The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 made landfall on Saturday, September 18, 1926, around 2 a.m. Most Floridians had no idea a storm that would now be classified as a Category 4 hurricane was coming. After arriving in the United States, the hurricane caused between $100 and $105 million dollars in damages. Thousands were injured, and in October 1926 the Red Cross reported 372 people had died in the U.S. Many more were missing and presumed dead, and over 40,000 people were left homeless.

Exactly two years later, another powerful hurricane swept through the state. On September 17, 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane (also known as the San Felipe Segundo Hurricane) made landfall as a modern Category 4 hurricane. Between the Caribbean and the United States, more than 4,000 people died; most of the victims were Black migrant workers around Lake Okeechobee.

While the 1926 and 1928 hurricanes came with little warning to Floridians, the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane was somewhat more expected. Despite this, the storm was devastating. The Weather Bureau issued the first storm advisory on August 31, 1935, and upgraded their warnings to hurricane level by September 1. Yet, for many in the Florida Keys, the warnings came too late for them to evacuate. The hurricane made landfall September 2 with sustained winds of up to 185 mph, which would earn it the label of a Category 5 storm today. Over 400 people died, many of them World War I veterans working on the Overseas Highway as part of a federal relief project.

Powerful storms continued to terrorize Florida residents during the Great Depression, but they were not as extreme. The 1929 Bahamas Hurricane first struck the Bahamas on September 25, 1929, before arriving in the Florida Keys on September 28. Even though it had weakened considerably by the time it reached Florida, it was a slow storm and brought heavy rainfall and flooding to Hialeah, Homestead, Miami, and other areas south of Miami.

Between 1926 and 1939, at least 69 hurricanes formed in the Atlantic. Sixteen of these storms directly impacted Florida. The Great Miami Hurricane marked the end of the Florida land boom of the Roaring '20s and the beginning of a depression that would soon affect the rest of the country. Any hopes of recovering the boom vanished when the Okeechobee Hurricane made landfall. By the time the Labor Day Hurricane struck, the Great Depression had taken hold.