It’s Hurricane season and if you live in the South, you know what that means, anytime from June through October you could be in the way of some rampant storm gone wild. You know the drill… be prepared to evacuate, or if your anything like my family, you stay put and tough out the storm… you board up the windows, have plenty of perishable foods and water, be prepared for flooding and tornadoes, high winds and the possible loss of power or road use for several hours, maybe even days.
If we think back to the worst Hurricane we have seen in recent history, Hurricane Katrina, we can remember the devastation it caused, the amount of lives lost, the amount of people displaced from their homes, and the amount of utter destruction. We remember how unprepared the government was in this situation. Has their preparation improved for the next destructive storm on our soil? One can only hope. Although Hurricane Katrina was devastating, it was not the worst Hurricane this country has seen.
- The Last Island Hurricane
made landfall on August 10, 1856 with incredibly high winds of 150 mph (miles per hour
), a Category 4 Hurricane. The storm surge was so great that the highest parts of Last Island, Louisiana were submerged under 5 feet of
water. After several days of being under water, large sandbars began appearing. The Last Island Hurricane changed coastline of Louisiana forever, Last Island, a 25 mile barrier island, is now a chain of islands known as L’Îsles Dernières (Last Islands).
There is a legend that tells a story of how the deaths that took place that evening. The legend says that the people that were at the Last Island Resort that evening were dancing at a ball and “danced to their deaths”. They were said to be “mesmerized by the waves” as they danced the night away. There is also a story of a steamship named “the Star” that was on its way to pick up vacationers that was
destroyed by the storm as well. A total of 400 people died that evening on Last Island, Louisiana.
The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, made landfall in the Florida Keys in the late evening, as a Category 5 Hurricane with high impact winds of 185 mph. From Key Largo as far north as Marathon, a 41 mile wide path of destruction was laid by the storm, nearly all manmade structures were gone, including the railroad tracks being shifted due to the intense winds. The remnants of this storm were seen the entire eastern coast line of North America to Southern Greenland, where it finally became non-tropical on September 10th.
The stories tell a tale that the Hemingway Railroad had sent a special train to help the veterans leave, but the intense winds displaced the railroad off the track before being able to help the veterans. The Great Labor Day Hurricane is known to be the most intense storm to have ever hit the United States in recorded history with a death rate of 408, in which most deaths occurred in Southern Florida.
Hurricane Audrey reached the shore of the Louisiana/Texas border on June 27, 1957 with sustained winds of 145 mph, a Category 4 Hurricane. The storm surge at the time of landfall peaked at 12 feet. Severe flooding was seen from Galveston, Texas to Cocodrie, Louisiana. In Louisiana some houses were just moved around when the waters hit and eventually floated back to the shoreline, others were not so lucky and were smashed to pieces.
Most of the deaths from Hurricane Audrey occurred due to the storm surge. There is not an exact known number of the dead, however it is estimated that there were between 420-600 that died or went missing that day.
- Georgia Hurricane, a Category 2 with winds of
upwards to 135 mph, landed on Tybee Island, Georgia on August 27, 1881. Although people in the area were made aware that there was a storm brewing, several people went to Tybee Island to soak in the sun and swim in the ocean. Unfortunately, the official warning was sent to late for ferries to make it to the island. After making landfall, there was quite an impact to Savannah, where the winds destroyed most buildings. Some deaths were reported in South Carolina due to the storm surge as well.
For several weeks after the storm bodies were found around Tybee Island. Rooftops flew through the air, demolished buildings and killed over 300 people in Savannah, Georgia. A ferry house in near Beaufort, South Carolina was washed away in the storm killing around 30 people. It is estimated that there were around 700 deaths from the Georgia Hurricane.
Florida Keys Hurricane passed through the Florida Keys on September 10, 1919 with winds of up to 150 mph, a Category 4 Hurricane. As it travelled through the Florida Straights and into the Gulf of Mexico it began to weaken. The storm was downgraded to a Category 3 when it struck land between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Texas. There were storm surges up to 16 feet high in some locations.
While going through the Florida straight the Florida Keys Hurricane sunk 10 ships, there were an estimated 500 passengers between the 10 ships. A moderate amount of damage had happened to the Florida Keys. The town of Corpus Christi was not prepared for the type of destruction it received. Debris piles were up to 20 feet high. Many buildings were destroyed due to the storm surge. The death toll in Corpus Christi was said to be upwards to 600 deceased. That’s a total of 1,100 deaths from the Florida Keys Hurricane.
- Sea Islands Hurricane made landfall on August 27, 1893 near Savannah Georgia as a Category 3 H
urricane. It travelled the length of the barrier islands through Georgia and South Carolina. There were winds of up to 193 mph and a great storm surge. The storm surges on Sea the Islands were up to 16 feet high, submerging most of the Sea Islands.
Nearly every building on Sea Islands was damaged beyond repair. There were approximately 30,000 people that were left without homes. Nearly 1,200 people were said to have drowned during the Sea Islands Hurricane.
Cheniere Isle Hurricane (Cheniere Caminada Hurricane) was the second deadly storm of 1893. The Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 135 mph made landfall in Caminadaville, Louisiana on October 1, 1893. A storm surge up to 16 feet high flooded most of Southeast Louisiana. All Gulf Coast States were impacted by this storm.
The Cheniere Isle Hurricane completely wiped out the town of Caminadaville, Louisiana, an estimated 700 died and the remaining 800 were left without anything. A total number of around 1,200 to 1,400 lives were lost along the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The storm also damaged the rice and orange crops in the Gulf States.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 26, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane. Although many people evacuated there were still around 100,000 who stayed put in their homes and bunkered down the best that they could. There was a storm surge of 15 feet which caused historic flooding of the region, a region which is already below sea level. The flooding was not only in Louisiana, but it also affected parts of Mississippi.
As the storm roared into New Orleans the worst thing imaginable happened. The levees that protected the sinking city of New Orleans broke. The flooding from Hurricane Katrina displaced over 800,000 people in New Orleans alone. Many people relocated to different states that were offering assistance to help them get established in a new community. Most of us can remember the pictures or videos of people on their rooftops and people in the Superdome. Hurricane Katrina killed an approximate 1,800 people.
Okeechobee Hurricane made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida on September 16, 1928 as a Category 4 Hurricane with winds upwards to 150 mph. There was a 10 foot storm surge that caused severe flooding of Palm Beach County. More than 18 inches of rain pounded down on Florida in a 24 hour period. As this storm approached the United States it had caused a lot of damage in the Leeward Islands (including Puerto Rico) and the Caribbean Islands.
The towns/cities of Jupiter, Delray, Lake Worth, Pompano, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach in Florida were catastrophically hit by the hurricane. However, the South Shore of Lake Okeechobee was where the most damage occurred, destroying over 1,700 homes. The Okeechobee Hurricane caused such devastation south of Lake Okeechobee that President Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to build the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee. The total number of deaths due to the Okeechobee Hurricane was an estimated 2,500.
The Great Galveston Hurricane reached the shore of Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900. The winds were as high as 140 mph, a Category 4 Hurricane. The storm surge was as high as 16 feet in Galveston. The storm’s path was unclear, and there were no ways of being sure which direction it would go. The people of Galveston were issued a warning to go to higher ground. But people were unprepared for the Hurricane to make landfall there. Rains were inundating the land, along with the storm surge, and severe flooding occurred.
As the storm’s waves swarmed into the shorelines, people were taking shelter in the sturdier higher houses of the area, but that was not enough protection. The storm surge was immensely strong and devastated the city. The structures that remained intact were being smashed into by all the debris. The Great Galveston Hurricane, known as “The Storm” in Galveston, Texas, took 8000 lives in the catastrophic storm surge and is considered to be the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.
References:
“Interactive History Timeline”. Hurricanescience.org. 2016. Web.
“Hurricane Audrey (06/25 – 06/29)”. Weather Underground. 1957 Storm Archive. 2016. Web.
“The Slaughter in Savannah–the Horrible Hurricane of 1881”. 2011. Web.
“Our Times: The Cheniere Isle hurricane of 1893”. NOLA. 2012. Web.
“1893 Cheniere Caminada Hurricane.” Wikipedia. 2016. Web
“The 1928 Hurricane”. Palm Beach County History Online. 2016. Web
“1900 Galveston Hurricane”. History Channel Online. 2016. Web
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