Hurricane of 1928 Mass Burial Site
N 26° 44.170 W 080° 03.719
17R E 593284 N 2957557
Quick Description: After the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, the bodies of hundreds of African Americans were taken to West Palm Beach and buried in an unmarked mass grave in the city's pauper cemetery. In 2000, the property was reacquired by the city, to memorialize the tragedy.
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 10/28/2009 7:22:04 AM
Waymark Code: WM7HMQ
Views: 2
Long Description:THE MARKER READS:
On September 16, 1928, a hurricane came ashore near the Jupiter
Lighthouse and traveled West across Palm Beach County to Lake
Okeechobee. This deadly hurricane destroyed hundreds of building
and left millions of dollars in property damage. Many of the 1,800
to 3,000 fatalities occurred when the Lake Okeechobee dike
collapsed, flooding the populated South side of the lake.
Approximately 1,600 victims were buried in a mass grave in Port
Mayaca in Martin County. 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. Many others were
never found. On September 30, 1928, the City proclaimed an hour of
mourning for the victim's, with memorial rites conducted
simultaneously at each of the burial sites. Two thousand persons
attended the ceremonies at the pauper's cemetery, where noted black
educator ans activist Mary McLoed Bethune (1875-1955) read the
Mayor's proclamation. The mass grave at Woodlawn Cemetery was
subsequently identified by a marker. This burial site was not again
recognized until 1991, when a Yoruba (Nigerian religious) ceremony
was held here.
Coastal damage in Florida near the point of landfall was
catastrophic. Miami, well south of the point of landfall, escaped
with very little damage; Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale suffered
only slight damages. In Fort Lauderdale, numerous power lines and
telephone wires were downed. Northward, from Pompano Beach to
Jupiter, buildings suffered serious damage from the heavy winds and
10 ft (3 m) storm surge, which was heaviest in the vicinity of Palm
Beach; total coastal damages were estimated as "several million"
dollars. In West Palm Beach, more than 1,711 homes were destroyed,
while the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse's mortar was reportedly
"squeezed ...like toothpaste" between the bricks during the storm,
swaying the tower seventeen inches off the base. Because of
well-issued hurricane warnings, residents were prepared for the
storm, and the number of lives lost in the coastal Palm Beach area
was only 26.
Inland, the hurricane wreaked much more widespread destruction
along the more heavily populated coast of Lake Okeechobee.
Residents had been warned to evacuate the low ground earlier in the
day, but after the hurricane did not arrive on schedule, many
thought it had missed and returned to their homes. When the worst
of the storm crossed the lake—with winds measured on the ground at
around 140 mph (225 km/h)—the south-blowing wind caused a storm
surge to overflow the small dike that had been built at the south
end of the lake. The resulting flood covered an area of hundreds of
square miles with water that in some places was over 20 ft (6 m)
deep. Houses were floated off of their foundations and dashed to
pieces against any obstacle they encountered. Most survivors and
bodies were washed out into the Everglades where many of the bodies
were never found. As the rear eyewall passed over the area, the
flood reversed itself, breaking the dikes along the northern coast
of the lake and causing a similar but smaller flood.
Floodwaters persisted for several weeks, greatly impeding
attempts to clean up the devastation. Burial services were quickly
overwhelmed, and many of the bodies were placed into mass graves.
Around 75% of the fatalities were migrant farm workers, making
identification of both dead and missing bodies very difficult; as a
result of this, the count of the dead is not very accurate. The Red
Cross estimated the number of fatalities as 1,836, which was taken
as the official count by the National Weather Service for many
years (and exactly equal to the official count for Hurricane
Katrina). Older sources usually list 3,411 as the hurricane's total
count of fatalities, including the Caribbean. However, in 2003 the
U.S. death count was revised as "at least" 2,500, making the
Okeechobee hurricane the second-deadliest natural disaster in
United States history behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. A
mass grave at the Port Mayaca Cemetery east of Port Mayaca contains
the bodies of 1,600 victims of the hurricane.
Thousands of people were left homeless in Florida; property
damage was estimated at $25 million ($250 million in 2008 US
dollars). It is estimated if a similar storm were to strike as of
the year 2003, it would cause $18.7 billion in damages. The cyclone
remains one of three Atlantic hurricanes to strike the southern
mainland of Florida with a central pressure below 940 mbar (27.76
inHg), the others being the 1926 Miami hurricane and Hurricane
Andrew of 1992.
**Information about the hurricane was gathered from Wikipedia**
("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Okeechobee_hurricane"
target="_blank">visit link)