It has been quite a while since a major hurricane has hit the Tampa Bay area but just over 160 years ago two hurricanes hit the Tampa Bay area within about 2 weeks of each other. In 1848 Tampa was a small village of fewer than 200 people, outside of the military garrison locate at Fort Brooke (now down town Tampa). Earlier that year, the county of Hillsborough had appointed Louis Covacevich and Samuel Bishop as the first pilots of the port of Tampa. In May, the lighthouse at Egmont Key started operations and just two weeks before the first hurricane hit, Tampa’s first school opened on September 11ith.