The Great Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928

If you live in the Caribbean or Florida, you’ve probably heard tales about the Great Okeechobee Hurricane, which killed thousands and left behind wide swaths of destruction. Also known as the Saint Felipe (Phillip) Segundo Hurricane, it developed in the far eastern Atlantic before making its way over land and taking the lives of Bahamian migrant workers and Florida residents. This thoroughly researched history considers the storm and its aftermath, exploring an important historical weather event that has been neglected. Through historical photographs of actual damage and personal recollections, author and veteran meteorologist Wayne Neely examines the widespread devastation that the hurricane caused. You’ll get a detailed account on: • workers who were caught unprepared on the farms in the Okeechobee region of Florida; • challenges that those involved in the recovery effort faced after the hurricane passed; • personal and community turmoil that took decades to fully overcome. This massive storm killed at least 2,500 people in the United States of which approximately 1,400 were Bahamians migrant workers, becoming the second deadliest hurricane in the history of the United States, behind only the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. To this day, it remains the deadliest hurricane to ever strike the Bahamas. Wayne Neely attended the University of the Bahamas and majored in Geography and History and then onto the Caribbean Meteorological Institute in Barbados, where he majored and specialized in weather forecasting. He is an international speaker, best-selling author, educator, and meteorologist at the Department of Meteorology in Nassau, Bahamas, where he has worked for more than twenty-eight years. He has written twelve books on hurricanes and regularly speaks at schools, colleges, and universities about the history and impact of hurricanes.