Filed by The Storm Council Analyst
At 4:25 in the afternoon on September 2, a locomotive, several passenger cars, and a string of boxcars finally pulled out of the Miami yard, bound for the veterans’ camps on Windley Key and Lower Matecumbe.
The hurricane had already reached the outer edges of the Keys. Rain and spray were sweeping the tracks before the train even cleared the city.
The train crossed the mainland, turned south through Key Largo, and pushed into a corridor where water was climbing over the rails and wind was tearing at everything not built to withstand it.
By the time it reached Islamorada, roughly four hours after leaving Miami, the hurricane had already arrived.
Veterans crowded aboard through wind and rising water.
Others, farther south, were never close enough to reach it.
The train had done exactly what it was sent to do, but it hadn’t been sent soon enough.
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