The Great Bahamas Hurricane of 1929

“On the sixteenth of September, in the year of nineteen twenty-eight, God started riding early, and He rode to very late. He rode out on the ocean, chained the lightning to His wheel, stepped on the land at West Palm Beach, and the wicked hearts did yield. In the storm, oh, in the storm, Lord, somebody got drowned. Got drowned, Lord, in the storm!” The chances are good that you have never heard of the Great Lake Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928, or if you have that it has long since been forgotten. Numerous books and papers have been written on the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Andrew and many other notable storms. The Titanic’s sinking has been portrayed on film. Sadly, the Okeechobee’s storm, the second largest peace-time calamity in loss of life, has been neglected. Now, for possibly the first time, you may learn about all aspects of this storm and from the survivors’ own personal accounts of what it was like to experience such a cataclysm. One word properly describes this hurricane, and that is ‘Hell.’ A raging inferno of rolling, swirling waters, of shrieking, demonic winds, of lashing rain and of darkness, black and absolute. There were no atheists that night on the shores of Okeechobee. Then, for those still living, came the second phase of hell; the phase of desolation and despair; of searching in the flooded woods and marshes, in elder clumps and saw grass for the horrible remains of family members, friends and neighbors; of loading them into trucks by unending scores; and finally of burning them in heaps of dozens when they could no longer be transported. It is hard to know which hell was worse. Those who have experienced this storm firsthand have endeavored to erase the recollections from their memories. This storm occurred in 1928. Racism was not only deeply entrenched-it was the norm and that played a significant role in the impact of the storm. To put it quite frankly, blacks were second class citizens in their own country, and it was even worse for the foreign migrant workers. In the heart of the black community, and among some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city of West Palm Beach, at the intersection of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street, sits an extensive 1-1/2 acre lot containing the remains of some 674 unidentified men, women, and children; victims of the Great Okeechobee Hurricane. At the Port Mayaca cemetery in Martin County, another stone marker was placed over a mass grave of about 1,600 victims. Near the Belle Glade Public Library in downtown Belle Glade, a beautiful memorial stands as a remembrance of the deadly storm and its devastation. They were farmers and migrant farm labourers of western Palm Beach County. Mostly blacks from the Bahamas, they were segregated even in death and were interred without coffins, as coffins were reserved for whites only. The Earth’s climate is a key protagonist in the story of humanity: our survival as a species has depended on cycles of freeze and thaw, days of storms or days of sunshine and the ability of our ancestors to adapt to changes in the weather and terrain. The warming and cooling of the planet’s oceans and land are vital to its ability to support life. Humans and wildlife migrate from continent to continent and inhabit parts of the globe, seeking food and shelter, all at the mercy of the weather. As this book shows, life and weather go hand-in-hand, and one of my challenges as a meteorologist is to anticipate these changes and pass it on to the public so they can be forewarned about some impending disaster or weather phenomena and make any necessary changes to protect their life and property. Choosing to press on or retreat in time, before the arrival of a severe storm such as a hurricane, can be a life-or-death decision. Hurricanes not only bring with them their strong winds, torrential rainfall or storm surge, but also the negative impacts of these storms on man’s ever expanding society. The changing weather of our planet—which has experienced hurricanes throughout its history-has of course, physically shaped the landscape, as well as the life it supports, and the superb descriptions and images in this book are a testament to this fact. Hurricanes presents the evidence of continuing cycles of wind, rain, cloud, and other atmospheric parameters in select regions of the world. Our planet’s unique variety of climates is both surprising and spectacular. Of course, dramatic one-off events, such as storms, floods, and hurricanes, also bring chaos and devastation in their wake, leaving their own mark on the landscape, as well as on the history of a place. Long ago, hurricanes were thought of as a sign from a powerful deity; the hurricane is, in fact, a dramatic phenomenon brought about by the complex interplay of the difference in the heating of the Earth’s atmosphere. While we do know that our climate is changing, the powerful images and descriptions of hurricanes here in this book offer a comprehensive picture of not only how far we have come in our understanding of hurricanes, but also how far we still have to go. In September 1979, I was a student in a primary school located in the quiet community of South Andros, here in the Bahamas, when I experienced my first hurricane, called Hurricane David. I remember seeing the damage it did to my grandmother’s house and the massive amount of trees uprooted in this storm. I can definitely say that it was this moment in history that I was first bitten by the ‘hurricane bug’ and was one of the deciding factors that help pushed me in the direction to pursue a career in meteorology. While in college, I studied the nature and dynamics of tropical cyclones and their global impact. I soon learned of the Bahamas and the United States’ vulnerability to devastating hurricanes and that they were sitting ducks for a major hurricane disaster, and in fact, even today they still are susceptible to future hurricanes. But news about hurricanes always seemed to focus on Florida. Its extensive exposed coastline, uniquely flat land, shallow coastal waters, and the large Lake Okeechobee make it extremely prone to hurricane surge. Much of its existing land was originally swamp. Perhaps that’s the way we should have left it—pristine, remote, full of wildlife, and very susceptible to hurricanes. Today, it is fair to say that it is too late for that now, with the major developments taking place in the state of Florida over the recent years. Most of the land in Florida is within sixty miles of the ocean, making it and everything built on it extremely vulnerable to the ravages of hurricanes. Florida’s exploding population is a major concern for hurricane planners. Consider this, every day 600 people move into the state of Florida alone, and 220,000 per year move into the coastal areas of Florida, and sadly, the majority of these new Florida residents have little or no hurricane experience. Nearly all of the state’s residents live in or near coastal zones, which exacerbates the hurricane threat. Gusting winds coming from the ocean don’t get much of a chance to slow down over Florida’s flat, smooth, swampy landscape before impacting residents and their property. In fact, Florida’s coastline is the most densely populated area of the state. Unfortunately, hurricane waves have pounded every portion of Florida’s coast. Florida’s hurricanes have long been a significant factor in the overall vitality of the state. At times, hurricanes have literally changed the course of Florida’s growth, development and history. The first changes likely occurred when Florida’s indigenous peoples learned to adapt their living conditions to the threat of hurricanes. Many of Florida’s economic woes have been associated with big hurricanes. In modern times, Florida’s agricultural and tourist industries have sometimes faltered with the passage of major hurricanes. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Florida, temporarily crippled the state’s hom