Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 [Paperback]

Robert Mykle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2006

Killer 'Cane takes place in the Florida Everglades, which was still a newly settled frontier in the 1920s. On the night of September 16, 1928, a hurricane swung up from Puerto Rico and collided, quite unexpectedly, with Palm Beach. The powerful winds from the storm burst a dike and sent a twenty-foot wall of water through three towns, killing over two thousand people, a third of the area's population. Robert Mykle shows how the residents of the Everglades had believed prematurely that they had tamed nature, how racial attitudes at the time compounded the disaster, and how in the aftermath the cleanup of rapidly decaying corpses was such a horrifying task that some workers went mad. Killer 'Cane is a vivid description of America's second-greatest natural disaster, coming between the financial disasters of the Florida real-estate bust and the onset of the Great Depression.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mykle does a nice job of portraying Everglades frontier life: the moonshine, the politics, the path of development. (Michael Grunwald The New Republic )

Mykle sifted through Florida history—geographic, economic, meteorological and cultural—and quotes from several dozen interviews to tell his story, zeroing in on many of the individuals who affected and were affected by this mind-boggling piece of windy and wet American history. "'I think about it every day,'" survivor Vernie Boots told Mykle. Though this killer hurricane struck nearly 74 years ago, if you read this fast-paced book, you'll have a hard time forgetting it too. (Chicago Tribune )

Mykle tells this saga of epic destruction with short episodes that gradually grow together, like cross-cutting scenes in a movie. The approach, and the book, both work well. Florida history is the better for Mykle's book. (Palm Beach Post )

This is a solidly researched, engagingly written snapshot of Florida. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution )

Mykle's research provided a window into a disappearing breed of pioneers, who remembered the violent storms and the in-between years when a hardscrabble lifestyle was the norm. (Sharon Jones News-Sun )

The true stories Robert Mykle tells in Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 paint a picture of nature's terrible immensity that's the stuff of nightmares. (Orlando Sentinel )

The true stories Robert Mykle tells in Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 paint a picture of nature's terrible immensity that's the stuff of nightmares. (Orlando Sentinel )

This is a superbly written book. (Velma Daniels News Chief )

This book is a winner. The treatment of individual threads woven into the whole is a good approach and keeps the details alive, effective, and not obscured by the overall event. (Dr. Joseph R. Orsenigo )

About the Author

Robert Mykle has written for the Cape Cod Times, The Palm Beach Post, and numerous other publications. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.

Robert Mykle has written for the Cape Cod Times, The Palm Beach Post, and numerous other publications. He lives in Lake Worth, Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (June 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158979298X
• ISBN-13: 978-1589792982
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

BIO

I'm a Boston boy, born and bred in Beantown. As a child of the much maligned 60s, which I enjoyed very much thank-you, I played bass guitar and sang for a rock 'n' roll band while playing solo on the folk coffeehouse circuit.

After graduation from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, I headed for an extended tour of South America where I spelunked in Bolivia, fished in Patagonia, tromped through the jungles of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins and climbed the eighteen thousand foot Sierra Nevada de Cocuy in Colombia. During one of many jungle trips through the Amazon and Orinoco River basins, where I crossed paths with leftist guerillas who, fortunately, were too preoccupied to bother with a lost gringo.

I still travels extensively and each year, runs with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain as well as continuing my ecological interest in the Sierra de la Macarena. I am a former president of the Florida Writers Association and continue to lead the local Palm Beach County writing group.

I currently live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Palm Beach Confidential, my new Palm Beach mystery, weaves an complex, twisted plot that plays out in a thrilling roller coaster climax.
"Mr Mykle has deftly slid Maxie Roberts as a hip and sightly subversive art dealer with a libido in overdrive into the Palm Beach sleuth niche vacated by Lawrence Sander's private detective, Archy McNally. Mr Mykle, is obvious no stranger to the ritzy and wealthy domain of Palm Beach as well as its guarded secrets and back allies."

Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928, my first non-fiction book, was the recipient of the Florida Historical Library Foundation, 2003 Carolynn Washbon Book Award and the Florida Writers' Association Royal Palm Literary Award for nonfiction, 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars satisfying detail, fresh writing, November 17, 2002

By 

Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 (Hardcover)

"Killer 'Cane" is an excellent book, written in a fresh and exacting style, with the details that make it come alive. Like the other great books of the disaster genre, like Walter Lord's "Titanic" and the Jim Bishop books about presidential assassinations, "Killer 'Cane" takes the reader right into the scene: Belle Glade, Florida Everglades, 1928, when a monstrous hurricane swept in without warning.

Mykle gives us a large cast of real-life people, and fills us in on their stories, on what had brought them to the area, on their aspirations for a future which for many, never came. It's a slight bit confusing as he jumps around to scenes from the past, juxtapositioning them with the current life of the area and its characters. That said, it's satisfying to piece it all together. As an absorbing movie does, this book engages us with the characters and causes us at times to hold our breath as we await the outcome of their fates. Mykle writes well, using a wide vocabulary and an authentic descriptive style to present not only the people, but the land, and then the storm, as well. This book will keep you riveted until you finish it. Kudoes to Mykle, and the highest recommendation for his work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unimaginable destruction................, September 12, 2004

By 

jeanne-scott (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 (Hardcover)

Killer 'cane is a well researched book about the 1928 hurricane that swept through the Caribbean and the Bahamas as a category 5 and then hit the Florida coast around Palm Beach.
The research includes 20 original interviews of individuals by the author and several interviews done by others, as well as numerous documents, books, articles and pamphlets.
The lack of forecasting knowledge, the limited understanding of the potential danger and the desire to not frighten people ( tourists and land investors) all combined with the sheer power of an approaching category 5 hurricane to create unimaginable devastation and destruction.
Robert Mykle gives the history of the Lake Okeechobee area, explaining the richness of the land, the potential for farming as well as the hardships faced. The creation of the wall to hold back the water seemed so right at the time. Mykle puts the human face on the disaster by introducing the families that lived and struggled with life on the edge of the Everglades, the farmers, the entrepreneurs, the migrant workers. We see and get a taste of their hopes and dreams, and then we see it all wiped clean.
Mykle also includes enough meteorology facts for a basic understanding of hurricane formation and motion.
Forecasting has come so far and yet there is still so much that can change, unpredictably, in the blink of an eye, that this is an important book to read to remind us of the pure power that a hurricane can unleash on us.
After having been through Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, Dennis (in NC) Isabel (in VA) and Charlie & Frances (in FL) and currently watching the approach of IVAN I think it is important to not grow complacent and to be able to put a human face on the destruction a hurricane leaves in it's wake.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten tragedy, April 17, 2003

By 

Jack L Wilcher (MACON GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer 'Cane: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928 (Hardcover)

I grew up in this area during the forties and fifties.I attended high school with many decedants of the victims and survivers of this disaster.The book seems to be quiet accurate and hits the nail on the head .It amazes me that it has to be the best kept secret of all diasters.I live in the neighboring state of Georgia,and when I ask people in this area about the storm no one has a clue.At the time it was the third worst disaster to have occured ,in terms of lives lost. What a shame.