Tampa Faces a Century Busting Hit

As evacuations get underway in St. Augustine, a flashback to Tampa’s Hurricane History as Milton Approaches.

Courtesy Axios Tampa Bay

A pair of black and white photos show flooding and destruction from a hurricane in 1921. — Left: People use a boat to traverse city streets in Tampa. Photo: Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center. Right: Damaged boats and buildings at the Cortez docks. Photo: Courtesy of Florida Maritime Museum/Manatee County Public Library System.

The last time Tampa Bay was hit directly by a major hurricane,the region looked very different — but the destruction, very familiar.

State of play: The region has avoided a direct hit from a Category 3-or-higher storm for more than a century. Hurricane Milton is on track to end that streak.

“We’ve seen the old black and white pictures, but we’re about to have the 3-D reality,” Pinellas County emergency manager Cathie Perkins said Monday.

Flashback: A Category 3 storm made landfall in Tarpon Springs on Oct. 25, 1921, bringing 120 mph winds and storm surge up to 11 feet, per the National Weather Service.

The storm flooded downtown Tampa, threw boats onto the land and against docks and seawalls, tore down power poles and uprooted trees.
There were eight confirmed deaths from the storm, about half due to drowning.
The agriculture industry suffered, with farmers losing the crops they had and struggling to grow again due to saltwater intrusion.

side by side photos show destruction from a 1921 hurricane — *Left: A damaged structure in Palmetto Beach. Photo: Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center. Right: Kids sit on a toppled utility pole in Ybor City. Photo: Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center.*

By the numbers: Tampa Bay’s population at the time was about 135,000. Today, the metro area is home to more than 3 million.

Context: How long ago was the region’s last direct hit?

Warren Harding was president. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were rising to power. Babe Ruth was in his prime. Future astronaut John Glenn had recently been born.

A pair of archive photos show damage from a 1921 hurricane. — Left: Boats were thrown against the docks in St. Petersburg. Photo: Courtesy of St. Petersburg Museum of History. Right: Wind-damaged buildings in Ybor City. Photo: Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center.

What they said: Despite the destruction, the St. Petersburg Times hailed the city’s resilience, writing in an Oct. 27, 1921, article that when the winds and rain stopped and the clouds cleared St. Pete “came up smiling.”

“… [T]here stood in the midst of it all, Gibraltar like, the indomitable will, spirit and energy that had made St. Petersburg the queen of the West Coast of Florida, whose right to reign supreme remains undisputed.”