1928 Okeechobee Hurricane

The 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane — also known as Hurricane San Felipe Segundo — stands as one of the deadliest natural disasters in United States history and the defining catastrophe of West Palm Beach's early twentieth century. After hitting Puerto Rico on September 13, the storm crossed the Bahamas and made landfall on the southeastern coast of Florida on September 16 as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 130 to 155 miles per hour. The storm made landfall near West Palm Beach early on September 17, with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h); in the city, more than 1,711 homes were destroyed. Though the coastline suffered enormously, the catastrophe reached its fullest horror further inland, where the failure of earthen levees around Lake Okeechobee consumed entire communities in floodwaters. The death toll from the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 has been listed as "at least 2,500," establishing it as the second worst natural disaster in terms of people killed in U.S. history. The storm's legacy is felt in West Palm Beach to this day, in the form of mass burial sites, memorial parks, and enduring debates about racial justice in disaster response.

Background and Path

Only two years after the Great Miami Hurricane, what would become the second Category 4 hurricane to strike South Florida in as many years formed off the coast of Africa in early September. It churned across the Atlantic, devastated the island of Guadeloupe on September 12, moved through the Virgin Islands, and struck Puerto Rico on the 13th — El Día de San Felipe — giving the storm its Spanish name. More than 300 persons were killed by this storm in Puerto Rico. Even before it hit the Florida coast, the hurricane had already killed between 300 to 1,000 people, injuring thousands more.

In September 1928, only about 50,000 persons lived in South Florida. The land and real estate boom was already beginning to fade, although many subdivisions and new communities were still being built. The City of Palm Beach, founded only 34 years earlier by Henry Flagler, was incorporated in 1911 and had become a playground for the rich and famous, while West Palm Beach grew up on the opposite side of Lake Worth as a place where the support staff lived.

On Sunday evening around 6:15 PM on September 16, the hurricane made landfall in the United States in Palm Beach County between Jupiter and Boca Raton. Richard Gray, Meteorologist in Charge in Miami, initially thought the storm would recurve and not strike South Florida, but warnings were issued from Miami to Titusville. Disruption of communications made tracking the center of the storm difficult, so it came as a surprise on the evening of September 16 when the eye passed over West Palm Beach.

Impact on West Palm Beach and the Coast

Damage in coastal Palm Beach County was severe, especially in the Jupiter area where the eyewall of the hurricane persisted longer than at any other location because of where the storm crossed the coast. A storm surge of around 10 feet, with waves likely as high as 20 feet, crashed into the barrier islands including Palm Beach.

The strongest winds in the eyewall affected northern Palm Beach County, particularly the vicinity of Jupiter, as the eye made landfall farther south. At the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, the mortar was reportedly "squeezed ... like toothpaste" from between the bricks during the storm, swaying the tower 17 inches off the base. The lighthouse keeper, Captain Seabrook, and his son, Franklin, worked to keep the light on after the electricity went out. After the generator failed to work, they hand-cranked the light's mantle. Six fatalities occurred west of Jupiter after a school where people sought shelter collapsed.

Because of well-issued hurricane warnings, residents were prepared for the storm, and only 26 deaths were recorded in the coastal Palm Beach area. Still, the scale of physical destruction to the city of West Palm Beach was staggering. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Hollywood suffered minor damage to homes and businesses, but the area surrounding West Palm Beach witnessed the destruction of over seventeen hundred homes and several million dollars in damage. On September 16, 1928, eighteen inches of rain fell in 24 hours.

The Lake Okeechobee Flood

While West Palm Beach suffered severe wind and water damage along the coast, the catastrophic loss of life unfolded to the west. As the hurricane traveled over the lake, its winds shifted from northerly to southerly. This sloshed the waters of the shallow lake first against the southern dikes, then across to the northern ones. The meager dried-mud dikes failed on both sides, causing flash floods that caught people huddled in their homes unable to escape.

As the Category 4 hurricane moved inland, the strong winds piled the water up at the south end of the lake, ultimately topping the levee and rushing out onto the fertile land. Thousands of people, mostly non-white migrant farm workers, drowned as water several feet deep spread over an area approximately 6 miles deep and 75 miles long around the south end of the lake. The lake's water level was already three feet higher than normal on September 16 due to heavy rains in previous weeks. Residents were notified of the approaching storm that day and left, but it was late arriving, so many returned to their homes, thinking it had missed the area.

The 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 22. Because the lake was in an isolated area in 1928, it would be three days before government aid would arrive. Due to the difficult terrain, the vast area involved, and the slowly receding floodwaters, it would be six weeks before the search for bodies was ended.

Damages from this hurricane were estimated around 25 million dollars, which, normalized for population, wealth, and inflation, would be around 16 billion dollars today.

Racial Inequity in the Aftermath

The response to the hurricane's dead exposed the deep racial fault lines that ran through West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County in 1928. While the Okeechobee Hurricane impacted all in Palm Beach County, the vast majority of the deaths came in the Bahamian and African American communities. Many of these people perished from water rising as high as 20 feet and destroying weakened levees and dikes. Between 1,800 and 4,000 men, women, and children died, and it was estimated that 75% of them were Black, making this one of the deadliest natural disasters to impact African Americans and Afro-Bahamians.

Reflecting racial and class discrimination, authorities reserved the few caskets available for burials for the bodies of white victims. White victims received a formal burial service, although in a mass grave, at Woodlawn Cemetery in downtown West Palm Beach. This was the only mass gravesite to receive a timely memorial. In West Palm Beach, 69 white victims were placed in a mass grave in Woodlawn Cemetery and approximately 674 Black victims were buried in a mass grave in the city's pauper's burial field at Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street.

The corpses of Black victims were stacked in piles, doused in fuel oil, and burned. Authorities then bulldozed 674 Black victims into a mass grave in West Palm Beach. The mass grave was not marked, and the site was later sold for private industrial use — first as a garbage dump, then a slaughterhouse, and then a sewage treatment plant.

Memorial services — one white, one non-white — were held at the same time but at different locations on Sunday, September 30, 1928, in West Palm Beach. A contemporary Miami Herald account on the memorial services reported nearly 1,000 victims of the hurricane disaster, 674 of whom were non-white. Two thousand persons attended the ceremonies at the pauper's cemetery, where noted Black educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune read the Mayor's proclamation.

Memorialization and Long-Term Legacy

The recovery and reconstruction of West Palm Beach began almost immediately after the storm. In October 1928 alone, permits for repair work projects exceeding $2 million were approved for Palm Beach and West Palm Beach, with the latter issuing 3,165 permits for building and major repairs between October 1 and June 30, 1929.

Inland communities fared far worse. Some towns along the shores of Lake Okeechobee slowly rebuilt, such as Belle Glade, where the population grew significantly due to people searching for work in the agricultural and natural resources industries during the Great Depression. However, other localities such as Chosen, Fruitcrest, and Okeelanta never recovered from the storm.

The storm prompted major changes in flood control infrastructure across South Florida. Between 1932 and 1938, the Herbert Hoover Dike (though it was not dedicated until the 1960s) was constructed around Lake Okeechobee to prevent another flood. The tragedy also led to the formation of the Okeechobee Flood Control District, to oversee flood control measures in the area.

The long-delayed recognition of the Black victims of the storm in West Palm Beach became a cause taken up by later generations. Robert Hazard, a resident of West Palm Beach, established the Storm of '28 Memorial Park Coalition Inc. to fight for recognition of the Black victims of the storm. In 2000, the West Palm Beach burial site was reacquired by the city of West Palm Beach and plans for construction of a memorial began. The site was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and a state historical marker was added in 2003 during events to commemorate the 75th anniversary.

The city of West Palm Beach purchased the land containing the mass grave in 2000. Eight years later, on the 80th anniversary of the storm, officials erected a plaque and historical marker at the site. In West Palm Beach's Woodlawn Cemetery, a stone marker stands today in memory of 69 victims of the storm.

The Historical Society of Palm Beach County maintains a permanent outdoor exhibit titled The Storm of '28 at the entrance of the 1916 Historic Courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach, ensuring the hurricane remains part of the civic memory of the region.