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'The Great Storm': The major hurricane that brought changes to the Tampa Bay area still seen today

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Published  September 23, 2024 6:48pm EDT
Tampa Bay History
FOX 13 News

The 'granddaddy' of all hurricanes

Lloyd Sowers reports

TAMPA, Fla. - What some would later call "The Great Storm" pounded the Tampa Bay area, flooding much of Pinellas County and South Tampa 176 years ago this week.  

"No one knew in September of 1848 that a major hurricane was on its way," said Historian Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center. 

The lighthouse keeper on Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay feared his family would be swept away, so he put them in a rowboat.

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"He waded to the middle of the island and tied it to as many trees as he could find," said Andy Huse of the University of South Florida Libraries Special Collections. "Islands were cut up and sand was rearranged dramatically."

The great storm brought changes the Bay Area still sees today. 

"Hurricanes, powerful hurricanes, have the effect of opening and closing passes," said Kite-Powell.

John's Pass between Treasure Island and Madeira Beach, now a popular entertainment destination, is a pass created by the Great Storm of September 25, 1848.

READ: Hurricane Charley 20 years later: Remembering the devastating storm

Our area wouldn't be hit with such force again until October 1921, but newspaper stories of heavy damage in Tampa were quashed. Developers wanted to sell land to people up north. 

"They had so many people call in and say you can't do this. You're going to put us out of business," said Huse. 

"They basically lied about the amount of damage that was here," said Kite-Powell. 

But were any lessons learned?

"Five years later, we actually built a hospital on an island in Hillsborough Bay, on Davis Islands. Of course, that would be Tampa General Hospital," said Kite-Powell.

Only in Florida have huge storms changed things so much. The only consolation is the historic rarity of direct hits by major hurricanes here in the Tampa Bay area.  

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