Hurricane Irma Florida: Areas Near Lake Okeechobee Ordered To Evacuate

BELLE GLADE, FL — Communities around the southern half of Lake Okeechobee are under a mandatory evacuation order because Hurricane Irma's powerful winds will push water over the Herbert Hoover Dike, federal authorities said.

Irma will not compromise the structural integrity of the dike though, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

The seven cities under mandatory evacuation orders are South Bay, Lake Harbor, Pahokee, Moore Haven, Clewiston, Belle Glade and Canal Point. (For more information on Hurricane Irma's impact and other West Palm Beach stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Watch: Florida Braces As Irma Rips Across The Caribbean

The same area was hit in 1928 by the Okeechobee hurricane, which made landfall with 145 mph winds. The dikes failed then and at least 2,500 people drowned, most of them farmworkers and their families. More than 1,700 buildings were destroyed by that storm. But the only reported impact on the nearby Mar-a-Lago mansion, now owned by President Donald Trump, was a damaged Roman-style window.

Irma continued to spin a path of devastation through the Caribbean on its course toward Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Although the storm has weakened slightly to a Category 4 hurricane, an unrelenting Irma slammed into the Turks and Caicos early Friday with waves expected as high as 20 feet tall.

Trump's mansion has withstood four major hurricanes, and will probably outlast Irma as well.

Photo credit: Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press