The Florida Eastcoast Railway began conducting survey work in 1906. One of the engineers, William Krome, befriended Bow and strongly urged her to leave the area. Many railroad workers would be arriving soon and he was worried for her safety and that of her sons. Initially Bow did not want to leave but relented after Krome gave her sixteen-year-old son a job with the railroad. She and her family left Cudjoe in October 1906, only days before a hurricane swept through, killing over one hundred railroad workers.