100 years later, Moore Haven remembers victims of 'Great Miami Hurricane'

MOORE HAVEN, Fla. (WINK) — Nearly 100 years ago, the small town of Moore Haven took a direct hit from what would be called the "Great Miami Hurricane."

After the storm made landfall in Miami, it made its way to Southwest Florida. Moore Haven was flooded by a wall of water from Lake Okeechobee, and back then there was no formal dike — just a wall of mud.

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The big lake surged into Moore Haven. Headstones at the Ortona cemetery provide a somber reminder of some of the lives lost 100 years ago.

When the water came and went from the 1926 hurricane, hundreds of bodies lay in the streets of Moore Haven. Many were never identified and some were buried in mass graves.

Larry Lucky grew up in Moore Haven and recalls the stories passed down from his elders.

"I was told that they loaded up caskets and hauled them out. Now, a bunch, quite a few, was hauled to Ortona," Lucky said. "Uncle Cleve Hicks told me about that, you know. He said we just dug long rows, we just dug 12 hours a day, and just put trenches here, and just laid bodies one by one."

Leigh Woodham, director of the Clewiston Museum, is a bit of an expert on the storm and teaches students about its impact. She shared a passage describing the night of the hurricane.

"The banshee wailing of a siren, and in the night, the gusty blasts of an approaching hurricane, the clatter of hurrying boots in the dark streets, a despairing cry. The dike is giving way," Woodham read. "Moore Haven, the big lake's first and largest town, was facing destruction. Scores of its citizens would never see another day."

Several members of the Cottrell family died in the storm. Miller Couse shared their story.

"When the eye came through, they didn't know it was an eye, so they started walking to Moore Haven, and he lost his wife and two girls," Couse said.

In all, it's thought that about 300 people died on this day 100 years ago. It would take years for the small town by the big lake with great people to recover, and many believe it still hasn't.

There are also grave sites at Pinecrest Cemetery in Sebring.