florida keys

In the early decades of the twentieth century, there were no weather satellites, radar, hurricane-hunter airplaces, computers, or sophisticated instrument telemetry. Meteorology was based on individual forecasters and their observational, analytical, and interpretive skills. The first documented Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States was the 1935 Labor Day hurricane which came ashore on the upper Florida Keys. Its winds were estimated at more than 225 miles per hour and it had a seventeen foot storm surge. Among the more than 400 men, women, and children who died were long-time residents, families on vacation, and World War I veterans sent there by the federal government. This book documents the disaster and its aftermath.

In 1935 on the Florida Key of Matacumbe, thirteen-year-old Jake makes new friends during an idyllic summer, only to have everything change when a hurricane threatens the island.

Discusses the history, physical characteristics, behavior, and habitat of the small deer that have lived for hundreds of years in the Florida Keys, as well as threats to their continued existence.

Discusses the characteristics, natural environment, and the threatened survival of the species of small deer living on the Florida Keys.

Explores the different underwater environments that make up a tropical reef, based on the explorations of the author and his wife off the southeastern coast of Florida.