Hurricane of 1928

By Joseph Cooper,

Published August 15, 2016 at 3:08 PM EDT

(8-15-2016) Today’s Topical Currents chronicles Florida’s worst disaster: the Hurricane of 1928. In total, some 7,000 lives were lost, about 2,500 in Florida.

The storm tossed the waters of mammoth Lake Okeechobee into the marshes to the south. In the aftermath, some 700 African-Americans were buried in a mass grave.

We learn more of the tragedy from reporter and historian Elliott Kleinberg, author of BLACK CLOUD.

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Joseph Cooper

WLRN Radio's Joseph Cooper says producing and hosting Topical Currents is the most rewarding experience of his long radio career, which began at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in the 1970s.

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Richard Ives

Richard Ives came to WLRN in September 2000 to begin a new career in radio. Born in Fort Lauderdale, his family moved to Long Island, New York, where he grew up. After graduation from college and an unsatisfying stint in a job that, as he puts it, "paid the bills but for which I had no passion" he found himself contemplating a midlife career change after being laid-off.

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Polly Landess

Polly works as a producer with The Sunshine Economy. She has previously worked with DoubleTake Documentary Institute and Magazine, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show and ABC Talk Radio Networks.

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