Each year at this time, we mark the most profound event ever in Palm Beach County: the great Sept. 16, 1928, hurricane, which killed as many as 3,000 people.
Most died when a 6-foot muck dike failed and the storm pushed the waters of Lake Okeechobee into the countryside.
It’s the second-deadliest natural disaster in American history.
One of the storm’s victims wasn’t a person, but a place — a place called Geerworth.
The 16,000-acre tract was about 10 miles east of Belle Glade, at a spot at Senter Road and State Road 880′s “Nine Mile Bend.”
It had been founded around 1918 by Harvey G. Geer (above), who developed much of the West Palm Beach area and helped build the first Royal Park (middle) bridge to Palm Beach.
The first buildings went up on April 13, 1921. By December, more than 100 acres had been cleared.
Geer sold 20 tracts, of 10 to 50 acres each, mostly to a colony of Brits, set to leave Liverpool the following February.
An article echoed the hopes of developers of homes and farms sprawling from the coast to the big lake: “This is just a beginning and demonstrates what will happen as soon as the roads into the Glades are completed.”
And, it said, “every resident of Palm Beach County should make this trip and familiarize himself with this coming great domain which lies at their very door.”
In 1922, much of the settlement was swamped by floods.
But by 1925, Conners Highway was about to link the Glades to the coast. An article from April 1925, two months before the road opened, said, “already the new town of Geerworth has been laid out with a hotel, packing house, several good dwelling houses and county school. Crops are now growing and daily shipments of produce are being made.”
That resurgence was brief. In March 1928, with the countryside tinder-dry following a drought, a grass fire roared through, burning down several buildings.
The 1928 storm washed out Geerworth forever. The former site now is part of the area’s expanse of sugar cane and muck.
Geer died at 83 in June 1939.
The annual service to victims of the 1928 hurricane who are buried at the cemetery in Port Mayaca, is at 10 a.m. Friday, the hurricane’s 83rd anniversary.
Special thanks to archivist Debi Murray, Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
This photo taken in Belle Glade after the devastating hurricane of 1928 shows the damage to the Everglades Experiment Station. A 6-foot muck dike around Lake Okeechobee failed, and much of the nearby countryside was flooded. (Photo courtesy of the University of Florida)
Tags: 1928 Hurricane, Belle Glade, hurricanes, place names
The unnamed hurricane of Aug. 26, 1949, was the last major — Category 3 or stronger — hurricane to strike Palm Beach County. It made landfall north of Palm Beach as a Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour winds and passed directly over Palm Beach International Airport. Damage at PBIA was estimated at $1 million, with 37 planes damaged or destroyed. Lake Okeechobee dike and flood control system reduced damage, but the storm damaged 90 percent of Stuart’s businesses and homes, 40 percent of them severely. Flooded crops and uprooted citrus trees left the region with $20 million, in 1949 dollars, in farm losses.
The driver of this car at the intersection of St. Lucie Avenue and Flagler Street in Stuart left his car just moments before flying timber struck, with one end going through the roof and floorboard. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Click on the images below to see 1949 Palm Beach Post-Times coverage of the hurricane.
Tags: hurricanes, This Week in History
Every year at this time we donate a Post-Time column to what’s arguably the most important event in Palm Beach County history: the 1928 hurricane . It’s the second deadliest natural disaster of any kind in America. The official death toll of 1,836 was updated to 2,500 at the 75th anniversary in 2003, and many historians believe far more died.
One of our more loyal readers has been retired pilot William S. Stafford, who lives all the way in New Zealand.
Stafford grew up in Lake Worth. At the time of the storm, his father, James, later Lake Worth’s youngest mayor, was about 7 years old. And his grandfather, William M. “Chief” Stafford, was publisher of the Lake Worth Leader.
“My father would not discuss the ’28 storm, but my grandfather retold it to me quite often, and my grandmother made interjections throughout his dialog, adding to their night of terror,” he writes.
Just after noon, William Stafford crossed to the Lake Worth Casino. Winds were so strong that any attempt at photos “was all but impossible due to the sand and its effects on the camera.”
His 3-ton 1926 Hudson sedan got him back over the wooden bridge, waves breaking over it.
Realizing it was too late to get out a special edition, he shut down the presses and sent his workers home. His own trip home, normally 5 minutes, took 25. At one point a small house or shed flew over the car and smashed to the ground just behind him.
It took him 10 minutes to get the door open. He and his wife had to shout to be heard. They could hear windows upstairs starting to smash; they ran up and began tearing off closet doors and nailing them to the frames.
“Chief” ran outside to rescue his pet Shetland pony, trapped in its shed, which blew away as soon as the horse was out.
As the eye approached, Stafford ran out to secure more windows. Then the second half was on them. Knowing it well could be worse, he and his wife put their children under mattresses and the dining table. The family cowered for another four hours.
The next morning, they saw their home was one of only two left standing in the neighborhood. The morning after the storm, Stafford raced to his newspaper to find the roof had come down right on the presses. It would be weeks before he could publish again.
The family home later would be condemned. A new one finished in 1929 incorporated salvaged items, so “there were always constant reminders in the ‘new’ house of the ’28 storm,” William writes.
This photo of Narcissus Street, looking south from Second Street in West Palm Beach, was taken Sept. 16, 1928, following the hurricane. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Click here for more photos and memories of the 1928 hurricane.
Tags: 1928 Hurricane, hurricanes, Lake Worth, Lake Worth Casino
On August 27, 1964, Hurricane Cleo was the first major hurricane to hit Palm Beach County since 1949. The Category 2 storm made landfall at Miami and left a path of destruction up to Melbourne. Damage was relatively minor, but widespread — power outages, broken glass, downed trees and overturned trailers. The Palm Beach Times was unable to publish for the first time since the 1949 hurricane.
Some images and descriptions from the August 28, 1964, Palm Beach Post:
Tags: hurricanes, This Week in History
By Michelle Quigley
Two documentaries produced by The Education Network (T.E.N.) of the Palm Beach County School District have been awarded Tellys.
The documentary Laura Woodward: Visionary Artist won in the documentary, cultural and education categories. The 30-minute production tells the story of Laura Woodward, a landscape artist who used her paintings to persuade Henry Flagler to build a resort in Palm Beach in 1894.
The Hurricane of 1928 — documenting the deadly storm that slammed into Palm Beach County and roared inland to lift the water right out of Lake Okeechobee — also won in the education category.
You can watch Laura Woodward: Visionary Artist and The Hurricane of 1928 right here on HistoricPalmBeach.com.
In 2009 T.E.N. won an Emmy award for its Anywhere/Anytime science videos.
The Telly Awards are in their 31st year of honoring the best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, video and film productions, and works created for the Web.
Drawing of Laura Woodward, painting under an umbrella amid a tropical landscape. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Tags: 1928 Hurricane, art, Glades, hurricanes, Palm Beach, videos
