The “Labor Day” Hurricane of 1935 was responsible for 409 deaths. It was a Category 5 hurricane with max winds of 185 mph and remains to be the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in Florida. Since 1900, only four other storms are responsible for more deaths in Florida.

Determining the "worst" hurricane depends on the metric used, but Hurricane Andrew (1992) is often cited as the most destructive in terms of structure damage. Making landfall as a Category 5 with winds of 165 mph, it decimated South Miami-Dade County, destroying more than 63,500 homes and causing over $26 billion in damage (at the time). However, in terms of human life lost, the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane was the deadliest, with an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 deaths when the storm surge breached the dikes of Lake Okeechobee. More recently, Hurricane Ian (2022) and Hurricane Michael (2018) have challenged these records for cost and wind speed, respectively. Ian became the costliest hurricane in Florida history, with damage estimates exceeding $113 billion. Each of these storms reshaped the state’s building codes and emergency response systems, proving that Florida's history is inextricably linked to the immense power of these Atlantic tropical systems.