The question has been raised, when was the last time that Tallahassee was hit by a major hurricane? As a history buff living in the area, I know of one storm that may be the answer. And it was quite a while ago!
In August 1851, Tallahassee was hit by a storm known ever after as "The Great Storm," a hurricane remembered for decades and conversation piece even long after the Civil War. Below is the contemporary account published the wek following in Tallahassee's
Floridian and Journal. The description of the winds as "going around southward" tells us that Tallahassee took the right side of the storm.
It lasted from an early hour of the morning on Saturday [August 23], till near dawn on Sunday--at first the wind blowing in squalls more or less frequent from the East, then about noon, Saturday, going around Southward, and increasing in violence and long-continued blasts till it rose to a furious gale, which was about its worst at two o'clock next morning, and after that gradually abating, till daylight. It was raining nearly all the while in great torrents.
Trees of all sorts and sizes were broken down or torn from their roots, and those that remained were rudely stripped of many of their limbs and much of their foliage. Houses were unroofed, some blown down, and others greatly injured, and fences generally, in whole or in part, were thrown to the earth. Altogether, the scene as it presented itself here on Sunday morning was a vast chaos of destruction and of entangled streets and yards.
The tin roofing of the Capitol was torn off, a window blown in, much of the glass broken, and several of the rooms drenched with water--but the books and archives were very little injured. Captain Bonds's Warehouse was left a complete wreck. The "Exchange" buildings unroofed. The Hoc building, formerly occupied for the Floridian office, partly unroofed and much injured. The Market House prostrated. Many other houses sustained damage....we cannot undertake to estimate the loss the storm has caused...there will be immense loss in consequence.
To me this storm must have been at least a Cat 3 ... what do you think?