This labor-intensive crop depended on poor communities comprised primarily Bahamian migrant farm workers and African American sharecroppers, for labor.
While the Okeechobee Hurricane impacted all in Palm Beach County, the vast majority of the deaths from the storm came in the Bahamian and African American communities. Many of these people perished from the thrush of water rising as high as 20 feet and destroying weakened levees and dikes.
Officially there were 69 white victims and black victims. Blacks who survived were often forced to recover the bodies of relatives and friends who died in contaminated waters. The next day it strengthened to a Category 5 with sustained winds clocked at mph before making landfall in Puerto Rico. The hurricane destroyed almost 25, homes, damaged nearly , more and left half a million islanders homeless. By the time it had made landfall in West Palm Beach, the storm had weakened to a Category 4 with sustained winds of mph.
It moved into central Florida where it ran into Lake Okeechobee. The results were catastrophic for the area. The storm created storm surge out of the lake, pushing water out for hundreds of square miles — up to 20 feet deep in some places. Please take note: playing this move loop requires Quick Time Player from Apple Computer Corp or another suitable player. The movie file is VERY large Will who experienced the storm first hand contains some of the best narrative of what living through the hurricane was like near Lake Okeechobee.
The following description is from his book: The period of the lull here had apparently been between and that night. Of course, the effect of the flood was devastating, and the loss of life, both human and animal, was apocalyptic. Damages from this hurricane were estimated around 25 million dollars which, normalized for population, wealth, and inflation, would be around 16 billion dollars today Landsea, The horrible flood in the towns of Pahokee, Canal Point, Chosen, Belle Glade, and South Bay resulted in the drownings of many people, probably three quarters or more of whom were non-white field workers.
The flood waters lasted for several weeks, and survivors were found wandering as late as September Memorial services, one white, one non-white, were held at the same time but at different locations on Sunday, September 30, , in West Palm Beach. The Miami Herald article on the memorial services reported nearly 1, victims of the hurricane disaster, of whom were non-white.
Additional Miami Daily News articles stated a death toll of 2, September 24, and 2, September 25, , along with the observation that only the death toll in the Galveston hurricane of was higher. Will quotes the final Red Cross report in as stating that 1, people were killed and 1, were injured in the hurricane.
The NWS had long listed the Okeechobee Hurricane of death toll as 1,, making it the second worst hurricane death toll since the Galveston Hurricane of No doubt use of this figure by the NWS dates to Mitchell , who quoted a Red Cross official casualty estimate dated October 28, Dunn and Miller also quote the Red Cross figure. Pfost called for a revision of the death toll to 2, with an asterisk, denoting that the exact number of people killed will never be known.
Blake et al. The hurricane continued northwest across the lake and then turned north through Highlands and Polk counties, passing near Gainesville and west of Jacksonville before paralleling the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas.
It finally moved inland over Virginia and became extratropical over Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes. There is still tangible evidence of this historical tragedy. Also in West Palm Beach, at the corner of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street, a new State of Florida historical marker stands in sentinel over the place where victims of the storm were buried after being transported from the Belle Glade area.
There was no Internet to spread the word. Therefore, it would take a few days for important headlines to get out. While the community started to come to terms with the disaster that struck the coast, nobody was prepared for the "mind-blowing massacre on the edges of Lake Okeechobee. As the hurricane moved inland, it unleashed a massive foot surge over Lake Okeechobee. The surge overtopped levees and inundated communities around the lake. More than 75 miles were inundated by flood waters.
There are reports that flood waters rose 4 to 6 feet within an hour. It led to one of the deadliest natural disasters to strike the United States. One by one, bodies were recovered. Many were reported to be decomposing under the hot Florida sun. Initially, it was believed that 1, Floridians perished from the hurricane.
The National Weather Service raised the death toll to "at least 2," in with a note saying it is expected that the toll was even higher.
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