American Experience

The Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928

Clip: Season 31 Episode 1 | 1m 30s

In the summer of 1928, heavy rainfall raised Lake Okeechobee’s water level three feet above normal. That fall, a hurricane smashed the coast of Florida, and the impact flooded Lake Okeechobee. The inland flood obliterated 21 miles of the 47-mile earthen and an estimated 2,500 people died in Southern Florida, most of them migrant farm workers.