Mr. and Mrs. Hayes Leatherwood, Mr. and Mrs. John Leatherwood, George and Hamilton Leatherwood returned last Friday from Miami and Florida’s storm area with a thrilling tale of their fight for life during the hurricane in which they lost practically everything except the clothes they had on.
The storm began about 9 o’clock Friday night and lasted until 5 o’clock Saturday evening, according to George. It began with a steady gale from the north and continued to grow harder. About 7 o’clock Saturday morning the wind made a sudden change, blowing direct from the south with greater force than ever and for more than seven hours.
George said it seemed like the Leatherwood home would go at any time, and they left and went to a neighbor’s house and remained until the roof blew off, which was about 4 o’clock in the morning. They then left, together with the neighbor, for the Leatherwood ome and remained until 6 o’clock, the wind gaining momentum all the while. Fearing for their lives, they went to a concrete block house in the neighborhood. The wind then changed, coming directly out of the south, and at 8:15 Saturday morning the concrete block house was blown down. There were 28 persons in the building and only one sustained any injury, and that was a cut on the thigh by a piece of glass from a French door. George says it was only s miracle that all escaped the falling house with only one injury.
The crowd then separated, the Leaderwoods and a neighbor’s family entering a grapefruit grove, where they sought refuge behind a large avocata pear tree for an hour and a half. While huddled around the tree, with his shoulder braced against the trunk of the tree, George held quilts over the party which was composed of 10 children, two women and four men. They remained thus an hour and a half, all while George said house tops, uprooted trees, pieces of lumber and other debris were flying through the air, and he expected every moment to be his last.
Seeing that their position in the fruit grove was made perilous by remaining, they left and went back to the concrete house, crawling under the floor of what had remained. There were three small babies in the crowd and the babies and mothers did not have a dry threat on them for more than five hours.
George and Hamiton saved the running gears of their cars; John’s car was completely wrecked; Hayes had the top of his car torn off, otherwise his car was little damaged. The houses of all the parties and everything in them were blown away the only things saved with the clothes they had on.
George said that after the storm he saw chickens having about midway up on wire fences with all their feathers completely blown off. The wind even blew grass out of the ground in strips 10 feet long and 3 feet wide.
According to George, any man who saw it could not begin to tell or describe the terribleness of it. The only way he said anyone could realize what it was like would be to go through it. He was mighty glad to get back to Murphy and the mountains, where he could crawl into a cove somewhere if such a storm should strike. If anyone wanted to know, he would be in the mountains from now on, for he craved no more the city beauty and riches—Miami.
From the front page of the Cherokee Scout, Friday, Oct. 1, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83004710/1926-10-01/ed-1/seq-1/
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