1926 Miami Hurricane

[Jim Eshelman]

September 18, 1926, 6:30 AM EST, Perrine, FL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_Miami_hurricane

Deaths were between 372 and 539 or more. Property damage was about $100 million, or $1.4 billion in 2018 dollars. (This doesn't count the losses from it putting the final nail in the coffin of the Florida real estate bubble.)

Peak wind intensities were September 16, 18:00 UT, with sustained winds of 150 mph, a level that today would be called Category 4. At that intensity, it struck Mayaguana in the Bahamas, its first landfall. First U.S. landfall was near Perrine, FL (15 miles from downtown Miami) "before 12:00 UT on September 18" (the time I give above) with winds of 145 mph and a 375-mile radius. It then more or less "walked around" the Florida coast on the Gulf side up to and across the Florida panhandle, making a second landfall near Perdido Beach, AL about 21:30 UT September 20. Its wort effects were decisively in South Florida.

NOTE - The Wikipedia article says that the $100 million in damages "would be the second costliest in U.S. history when adjusted using inflation, population, and wealth normalization, yielding a cost of nearly US$196 billion." I'm unclear about all of these calculations because, simply adjusting for inflation brings it to only $1.4 billion, nowhere close to $196 billion. For U.S. hurricanes, $1.4 billion stands behind Katrina ($160 billion), Harvey ($125 billion), Maria (at least $92 billion), Sandy ($82 billion), Andrew ($49 billion), Camille ($10 billion), and Hazel ($3.6 billion). It was, nonetheless, a hurricane of enormous impact.

FURTHER NOTE - I found another report that "The eye of the hurricane, with its period of relative calm, passed over downtown Miami and parts of Cocoanut Grove and South Miami around 630 AM on September 18." This matches the "before 12:00 UT," i.e., 7:00 AM EST, so I'll use this. Landfall was 15 miles from downtown Miami, so probably was not long before this time. https://www.weather.gov/mfl/miami_hurricane

A further report, from the Sun-Sentinel, says, "At 2 a.m. the hurricane, 60 miles wide, struck the shore with tremendous force. In pitch darkness, Floridians cowered before the roar of the winds and the crash of collapsing buildings." This might have been the outer rim of this hurricane that was hundreds of miles across, but the 2 a.m. is too far from other reports to be taken as landfall. (It was surely a bad night all around, though.) The same report later reports "a lull in the storm at shortly after 6 a.m.," which matches the report that the eye passed over Miami about 6:30 - this was the calm, and led to hundreds of people running out into the streets thinking it was all over. "Landfall" is measured by the eye making contact with the coast, not the rim.

This means that the storm hit almost exactly at sunset or a few months after with Sun opposite a setting Uranus.

Year: Capsolar {+2}
Mars sq. Asc 2°02'
Uranus widely foreground
Moon-Jupiter conj. 3°27'

This might be dormant. Mars is at the edge of the orb, which can be shifted by a couple of miles. The symbolism is pretty decent, and it does show the great force.

Bridge {+2}
CanQ Moon sq. s Pluto 9/9-11/9
t Neptune sq. Cansolar MC 7/16-10/21
Event window: Sep 9 to Oct 21

Quarter: Cansolar {+1}
Jupiter sq. MC -1°09'
Neptune sq. MC +1°12'
-- Ju/Ne on MC 0°01'
-- Jupiter-Neptune op. 2°07' in mundo
Mercury on WP 1°23'
Saturn is more widely foreground
-- Mercury-Saturn sq. 0°31'
Moon-Pluto sq. 2°50'

Month: Caplunar {+2}
(This occurred one day before.)
Pluto sq. Asc 0°05'
Moon widely foreground.
Mars-Saturn op. 0°32' PVP

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits {+2}
p MC op. t Jupiter 1°28', sq. t Mars 1°42'
-- Mars-Jupiter sq. 0°14'
p EP conj. t Saturn 0°35'
--------------------------------
t Venus op. s Asc 1°44'

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits {+2}
p Moon sq. s Pluto 0°44'
p MC op. s Sun 0°39', p Sun 0°49'; sq. p Mars 1°57' (s Mars 2°03')
--------------------------------
t Neptune sq. s MC 1°04'
t Saturn near s MC, but too far)


SUMMARY
Year: Mars (Uranus). Moon-Jupiter.
Bridge: Neptune Pluto (Can).
Quarter: Mercury Jupiter Neptune (Saturn). Moon-Pluto Mercury-Saturn Jupiter-Neptune.
Month: Pluto (Moon). Mars-Saturn.
Day (Capsolar): Mars Jupiter Saturn Mars-Jupiter (CapQ). Venus (transits).
Day (Cansolar): Sun Mars Moon-Pluto (CanQ). Neptune (transits).