1928 Okeechobee Hurricane
The Okeechobee hurricane, or San Felipe Segundo hurricane, was a deadly hurricane that struck the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida in September of the 1928 Atlantic hurricane season. As of 2010, it is the only recorded hurricane to strike Puerto Rico at Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and one of the ten most intense ever recorded to make landfall in the United States.
The hurricane caused devastation throughout its path. As many as 1,200 people were killed in Guadeloupe. The storm directly struck Puerto Rico at peak strength, killing at least 300 and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. In South Florida at least 2,500 were killed when a storm surge from Lake Okeechobee breached the dike surrounding the lake, flooding an area covering hundreds of square miles. In total, the hurricane killed at least 4,078 people and caused around US$100 million ($1.35 billion 2012 USD) in damages over the course of its path.
Read more about 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane: Meteorological History, Aftermath
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“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)