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Barbara Oehlbeck is a prolific author and columnist, and she also edits and publishes books. She has a thriving book distribution business, and we are happy to recommend the following books with Barbara's "stamp of approval."
Books Barbara Recommends
HURRICANE
Killer Storm In The Everglades
Okeechobee Hurricane
Killer Storms In The Everglades
By Barbara Oehlbeck
What is it like to survive when two thousand perish within one hour? And which is worse, to endure the perils or the disaster itself or to engage in the operations of mopping up which inevitably must follow, surrounded by death, destruction and desolation?
So begins the Foreword to Will E. Lawrence’s classic book titled Okeechobee HURRICANE. The late Mr. Lawrence was an historian of no little note. He had an active and varied part in the development of the colorful region of Okeechobee during the early days of its reclamation.
In his historica book, Mr. Will writes, “I lived through that incredible catastrophe which exacted a loss of life exceeded only twice in our nation’s history. This calamity occurred in a location so isolated that the state’s own governor did not learn of its enormity until three days later. So extended and difficult was the terrain that after six weeks the search for bodies was discontinued with many still unrecovered.”
Lawrence Will writes that one word describes the Okeechobee hurricane, and that word is “Hell”! A raging inferno of rolling, swirling waters, of shrieking, demoniac winds, of lashing rain and darkness, black and absolute. He goes on to write that there were no atheists that night on the shores of Okeechobee! Then, for those still living, came the second phase of hell: desolation and despair as those left searched in the flooded woods and marshes and saw grass for the horrible remains of family and friends and neighbors. And finally loading them into trucks by unending scores and burning them in heaps of dozens when they could no longer be transported.
That the hurricane did not cause an even greater loss of life was due only to the circumstance that this was then a new and sparsely populated territory. The Everglades, before drainage was attempted by the State of Florida, had been one of the most inaccessible and impenetrable regions in America.
Such a storm, according to the U. S. Weather Bureau, may be expected to occur only once in a century. This was the instrument of destruction.
Dike Giving Way
The banshee wailings of a siren in the night, the gusty blasts of an approaching hurricane, the clatter of hurrying boots in dark streets, and the despairing cry...”THE DIKE IS GIVING WAY!”
These were the signals for a disaster such as Lake keechobee had never experienced. Moore Haven, the big lake’s first and largest town, was facing destruction. Scores of its citizens would never see the light of another day.
This was to be a fateful preview, a small foretaste of the far greater disaster which the lake would experience two years later, almost to the day. This was also the day which saw the burgeoning city of Miami laid to taste. The date was September 18, 1926. This hurricane roared in from the Caribbean, devastating the city of Miami, striking a fatal blow to its fabulous, but already staggering real estate boom. In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area the death toll was an estimated 223, some 6000 injured and property damage in Miami alone $27,000,000.
The horror of the details are all but unbelievable. Lawrence Will’s descriptions are vivid and painful. He tells the story in plain, everyday language.
The full fury of the hurricane broke by mid morning and the waters from the lake were pouring through Moore Haven like rushing rivers, the air filled with driving rain, the crests of waves and flying debris. Some houses had disappeared while others were slowly floating out of sight.
Engineer Fred A. Flanders, long time resident of Moore Haven said, “Friday, September 17 was stormy and ugly but with no indication of what would happen in the next 24 hours. I received a telegram from the Miami Weather bureau stating briefly that a hurricane was due to hit the coast in the vicinity of Miami. That was all. That constituted the sole warning of the impending tragedy. None of us knew what to expect.”
The “Big Storm” of 1928
Sunday morning dawned overcast and cool, the northeast breeze had increased in intensity. This was September 16, 1928, the day from which for many years to come events in the Everglades were to be calculated. It was also the last day of life for almost 2,000 people on the southeastern shores of Lake Okeechobee.
The lake itself was an inland sea, more than 700 square miles in area, rimmed by an earthen dike – a true setting for disaster.
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This book is the third edition of “Okeechobee HURRICANE And The Hoover Dike”, revised, enlarged and indexed, containing a full account of the Belle Glade Hurricane Disaster on Lake Okeechobee in 1928 as well as the tragic storm at Moore Haven in 1926. Over 200 pages with vivid photographs of these disasters throughout. The author, Lawrence Elmer Will, experienced every hurricane which has occurred in the area, and was in the center of the ones described in this book. First hand knowledge of the original lake shore levee was gained from his being an operator of a floating dredge which erected a large part of its length.
Lawrence Will dedicated this book to Herbert Hoover in these words: “His inspiration and leadership contributed so much to the safety and peace of minds, when the storm winds blow, of us who live on the shores of Lake Okeechobee.”
You must read "HURRICANE," Killer Storm in the Everglades. 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, over 200 pages, soft back with incredible show-and-tell photographs throughout.
$14.95 
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