Old Time hurricane forcasting

[coriolis]

How much advance notice was available back in the days of sailing ships, before satellites, radio, etc. Were the old "mariners" able to see a hurricane coming in time to get away from it? How about landlubbers? Are the signs of an approaching hurricane much different than another storm? I remember reading about one hurricane in Texas that fooled everyone resulting in catastrophic damage and loss of life. (Galveston maybe?)

[GalvestonDuck]

I'll repost what I said in an earlier post about the Galveston storm.

The Cubans, who pioneered hurricane forecasting, were hit by the storm first. They tried to warn the US about how serious the storm was, but because the DoD (War Dept. back then) banned all Cuban-government telegraphs, they dismissed the warnings and ignored the danger -- thus, the people weren't properly warned until it was too late.

[Betrock]

When I was a kid in the early '60's I lived on Lido Beach in Sarasota, FL. It was joined to the mainland only by a rickety wooden bridge. Our "early warning system" was when the 1st Federal Bank on St. Armand's Circle began to board up its windows with plywood. Then we would leave the island to stay with friends in town. One time we couldn't get off the island in time. We stayed with friends in an apt. over the Columbia Restaurant. I got up the next morning to see people driving around St. Armand's Circle in motorboats!

[charleston_hugo_veteran]

Interesting, Betrock! Welcome to the board!

[Betrock]

Thanks. Sometimes I miss the old 1st Federal!!

[msbee]

the "old people" here in St. maarten say they know when a storm is coming. Now I don't know if they can tell the differnece between a "storm" and a hurricane.
but they will tell you how the ocean currents start to change, how everything gets extremely calm..the old calm before a storm.... and, how they can smell the rain coming.
if any of that is true, i don't think they could tell how strong a storm might be.. that's why there used to be so much damage..people really just did not have early warning systems.
I remember tropical storm Klaus in 1984. As a tropical storm, Klaus traveled northeast and crossed eastern Puerto Rico before emerging in the Atlantic and strengthening into a hurricane. It came close enough to us to also cause us damage.
we had no internet then..not even any cable TV. we had no warning. as a result, yachts never sought safe haven and many were washed ashore and completley destroyed.
Barbara