PAHOKEE, Fla. — The city of Pahokee marked 97 years since a historic and deadly hurricane swept across Lake Okeechobee and Palm Beach County.
The "Okeechobee hurricane" claimed at least 2,500 lives.
Today, a remembrance ceremony was held at the Port Mayaca Cemetery.
Among those in attendance, the last-known living survivor of the storm, 99-year-old Lucille Herron.
Lucille was just a toddler at the time, when her home was washed away in the storm.
Lucille's nephew says she, her parents and siblings were forced to walk a half a mile through chest-deep water to safety.
"Took them most of the night to get there and they got into a little house that had fallen over, a two-story house. And from my understanding, like 40 people had gathered up there to survive the storm," said Woody Salvatore, Lucille's nephew.
The Port Mayaca Cemetery is home to a mass grave containing the bodies of 1,600 storm victims.
