Fort Macon

The 1928 Fort Pierce hurricane devastated areas of Florida and the Southeastern United States in August 1928. The first tropical cyclone and hurricane of the annual hurricane season, the storm developed from a tropical wave first identified on August 3, 1928, north of the Virgin Islands. Slowly intensifying as it moved west-northwest, the system paralleled the Greater Antilles throughout much of its early existence. On August 5, the tropical storm strengthened to the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, while positioned over The Bahamas. The hurricane continued to intensify, and after reaching Category 2 hurricane strength, attained its peak intensity on August 7 with winds of 105 mph and a minimum barometric pressure of 971 mbar . Shortly after, the hurricane made landfall as a slightly weaker storm just southeast of Fort Pierce, Florida at 0700 UTC on August 8. Weakening as it moved across the Florida peninsula over the course of the next day, the storm briefly moved over the Gulf of Mexico before recurving northwards. Thus, it made a second landfall on the Florida Panhandle on August 10 as a tropical storm. Once inland, the system continued to weaken, degenerating to tropical depression strength before transitioning into an extratropical storm later that day. The extratropical remnants progressed outwards into the Atlantic Ocean before entirely dissipating by August 14. In its early developmental stages north of the Greater Antilles, the storm caused minor damage to shipping in The Bahamas and generated rough seas offshore Cuba. At its first landfall on Fort Pierce, the hurricane caused extensive property damage, particularly in coastal regions, where numerous homes were unroofed. Central Florida's citrus crop was hampered by the strong winds and heavy rain. Several of Florida's lakes, including Lake Okeechobee, rose past their banks, inundating coastal areas. Damage to infrastructure was less in inland regions than at the coast, though power outages caused loss of communication statewide. At the hurricane's second landfall, wind damage was relatively minor, though torrential rainfall, aided by orthographic lift, caused extensive flooding as far north as the Mid-Atlantic states. Overall, the hurricane caused $235,000 in damages, primarily in Florida, and two deaths.
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