POWERFUL PATHS

HURRICANES THROUGH HISTORY

1 Okeechobee

Date: 6-21 September 1928

Category: Deaths: 4,000+

Okeechobee made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida, late on 16 September, tearing up the land and homes and taking lives. Days before the hurricane had already claimed the lives of about 1,500 people in the Caribbean. The worst impacted area on the mainland was Lake Okeechobee, which gives the hurricane its name. This region was used primarily for farming, and although a small dyke had been built to protect the land, it was no match for Okeechobee’s 225-kilometre-per-hour winds. Many workers