniture. The solarium also contained a new ​

​Steinway grand piano, which was totally destroyed. The ironical part of the whole thing for me lay in the fact that I had been fixing up a little two-room apartment in this office and adjoining my private office, and had just completed it and had finished moving in that very afternoon, and had taken all my jewelry, wardrobe and other belongings with me.

I was seated in my private office that eventful Friday night after dinner, reading the paper when the phone rang. One of the vice presidents of the Coral Gables Corporation advised me of the predicted storm. This was about 7:30 o'clock and was just barely dark. I went out and bought a paper, and upon reading it called in my nightwatchman and told him to make sure all doors and windows were securely locked and barred, and went with him to supervise same, then went back to my reading, confident that at the most it would only be about as bad as the flurry we had in July, which although it deposited several inches of sand in the office and wetted the rugs badly did no serious or permanent damage. About 10 o'clock the wind was getting pretty high, and I went out and turned a big twin-six Packard coupe around, backing it against the wind, putting it in reverse and setting the emergency brake as tight as possible. The wind at this time was so strong as to cause the sand to cut into one's face like needles. I then went back to retire, but lay down with my clothes on. I noticed that the ocean was rising rapidly and the water already was coming under the doors. It was only a short time before I noticed the rugs were being lifted and putting my hand down I felt the water to be about twelve inches deep, and decided therefore to change into my bathing suit, throwing my clothes containing upwards of twelve hundred and sixty dollars on the back of a chair. My large ring and wrist watch I took off and locked in my desk drawer. This must have been about midnight. I have no record of time for the next two days. About this time the lights went out, and finding matches I lit a candle which was in one of the wrought iron candelabra. The water was still gradually rising, and in the outer office I could hear huge waves swishing in great torrents, when all of a sudden I heard an awful crash. Opening the door to the outer office I saw that the front doors had given away and huge waves were coming in, carrying out furniture on their return. Foolishly, it seems to me now, I rushed over and tried to close them and hold them. The noise of the water was so great that nothing else could be heard, and it was all I could do to retain an upright position even by holding on to the walls. At this time the remaining windows and doors crashed ​in at intervals until all were gone on the ocean side. I was bewildered and did not know which way to turn, I was just about to return to my private office when a great wave came in from two directions, one from the ocean side and the other from Twenty-third street, and a big bundle rolled up at my feet and a light flashed. I helped this bundle scramble to its feet and it turned out to be a policeman, who was on duty at the outside of the Roney Plaza Hotel. He told me that he was trying to make his way along when a huge wave picked him up and deposited him right at my feet. We made our way back to the corner in which was the lounge, the northern window of which was still intact, we sat in arm chairs for awhile, when suddenly this one remaining window crashed, and I could feel the floor trembling. The water rose so high that the chairs on which we were sitting were floating, and I felt the floor quiver, and grabbed the policeman's wrist and bellowed to him to follow me outside. We could see trees going by uprooted, huge coconut palms as well as roofs of houses, I knew not where we were going, but it must have been Divine Providence that directed me to the only room the door of which held, as I rushed through this entrance still leading the policeman. I reached back and pulled the huge pecky cypress door closed behind me to prevent the waves coming in. The policeman now held his torch in his helmet, and as the water was up to our waists we had to climb upon the table, where we sat until it rose so high that we had to stand. Minutes now seemed hours, and although we scarcely spoke a word the knowledge that we were not absolutely alone was some comfort to both of us. As the water rose to a dangerous height he suggested that we had better get out. I asked him how. He suggested the door. I was, by this time, agreeable to try anything once, but on making our way to the door we found the sand and debris had piled up above the catch sash of the windows, to say nothing of the fact that a raging torrent was racing by the windows carrying every thing in its wake, including a huge piano, a relic from the house of the Emperor of Austria, which went floating by on a wave at a terrific rate as though it had been a feather. Escape was cut off. At this time we saw two huge roofs crash to the ground right outside of our windows. These had acted as wooden awnings for our office and the second floor of the casino above, and were completely demolished. A few moments later we saw the Roman Pools split completely in two, releasing five hundred thousand gallons of water in one deluge, having the same effect as a dam bursting and carrying everything before it. The water rose rapidly, and the most welcome ​sight anyone ever saw was dawn. We had been forced to stand on the table and hang on to the chandelier, and from this point the water rose steadily until it was at our chins with our heads touching the ceiling, we could go no higher and I told the policeman that if a lull came for only a few minutes I was going to make a break for it. How, I had no idea, but he protested it would be suicidal, as roofs were going by on the wind, and four were lying in what remained of the Roman Pools, and the debris was still racing by the windows at a terrific rate. I stepped off the table and swam under a door to a small closet adjoining this room, and on coming to the top was overjoyed to see the window there had not become blocked with debris. If I could smash it I could get out and possibly make my escape by getting back into the solarium. I swam back and so reported to him; he could not see it, but finally we agreed that I was to go and that if I should be swept away he was to attempt to recover me. I took his pistol and swimming under, after shaking hands with him, I reached the window sill, and after trying unsuccessfully twice finally smashed the window and then the screen, dropped the revolver and stepped gingerly from the window. I had, however, barely got my right leg and arm through before I was picked up as though I had been nothing and thrown bodily back into the pile of debris and piano. I picked myself up and clinging to the balcony above me made my way hand over hand to the windows of the Salon. The wind was now coming from the south at terrific force making it difficult for me to retain my hold, and finally tearing me loose altogether it hurled me through the windows and up against a marble fountain in the centre of the solarium. I made my way, swimming and crawling, to the mantel piece where I rested. The tide was now receding and the waters in the office also were going with it very fast. Finally I swam and walked where the sand was exceptionally high to the door of the room in which the policeman was still a prisoner. My hand hit something metallic which turned out to be a frying pan with which I gradually dug him out. The wind was still raging so that we could not stand erect. We made our way to the mantel. At noon on Saturday we were rescued and taken out, after having been in the water for over ten hours. I had nothing but a bathing suit on, this even was partly torn off, and for the next four weeks I was forced to live in a borrowed one. The office was stripped bare of all its beautiful furnishings and decorations, even the piano was smashed to pieces and was found a half block from where it formerly stood. Sand in some places in the inner office was over six feet deep, and was nowhere less than two ​feet deep. Floors of solid concrete and tile had collapsed entirely and some of them were carried as far as fifty feet away, weighed over five tons. The huge front entrance arch of solid concrete standing forty feet high had fallen completely into the street. The beach which was formerly level with my office was now five feet beneath it. Drinking water was unobtainable, and the first mouthful of food I had was Saturday night when I was given a plate of soup and a biscuit. Everything I had was literally swept away, leaving me nothing in the world but a bathing suit. We are going to rebuild, and carry on as before.

The twin-six Packard mentioned in the first part of this recital was turned upside down and carried a half block away and completely buried in the sand, and was utterly demolished. It will never run again. In passing I might mention that two of my typewriter desks with typewriters intact, except for salt water rust, were found on the middle of the golf course approximately one and a half miles from the office. Pieces of some of our antiques were found several blocks away, and the steel filing cabinets were undoubtedly carried out to sea on the return of the waves. Of everything formerly contained in this office we have salvaged only nine rugs, nothing else has been found, and I expect never will be, as the sand has been entirely sifted and no trace of anything of value has been recovered.

(Author's Note―Besides all his other personal belongings Dr. Woollard lost $14,000 worth of jewelry which was locked in his desk. Three days following the storm he was engaged in medical relief work before he discovered that six of his ribs had been broken when he was thrown back into his office when attempting to escape.)

WRECK OF SALON MARITIMO.