Southwest Florida Southwest Florida Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its sugar white sand beaches, lush tropical landscape, and winter resort economy. Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are generally considered to put it south of the Tampa Bay area, west of Lake Okeechobee, and mostly north of the Everglades and to include Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties. For some purposes, the inland counties of DeSoto, Glades, and Hendry, and the thinly populated mainland section of Monroe County, south of Collier, are also
Lake Okeechobee muck. By the 1960s, all of these settlements were abandoned. In 1926 the Great Miami Hurricane hit the Lake Okeechobee area, killing approximately 300 people. Two years later in 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane crossed over the lake, killing thousands. The Red Cross reported 1,836 deaths which the National Weather Service initially accepted, but in 2003, the number was revised to "at least 2,500". In both cases the catastrophe was caused by flooding from a storm surge when strong winds drove water over the mud dike that circled the lake at the time. After the two hurricanes, the Florida State Legislature