Coffins are stacked and readied for victims of the hurricane, near Belle Glade.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach

Eighty years ago, families witnessed unfathomable losses. The category 4 hurricane swept across South Florida killing and drowning an estimated 3,000 people.

The hurricane forced Lake Okeechobee to breach its shores. See an animation that shows the rise in lake levels and flooding, produced by the Tropical Prediction Center.

Take a look at photos from the hurricane's destruction provided by the National Weather Service of the following cities: Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Lake Worth, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach. Additional photos courtesy of Thomas Markham.

The 1928 Hurricane was the second worst natural disaster in the nation, followed only by the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, where 8,000 people were killed. Get information on some of the worst hurricanes and interactive graphics on their path at the National Hurricane Center.

UPDATE: Download the pdf of the News Illustrated page on the 1928 Hurricane. The hurricane took much of the area by surprise, see how 3,000 people died, the hurricane's strength, its destruction, and the Herbert Hoover dike, past and present.

There are memorials at several sites in Palm Beach County.

It is estimated that 75 percent of the victims were minority agricultural workers. The hurricane hit the rich farmland south of the lake. Many people were never found, covered in muck from flood waters or swept into the Everglades.

A stone marker was laid in memory of 69 victims in Woodlawn Cemetary,
West Palm Beach.

A historical marker locates 674 victims from Belle Glade, in West Palm Beach at Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street.

A stone marker lays at a mass grave in the Port Mayaca Cemetary which holds the remains of 1,600 victims.

At right, a memorial statue stands to the hurricane victims, located near the library in Belle Glade.
LIZ DOUP, Sun Sentinel file photo