US Hurricane History

2008-08-27 19:09:13 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Weather)

Fort Worth, TX (WiredPRNews.com)—Late August and Early September mark the anniversary of some of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the United States.

On August 29, 2005 Katrina, a category three hurricane, hit New Orleans, killing over 1,800 people and causing $81 billion in damage. This devastating storm hit Louisiana with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour and rains that flooded the below-sea-level city, according to Accuweather.com. Hurricane Andrew, a category five, devastated entire neighborhoods in South Florida on August 28, 1992, causing $26 billion in damages and killing 26 people.

While the 24/7 news media show the ferocious impact of these storms, nothing in recent memory comes close to matching the devastation of the Sept. 8, 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas. Killing about 8,000 of the city’s 42,000 people and packing sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, the Great Galveston Hurricane permanently changed the barrier island city.

According to information from Accuweather.com and the 1900storm.com, the storm surged the waves a full seven feet above Galveston’s highest point of 8.7 feet above sea level. In addition, the storm completely destroyed 3,600 buildings and caused so many deaths that the corpses had to be buried at sea. Unfortunately, the currents washed some of the dead back onto the shores of the pummeled city.

In 1902, the city built a 17-foot high, concave seawall to protect the city from future storms. To this day, storm surges have not breached the top of the seawall and subsequent hurricanes have only caused a tiny fraction of the damage of the 1900 storm.

WiredPRNews - Jason Meeks - Staff Writer

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Jason Meeks · Filed Under Weather