A strong Hurricane battered western Cuba in the middle of October 1910. The system then headed northeastward across southern Florida dumping heavy rain and causing high water to inundate southeastern Florida with water many feet above sea level. Many of the barrier islands that today house cities like Miami Beach where covered over with water – but there was little built up on those islands and so damage was minimal. One strange impact of the hurricane was that because it moved very slowly with strong constantly blowing winds from the direction of the northeast all across the region, that on the west coast of Florida the wind then was blowing away from the land and so the opposite of a storm surge occurred. On October 18, 1910 the wind actually blew the water out of Tampa Bay and the Hillsboro River and pushed it into the Gulf of Mexico. The water level lowered to 9 feet below average low water; and there was little water left for several hours in the river and Tampa Bay, 40 ships were grounded. It was the exact opposite of a storm surge.

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