14. The 1919 Florida Keys Hurricane
There have been in the past several hurricanes and tropical storms which were known as Florida Keys hurricanes, but the storm which struck in the Keys in 1919 was a monster which earned the title, though it is sometimes referred to as the Key West Hurricane. The storm swept across the Florida Keys beginning on September 9 as a category 4 storm, before weakening as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico to make its final landfall in Texas at category 3 strength. Ten ships were sunk by the hurricane, leading to approximately 500 deaths, over half of all those killed by the storm.
In the Keys warnings of the approaching storm were announced only hours before it arrived, and in some cases only minutes before the storm surge inundated the islets and communities. By September 10, when the storm made landfall on Dry Tortugas, it was packing sustained winds of 150 mph, and gusts were reported over 200 mph. The storm was, at the time, the second most powerful to ever make landfall on territory of the United States. After it wavered in the Gulf, weakening slightly, it went on to wreak havoc in Texas, with its storm surge and high winds demolishing houses, businesses, docks, crops in the fields, and killing as many as 600 in Texas alone according to some estimates. The official total deaths attributed to the storm was 745.