III. A major hurricane, the Great Gale of 1848, hit near present-day Sarasota, Florida on September 25, creating a new waterway now called New Pass, named by William Whitaker as the first person to see this new waterway. It made landfall in Tampa Bay, near Fort Brooke and Tampa, where tides rose and the barometric pressure dipped to . It crossed to the east coast where it damaged houses, caused flooding and interfered with shipping.