Restoration of the Everglades begins in the vicinity of Orlando. The Okeechobee River drains into Lake Okeechobee, a lake with an average depth of . During the wet season when the lake exceeds its capacity, the water leaves the lake in a very wide and shallow river, approximately long and wide. This wide and shallow flow is known as "sheetflow". The land gradually slopes toward Florida Bay, the historical destination of most of the water leaving the Everglades. Before drainage attempts, the Everglades comprised , taking up a third of the Florida peninsula. Since the early 19th century the Everglades have been a subject
Effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida boom began faltering after the 1926 Miami hurricane and real estate scams. Inland, the communities along the shore of Lake Okeechobee were mostly an agrarian society. Agricultural productivity rapidly took hold in the area due to the rich, black muck soil. Prior to the 1928 hurricane, Lake Okeechobee was surrounded by a mud dike averaging in height. The southwest side of dike was breached during the 1926 Miami hurricane, devastating Clewiston and Moore Haven and drowning as many as 300 people. Since 1924, the Florida Legislature attempted to secure authorization and funding for flood control around Lake Okeechobee. However, according