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(CNN) - Tropical storm Dorian is expected to arrive in Puerto Rico and become a hurricane this weekend before heading to the Florida coast. We still don't know what will happen or in what kind of form Dorian will be when he approaches the continental United States, but his moment coincides with another Labor Day storm that shook South Florida in 1935.
Simply known as Labor Day Storm, the 1935 hurricane was the strongest in the Atlantic that touched land and the first category 5 hurricane that arrived in the United States. The storm hit the Florida Keys on September 2 with maximum winds of 321 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour).
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The Keys were already under reconstruction after the Great Depression, and the storm devastated its weakened infrastructure. Miles of buildings were leveled throughout the archipelago, including the entire city of Islamorada. More than 408 people perished as a result of the storm, many of them World War I veterans who had been hired to build bridges and roads in an effort to revive the area.
Now, none of this is intended to scare anyone who may be in Dorian's way. These are different storms from different eras that share an expected landing time. Dorian is expected to strengthen at least until he is a category 1 hurricane during Labor Day weekend and may be able to reach category 3 strength quickly.
LOOK: Dorian approaches Puerto Rico. Minute by minute
But things are different now than they were in 1935. On the one hand, the area's infrastructure is much stronger and more adequate to resist hurricane damage. In addition, our storm detection technology has greatly improved. One of the reasons why the 1935 hurricane was so destructive was because satellite and mapping technology was virtually non-existent and the methods for obtaining warnings were inconsistent.
This, of course, underlines the most important way to prevent hurricane damage and deaths: evacuate when prompted. Don't let all those years of technological advances and the lessons of countless deadly storms not be heard.
CNN Judson Jones contributed to this report
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