Before the appearance of modern forecasting tools, large death tolls from hurricanes were more common. The Chenier Caminada storm of 1893, thought to be a Category 4, is estimated to have killed about 2,000 people. The hurricane's unofficial name comes from the island that lost 779 people to the storm. The hurricane produced a storm surge of at least 15 feet. By contrast, the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history was the Galveston, Texas, storm of 1900 that is believed to have killed over 8,000 people.
On September 20th, 1909, a Category 4 hurricane stormed ashore at Grand Isle, Louisiana, and killed about 350 people. Heavy winds and a storm surge of 15 feet tossed boats out of the water and destroyed crops.
The Great Miami storm of 1926 was a Category 4 hurricane which cut a deadly path across the city of Miami on August 18th, producing a storm surge of 15 feet. It then moved across the Gulf of Mexico to strike the Alabama-Florida border before reaching Louisiana. At least 243 people were dead when it was all over.
Hurricane Audrey of 1957 landed near the border of Louisiana and Texas on June 27th. She killed at least 390 people. A storm surge of 12 feet was reported, with waves reaching 20 feet and higher. Wildlife were reported fleeing the area where Audrey hit the day before the storm arrived, including thousands of crawfish seen moving out of the marshes around Cameron, LA.
In 1965, Hurricane Betsy generated a storm surge of 10 feet which reached New Orleans when Betsy made landfall on September 9th. The city suffered some of the worst flooding it had seen in decades. The storm surge on the coast was awe inspiring; Grand Isle experienced a 15.7 foot surge and wind gusts to 160 mph. The Orleans Levee Board required that levees be raised to 12 feet after assessing the storm's impact. Betsy resulted in 58 Louisiana deaths, and 81 overall.
In terms of deaths, damage and power, 1969’s Hurricane Camille ranks as one of the very worst storms to hit the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. A Category 5 storm, she killed 256 people with winds that topped 200 miles per hour and a storm surge that reached at least 20 feet when she landed on August 17th. More than 5,000 homes were destroyed.
During Hurricane Andrew of 1992, 7 people died and 94 were injured. On August 26th, Andrew’s winds were measured at up to 153 mph at New Iberia, Louisiana. A barge on Bayou Teche in St. Mary Parish recorded winds of 173 miles per hour. At his peak, Andrew was rated as a Category 5 storm. Overall, the storm killed 23 people in the United States.
In 2004, Hurricane Ivan, a Category 3 storm, made landfall at Gulf Shores, Alabama on September 16th with winds of 130 miles per hour. Ivan was more remembered for the damage he did to the Caribbean, killing more than 30 people in Grenada and at least 20 in Jamaica. He took meteorologists by surprise by moving over the eastern U.S. and back out to sea to regain strength, returning to the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm. Ivan's second trip to the Gulf resulted in very little additional damage.
The Gulf Coast states have had their history integrated with the onslaught of hurricanes. A general loss of elevation of the area through erosion and depositional imbalances of the Mississippi River Delta system, the loss of the natural protective barrier of marshlands extending out into the Gulf, the general sinking of the area due to continental crustal subsidence, and the overall change in energy balance due to the warmer temperatures of the Caribbean waters all contribute to a higher frequency of severely damaging storms.
Record temperatures for the summer of 2005 kept the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm. The warm water is the primary energy giver to hurricanes, and as a result, the hurricane season of 2005 yielded 7 major hurricanes. The 5 that made landfall--Dennis, Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma--were responsible for over 100 billion dollars in damage and claimed an estimated 3865 deaths.
The 2005 season began on June 1st, 2005 and lasted until November 30th, although storm activity persisted until January of 2006. A record 28 tropical and subtropical storms formed, out of which the 7 major hurricanes formed. 5 of these major storms became Category 4 hurricanes and, Katrina and Wilma, became Category 5 storms.
Some have pointed to 2005 as an example of global warming. In the current lingo, the concept of global warming has morphed into the concept of climate change. Climate does change naturally, as is clearly evidenced in the geological record. Climate will always change. Likely, as our geological past indicates, it will increase in warmth for certain cycles and increase in cold for others as it has always done in the 4.6 billion years lifespan of our planet.
To say as a matter of fact that ‘global warming’ causes increased hurricane activity is problematic. The chaotic nature of weather and complex global cycles makes it impossible to prove an event like Katrina is due to global warming. One has to look at many events, their frequency of occurrences, and their intensities. Yet with all that, the number of variables that play into the making of a Hurricane are so numerous that making one simple correlation to call a hurricane a ‘global warming’ event is simplistic at best.
A host of atmospheric and global factors has to be just right for a hurricane to form. Specifically, the temperature difference between the air and the sea surface plays a significant role in hurricane development. It is true that measurements have indicated that sea surface temperatures have been observed to increase. However, the difference in temperature between the sea surface and the air temperature appears to be a larger driving force and doesn’t really follow the ‘global warming’ postulate as it relates to frequency of occurrence. There is some suggestion, however, that increasing sea surface temperatures can generate an increase in Hurricane intensity.
In the end, the temperatures of the Gulf Coast since Katrina have not really been observed to increase. The variability appears to be related to a mechanism far more elaborate than a simple ‘global warming’ hypothesis.
More time and energy needs to go into taking all the steps possible to mitigate the destructive effects of these storms and providing more efficient responses than worrying about if it is a ‘global warming’ phenomena.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is part of the Department of the Interior. NOAA runs the National Hurricane Center, located in Miami, Florida. Using constant surveillance from satellite imagery, storms are monitored, continually assessed, investigated and tracked. If the weather data suggests that a particular storm or storms could become threats, the appropriate authorities are alerted, and the investigative elements for those particular storms are raised to greater levels.
On August 23rd, 2005, one such storm child came into being off the coast of the Bahamas. Satellite imagery prompted the National Hurricane Center to label this wayward child as Tropical Depression 12. Seemingly innocuous, and one of 47 such storms, Number 12 had bigger aspirations.
On August 24th, while off the coast of the Bahamas, Tropical Depression 12 was elevated to a Tropical Storm. On August 25th, 2005, now dubbed Katrina, she graduated to a Category 1 Hurricane with wind speeds of 75 miles per hour. She made her first landfall in Florida where up to 14 inches of rain were reported. Storm surges of 3 to 5 feet were recorded. Over one million people were left without electricity. Total damage was estimated at between 1 and 2 billion dollars. 14 fatalities were documented.
Leaving Florida as a Tropical Storm, once entering the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina was quickly elevated to a Level 1 Hurricane once again. The unusually warm temperature of the Gulf waters feeds elaborate on the hurricane energy exchange.
By 10:30 in the evening of the 26th, she was being closely monitored, rapidly gaining strength with sustained winds of 100 miles per hour. Approximately 30 minutes after being upgraded to Category 1, she was upgraded again