On September 16, 1988, Hurricane Gilbert made landfall at the Mexican city of La Pesca, Tamaulipas, with winds of 125 mph (200 km/hr). It had already brought destruction upon the Yucatán peninsula and the Caribbean islands. Along the way it set a new low-pressure record that would stand for 17 years. ... The hurricane brought a 19-ft (6-m) storm surge to the eastern shore of Jamaica and brought tropical downpours and high winds to the entire island. It left 49 dead, destroyed 100,000 homes, and caused US$700 million in damages (70% of that agricultural losses). ... When Gilbert hit the Yucatán Peninsula, it pushed storm surge 5 km (3 mi) inland, brought over 10″ (250 mm) of rain to the peninsula, and did billions of dollars (1988 US$) in damage. It left the area’s tourism infrastructure in tatters for the rest of year. It also brought torrential rains to northern Central America, leaving scores of people dead, thousands homeless, and crops in ruins. The trip over the Yucatán did reduce Gilbert down to Category-3 level, but the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico allowed it to regain some of its strength before hitting the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Northern Mexico suffered heavy rains, mudslides, and flash floods. Mexico’s third largest city, Monterrey, was left without power or water for days.
https://noaahrd.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/30th-anniversary-of-hurricane-gilbert/On September 16, 1928, the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history struck West Palm Beach. As it moved inland it drove the waters of Lake Okeechobee against the mud levees on its shores. When the levees failed, a surge inundated the communities of Okeechobee City, South Bay and Belle Glade, causing thousands of deaths. ... Richard Gray, Meteorologist in Charge in Miami, thought that the storm would recurve and not strike south Florida, but warnings were issued from Miami to Titusville. Disruption of communications made tracking the center of the storm difficult, so it came as a surprise on the evening of Sept. 16th when the eye passed over West Palm Beach. As the hurricane traveled over the lake to the west of the city, its winds shifted from northerly to southerly. This sloshed the waters of the shallow lake first against the southern dikes, then across to the northern ones. The meager dried-mud dikes failed on both sides, causing a flash floods that caught people huddled in their homes unable to escape. ... The death toll in the Lake region were in the thousands. Public health concerns and persistent flood waters out-weighed the need for accounting for all the dead, and the bodies were disposed of in either mass graves or burnt on huge pyres. The Red Cross estimate of 1,836 dead stood for a long while, but recent re-evaluations put the total in excess of 2,500. The majority of the deaths were migrant farm workers, mainly of African-American descent. White victims were buried with ceremony, whereas African-American ones were burned in funeral pyres with the ashes buried in mass graves with no markers. Many reports state that surviving African-Americans were forced to recover dead bodies and to do other recovery work without pay.
https://noaahrd.wordpress.com/2018/09/18/90th-anniversary-of-lake-okeechobee-hurricane/