The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane (Air Weather Service designation: George[2][nb 1]) was a long-lived and an intense tropical cyclone that affected the Bahamas, southernmost Florida, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1947.

Many vegetable plantings, citrus groves, and cattle were submerged or drowned as the storm exacerbated already high water levels and briefly threatened to breach the dikes surrounding Lake Okeechobee.

On the west coast of the state, the storm caused further flooding, extensive damage south of the Tampa Bay Area, and the loss of a ship at sea.

On September 18, the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the Florida Panhandle, but later its track moved farther west than expected, ultimately leading to a landfall southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The storm was the first major hurricane to test Greater New Orleans since 1915, and the widespread flooding that resulted spurred flood-protection legislation and an enlarged levee system to safeguard the flood-prone area.

[nb 2] On September 2, 1947, an observer for Pan American Airways at Dakar, French West Africa, noted a tropical wave.

Late that day a flight found a pressure of 938 mb (27.7 inHg) in the storm's eye, a record low for a mission to date in the Atlantic, implying maximum sustained winds of 141 mph (227 km/h).

Within a day the storm weakened and slowed considerably, nearing a "standstill" late on September 15 off the northernmost Bahamas, possibly due to a strong ridge.

[9][5] Quasi-stationary, the storm lumbered west early on September 16, while sited 250 miles (405 km) east of Palm Beach, Florida.

Early on September 16 the storm, now very large—and accordingly described as a "monster" by media—turned west-southwest, brushed Grand Bahama, and began to regain force, closing in on peninsular Florida.

By the time it reached the state's east coast, its twin eyewalls had formed a large eye, confirming its completion of an inner-core replacement.

[11] At 16:30 UTC on September 17, the cyclone struck South Florida near Fort Lauderdale with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h), equal to low-end Category 4 status.

The storm's top winds were between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale, lashing lesser-populated areas such as Pompano, Deerfield, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, and Margate.

[nb 8][21] Upon landfall, the sprawling storm headed west over the marshy Everglades and the Big Cypress region; while slowly weakening, it lightly damaged rural Collier and Broward counties.

Just north of Naples, which received the southern side of the eye, the storm entered the Gulf of Mexico around 03:00 UTC on September 18, bearing winds of 100 mph (155 km/h).

[7][13] After passing inland, the vortex hit the Louisiana state capital Baton Rouge with sustained winds of 96 mph (154 km/h),[23] but degenerated rapidly thereafter: within 10 hours of landfall it lost hurricane status.

[26] Early on September 16, the forecast was revised, and hurricane warnings were issued for eastern Florida from Titusville to Fort Lauderdale,[10] later to be expanded to Miami.

[29] As the hurricane approached Northern commercial flights were grounded, and 1,500 National Guard troops were readied to be mobilized if needed by Florida Governor Millard Caldwell.

[36] As the storm neared Louisiana, Emile Verret, the acting governor of Baton Rouge, closed the state capital and sent public officials home.

Fierce winds downed a 40-foot-tall (12 m) tower and extensively damaged the island's primary fishing cannery, the Grand Bahama Packing Company; at the latter they unroofed the main building and collapsed a warehouse.

[47] On September 19 the United States Coast Guard dispatched the cutter Macoma to supply Grand Bahama with food and medical necessities.

[49][50] Broadly comparable to the great 1926 and 1928 hurricanes,[51] it killed far fewer people—only 17—than its size and intensity suggested,[52] largely due to improvements in warnings, preparations, and building codes since the 1920s.

[59] The storm ravaged the Boca Raton Army Air Field, doing $41⁄2 million in losses there and hastening its closure; on base the hurricane mostly destroyed makeshift structures, including 150 barracks, supply houses, warehouses, the post stockade, the fire station, and the theater and mess buildings.

[66] High tides reconfigured the coast, opening new channels and old inlets,[67] and "whitecaps broke" 1 mi (1.6 km) inland on Las Olas Boulevard.

[62] A 3-to-4-foot-deep (0.91 to 1.22 m) layer of sand covered many grounds, and nearby neighborhoods on the Venetian Islands, like Belle Isle, were flooded to a depth of several feet.

[71] As it crossed South Florida, the storm dropped prolific rains over a broad area,[72] peaking at 10.12 in (257 mm) at St. Lucie Lock,[62][73] and so worsened a rainier-than-average wet season.

[84] Additionally, six Cuban schooners carrying 150 crew members in all sheltered off Anclote Key late on September 17 and rode out the storm.

Due to northerly winds, water overtopped sections of the levees on Lake Pontchartrain, leaving some lakefront streets "waist deep," above the 3-foot (0.91 m) delimiter.

Local communications failed during the storm, so the New Orleans Weather Bureau office handed responsibility to its counterpart in Fort Worth, Texas, which issued public advisories instead.

[89] Tides of up to 15.2 ft (4.6 m) impacted the western half of the Mississippi coast,[23] causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi.