The West Palm Beach Storm

On the sixteenth day of September, 1928.
God start to ridin' early.
He rode till very late.

(chorus)
In the storm. Oh in the storm.
Lord somebody got drownded in a storm.

He rode out on the ocean.
Chained the lightning to his wheels.
Stepped on the land of West Palm Beach
and the wicked hearts did yield.

(cho.)

Out in Pokeechokee,
families rushed out out at the door [sic]
and somebody's poor mother,
haven't been seen anymore.

(cho.)

Some mothers look at their children
and they began to cry.
Cried Lord have mercy for
we all must die.

(cho.)

I'll tell you wicked people,
what you had better do.
Go down and get the Holy Ghost
and you'll live the life too.

(cho.)

Out around Okeechobee,
all scattered on the ground.
The last account of the dead they had,
was twenty-two hundred found.

(cho.)

South Bay, Belle Glade and Peehokee,
tell me they all laid down.
And out at Chosen,
everybody got drowned.

(cho.)

Some people are yet missing,
and haven't been found, they say.
But this we know,
they will come forth
in the Resurrection Day.

(cho.)

When Gabriel sounds the trumpet
and the dead begin to rise.
I'll meet the saints from Chosen,
up in the heavenly skies.

(cho.)

Library of Congress Catalog: The West Palm Beach Storm
977 A
Sung by Viola Jenkins.
Gainesville, Fla., Alton C. Morris,
June, 1937.

Florida Memory Audio: The West Palm Beach Storm
(starts at 23:30)