a builder in the South got a better grasp of what was actually taking place here." New buyers failed to arrive, and the property price escalation that fueled the land boom stopped. The days of Miami properties being bought and sold at auction as many as ten times in one day were over. End of the boom Although the railroads lifted the embargo in May 1926, the boom was about to end. The 1926 Miami hurricane ended the boom and the much smaller 1928 Okeechobee hurricane made certain it was extinguished. The 1926 hurricane destroyed "whatever public enthusiasm for Florida vacation properties and real estate development that remained," as there had been little preparation for the storm. Florida's economic decline predated the start of the Great Depression. Therefore, it had fewer resources and more debt "than other regions of the nation." Large amounts of local debt financing through bonds worsened the economic situation in the state with most of it coming from the years of the land boom. During the land boom, many local governments sold bonds to pay for projects related to development. After the boom, local government did not have revenue proceeds to pay down bond debt. This resulted in widespread unsecured bond default. Another contributing factor was that numerous counties in southern Florida would take out "large loans" during the boom to help build infrastructure projects to entice developers which led to these counties going into debt. Doyle Carlton was elected in 1928 as governor and during his tenure he tried to put a limit on the amount of bonded debt local governments could hold. He faced opposition from state representatives in northern Florida whose counties had less debt and did not want to pay for their southern counterparts. Deposits in Florida banks had increased steadily between 1922 to 1925, but then started to decline; by 1926 smaller banks began to fail because of many withdrawals by depositors and defaults on loans. Bank assets flowing into the state started to reverse. A "surplus of funds" and easily available credit also began to dry up. Murphy Deeds The collapse of Florida land values caused a severe financial crisis for the state government. Land values had dropped nearly to the vanishing point, but the property was subject to property tax assessments far in excess of its current value. Many property owners simply abandoned the property and did not pay