Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

The Florida Keys are a bit of a no-man's land, jutting out off the coast of Florida and into the Atlantic

ocean, almost like a pier of small islands. Imagine for a moment that you were there, enjoying a nice relaxing Labor Day

surrounded by the water. There's some storm clouds off in the distance, but still, you're in the

keys. Life is good. And then, out of nowhere, a Category 5 hurricane strikes.

The winds up to 250 miles per hour.

The storm surge 15 feet high.

Today, in a world where technology affords the country ample warnings and precise forecasts,

this scenario seems genuinely impossible,

maybe even a little insane. But in 1935, it was reality. That year, hundreds died in a single storm,

including more than 200 World War I veterans working on an overseas highway linking the keys.

One family reportedly lost 50 members.

Bodies dangled off trees.

The storm was first detected in late August, about five days before landfall, according to a book called Category 5, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane by Thomas Neil Knowles.

It was expected to pass between Key West and Havana.

But during the morning, an early afternoon of Labor Day, local government officials got word from the U.S. Weather

Bureau suggesting the hurricane would not pose a threat to the islands. No evacuations were ordered.

Obviously, this was all a very big mistake, one that occurred without the data know-how we have

today. Still, though, there were signs of trouble. By afternoon,

the barometer was rapidly plummeting, a canary in the coal mine signal that a major storm was brewing.

And those World War I veterans, well, they were still out working on the overseas highway,

while local officials kept

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