Editing Belle Glade, Florida (section)

=== 1928 hurricane ===
A [[1928 Okeechobee hurricane|powerful hurricane]] struck the area on September 16, 1928. The storm winds caused Lake Okeechobee to overflow its banks, inundating towns around the lake and causing widespread damage in Belle Glade. According to figures compiled by the Florida  Department of Health, the storm killed 611 people in Belle Glade alone, and a total of over 1,800 statewide. Contemporary accounts stated that most of the dead were Black migrant farmworkers, a "large percentage" of whom were believed to be from the [[The Bahamas|Bahamas]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kleinberg |first1=Elliot |title=Black Cloud: The Great Florida Hurricane of 1928 |date=September 16, 2023 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7867-1146-8 |pages=98–99, 213, 243–244}}</ref> Belle Glade was rebuilt, and [[Herbert Hoover Dike|a large dike]] was erected to protect towns around the lake from storm-driven overflows.