Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-269) and index.

In September 1928, when great storms were still unnamed, nearly 700 black men, women, and children were buried in an unmarked West Palm Beach ditch following the nation's second-deadliest hurricane. The savage gusts that churned the waters of Lake Okeechobee into a maelstrom of death afflicted victims of all races and classes, and produced tales of survival and loss among whites and blacks alike. The great African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston, immortalized the havoc the storm unleashed on the great lakes denizens in her classic Their Eyes Were Watching God. The vast majority of the post-storm workers were poor black migrants; even if the hurricane was color-blind, the recovery and rebuilding effort were not