100 Years Ago, a Massive Hurricane Hit Miami

Known as the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, the Category 4 storm made landfall near downtown Miami on September 18, 1926, with estimated winds exceeding 130 mph and gusts reaching about 150 mph. The disaster became a defining moment in the city’s early history, bringing Miami’s first major real estate boom to an abrupt end and forcing the community to rebuild.

The National Weather Service estimates the hurricane caused about $105 million in damage in 1926, equivalent to more than $164 billion today.

At the time, Miami was barely three decades old. Construction was widespread, the population was growing rapidly, and thousands of newcomers had arrived during the Florida land boom. But the hurricane exposed how vulnerable the young city was to a major storm.

A storm with little warning

The hurricane was first identified through reports from ships in the central tropical Atlantic on September 11. Weather forecasting and communications were far less developed than they are today, and residents received limited advance warnings.

The storm strengthened as it moved through the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas before reaching South Florida. According to the National Weather Service, the eye passed over the Miami area at about 6:30 a.m. on September 18.

For approximately 35 minutes, the city experienced an eerie calm.

Some residents ventured outside, believing the hurricane had passed. Others emerged to inspect the damage or even traveled toward the coast. But the storm was only halfway through its passage.

When the rear eyewall arrived, powerful winds and torrential rain returned, catching some people outside and causing additional destruction.

The hurricane continued across Florida and eventually reached the Gulf of Mexico. It made a second U.S. landfall near the Alabama-Florida border on September 20.

A devastating human toll

Determining the exact human toll of the 1926 hurricane remains difficult because records from the period are incomplete and estimates vary.

The National Weather Service cites 372 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries reported by the American Red Cross. Other historical accounts place the number of people left homeless at tens of thousands.

The destruction extended well beyond Miami. Homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, transportation and communications were disrupted, and large areas of South Florida were flooded.

The hurricane also struck at a critical moment for Miami's economy. The real estate boom had already begun to lose momentum by 1926, and the storm deepened the economic difficulties facing the city. Rather than being the sole cause of the boom's collapse, the hurricane became a major additional blow to a rapidly changing community.

A century later, the storm remains one of the most consequential events in Miami's early history.

Remembering the hurricane

To mark the centennial, the Museum of Miami is presenting “Caught in the Eye: Remembering the 1926 Hurricane,” an exhibition featuring 100 curated photographs, rare film footage, newspapers, personal letters and firsthand accounts from people who experienced the disaster.

The exhibition reconstructs the 12-hour catastrophe through archival material from the museum's collections, including images documenting the destruction and accounts of the deceptive calm that accompanied the passage of the hurricane's eye.

The exhibition also places the 1926 hurricane within the broader history of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean, including some of the earliest recorded storms. It examines not only the physical destruction but also the hurricane's impact on Miami's society, economy and development, as well as the lessons it contributed to the region's approach to hurricane preparedness and recovery.

For visitors, the photographs provide a particularly vivid connection to a Miami that looked very different from the city of today: a young community filled with construction sites, wood-frame buildings and newcomers who had arrived during one of the most dramatic periods of growth in South Florida.

A century later

“Caught in the Eye: Remembering the 1926 Hurricane” opens to the public September 18, 2026 — exactly 100 years after the storm struck Miami — at the Museum of Miami, 101 W. Flagler St.

The exhibition will remain on view through April 11, 2027.

A century after the hurricane transformed the young city, its photographs, documents and personal stories offer a window into a pivotal moment when Miami's rapid growth collided with the destructive power of nature — and when the city was forced to begin rebuilding its future.