A century later, Miami's greatest hurricane still has lessons to teach

Miami and hurricanes. Like bacon and eggs or Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas, these things just go together. When I say Miami, you say hurricanes. Climatologically, that makes sense. History shows that South Florida, along with coastal North Carolina and eastern Louisiana, has the shortest return period between hurricane landfalls in the continental U.S., with one expected roughly every 6 years and a Category 3 or above every 15 years or so.

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Scoop News DeskMiami, Florida · Published Friday, September 18, 2026 at 7:48 PM UTCUpdated Saturday, September 19, 2026 at 2:48 PM UTC

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Short-term, with over 1,000 dead or missing and civic infrastructure reduced to rubble by wind and surge, many left South Florida and the Flagler land boom went bust. The hurricane approached Miami from the east-southeast at a 20-mph clip, dodging the handful of island weather stations that would have provided some warning to the hundreds of thousands of new residents of South Florida.