On This Date: The 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane Was One Of America's Deadliest Jonathan ErdmanSeptember 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM 0 A hurricane's impacts often extend far from the coast after it makes landfall. One of the deadliest examples in U.S.
- - On This Date: The 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane Was One Of America's Deadliest
Jonathan ErdmanSeptember 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM
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A hurricane's impacts often extend far from the coast after it makes landfall. One of the deadliest examples in U.S. history happened smack in the middle of Florida's Peninsula.
On Sept. 16, 1928, 97 years ago today, the second Category 4 hurricane in two years roared ashore in South Florida. A storm surge of 10 feet inflicted heavy damage along the Palm Beach County coast.
That wasn't nearly the most tragic aspect of this hurricane.
Strong, north-to-northwest winds around the hurricane piled water at the south end of Lake Okeechobee, producing a 6- to 9-foot lake surge, topping a levee which was only built to a height of 4 to 5 feet. Water swept over the towns of Bean City, Belle Glade, Chosen, Pahokee and South Bay.
Then, as the hurricane passed by to the northwest, south winds pushed water over protective dikes on the lake's north shore, leading to significant flooding.
An estimated 2,500 were killed, and many of the victims were migrant farm workers whose bodies were never found. One mass grave near Port Mayaca contains 1,600 hurricane victims.
Given agricultural interests and the population in place, the 143-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike was built in the 1930s, along with a network of canals and control gates, to avoid disasters like this and allow the lake to drain in a controlled fashion when it becomes full.
Prior to striking Florida, this intense hurricane raked through the Leeward Islands, then hit Puerto Rico at Category 5 intensity during the feast of San Felipe on Sept. 13 before hitting the Bahamas. An additional 312 were killed in Puerto Rico and 18 deaths were reported in the Bahamas.
This so-called San Felipe hurricane would be the most intense to hit Puerto Rico until Hurricane Maria's catastrophic strike in 2017.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
Source: "AOL General News"
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