Okeechobee Waterway of Orlando and extending southward through the Kissimmee River Basin to the Everglades National Park to Florida Bay. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages five locks and dams along the Okeechobee Waterway. The St. Lucie lock was built in 1941 for navigation and flood-control purposes. In 1944, the connecting spillway structure was built for flood and regulatory flow control through the St. Lucie Canal to manage the water level in Lake Okeechobee. The Port Mayaca Lock and Dam was built in 1977 for navigation purposes, to permit the raising of water levels in Lake Okeechobee, and to moderate the
Effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida Effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida The effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida included at least 2,500 fatalities in the state of Florida, making this the second deadliest tropical cyclone in the history of the contiguous United States, behind only the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The hurricane originated from a tropical depression that formed near Dakar, Senegal, on September 6. Traversing the Atlantic Ocean, the cyclone struck the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas as a powerful hurricane. Early on September 17, the storm made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane