Question for Everyone Here - Hurricane History

[wxman57]

I was just wondering, how many of you here on this excellent forum have ever been through the center of a hurricane? If so, which storm, and what sustained winds and gusts were recorded in your area with passage? If you've never been through the center of a hurricane, have you come close? What were the highest winds you observed?

No reason in particular for this post, except that I thought the discussion would be interesting.

I remember Hilda in '64 passing fairly close to Lafayette, but we weren't in the eye. I'd estimate we had gusts of 70-90 mph. Betsy passed between Lafayette & Baton Rouge in '65. We got about the same from that one - just gusts above hurricane force.

In 1974, Carmen went pretty much right over me in Lafayette. But this storm had entrained dry air just before landfall and we got no more than 50 mph sustained and gusts of 60-70 mph in Lafayette.

Finally, in 1983 the center of Alicia passed right over me in southwest Houston. I went to the store for ice as the center was overhead. But Alicia was a VERY WEAK Cat 3 at landfall 60 miles to the south. By the time it hit the Houston area, sustained winds were closer to 45-55 mph with only gusts to hurricane force.

My mother, living on the coast of MS in Gautier, went through the western eyewall of Frederick in 1979 and the center of Elena in 1985. I made a habit of calling her at the peak of each storm. She described pine trees snapping and flying around as the eyewall passed. She also got about 70-80 mph sustained for quite a while with Georges in 1998.

[Stormsfury]

I just happened to come across this post and I've been directly through Hurricane Hugo when it came across Charleston back on Sept. 22nd, 1989 ...

Here's the two page experience for you to view, wxman57, of my experience of what Hugo dealt here in my area ...
http://www.stormsfury1.com/Weather/Hugo.html

[cycloneye]

I haved had 3 hurricanes in my lifetime that made landfall in Puerto Rico and those were Hugo in 1989,Hortense in 1996 and Georges in 1998.

Of those Georges was the most close the eye passed my location (10) miles to my south.It was not a pleasant experience at all as winds of 100 mph were blowing with some gusts of 120 mph.We were without power for 2 weeks and without water 3 weeks.

[Lindaloo]

Gautier is about seven miles from me. I went through Camille (early age) Frederick, Elena and Georges. The eye went right over us in both Fred and Elena. I remember the winds were coming from one direction, then when the eye passed they started blowing from the other direction. I remember the transformers blowing lighting up the sky with a green tint. I watched a tornado jump over my parents home and hit the house next door, tearing off the roof (Frederick). I slept through Elena (THE WHOLE NIGHT) because I was told it was going to hit in the A.M. My Mother spotted a tornado and everybody gathered in the hall while they let me sleep!! lol. During Georges, my Dad and I were standing inside the screened back porch and I saw the sky swirling from a distance. I turned around to say something to him and all I saw was the door shutting. lol. When Georges FINALLY passed I went to the where I saw that tornado and it totalled a convenience store, a carpet store and an automotive shop. We were in the southeast quadrant of Georges so Ocean Springs, Gautier and Pascagoula got hammered!!

[JetMaxx]

In 1979, I was in north Mobile Alabama and experienced the eastern eyewall of hurricane Frederic. I was a naive 17 year old "kid" that wanted to experience a hurricane, and boy did I (got the heck scared of me!). I estimate sustained winds at my location were 80-90 mph, with gusts over 100...possibly 120 mph (there was low F2 damage in the area).

I also experienced a pre-dawn F1/F2 tornado (110-115 mph) tornado at age 12 (March 1974) that badly damaged my family's home here west of Atlanta. Most of our roof was ripped off, causing the west wall to partially collapse; and blew my dad's Ford Pinto station wagon through the fence and into our backyard (upside down). The storm also killed two family pets.

------
PW

[*StOrmsPr*]

i was right under Georges eye in 1998 . i live on the south east cost so i have 115 mph and gusts as high as 139mph .
also hortense 96 , Hugo on 89 .

[The_Cycloman_PR]

Hurricane Hugo, Hortense and Georges, of those the eye of Georges passed over my house and we had 45 minutes of total calm from 8pm untill 8:45pm. After that we went into hurricane sustained winds of 110 to 115 mph and gust as strong as 140+ all night long until the next morning. Winds were weakening slowly from 5:00am untill 7 to 8 am next day. Maybe later I could find some NWS statistics.

Cycloman.

[ColdFront77]

I experienced Hurricane Gloria in September 1985 and Hurricane Bob in August 1991 when I lived in southern New England, more specifically southeastern Massachusetts.

I remember the eye of Hurricane Gloria moving overhead after a tree fell our my (our) next door neighbors garage. There was no school for a week (I don't believe it was more; I was in the 2nd grade).

I understand that Bob's eye apparently moved over southeastern Massachusetts more than Gloria's did, but remember the sun coming our during Gloria, don't remember it appearing with Bob.

[The_Cycloman_PR]

Hurricane Georges preliminary report!


Check out this official National Weather Service of San Juan PR report of the Hurricane Georges hit to our Island.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/sju/public_report.html

Cycloman

[*StOrmsPr*]

where do you live cycloman?? i live in Humacao Yabucoa border

[The_Cycloman_PR]

Hello StormsPR My name is Edwin Ramos AKA The Cycloman PR. I live in Gurabo although I was born in Caguas. I have been a weatherfan since I was 10 years old. Now I am 33. I am the president of La Sociedad Ciclonologica Historica Puertorriquena( Puertorrican Cyclonic and Historic Society) Cycloneye is also a member of this group. I have been many times on PR radio and TV programs. Last year I had a participation as a hurricane historian in the radio program "A Tiempo" of the Dimension 103 FM station, with Susan Soltero. Also she had interviewed me many times.


I was curious about you because we had a member of the Society that lived on Humacao, I though it was you.


You can contact me on... payasowincito@icqmail.com

Cycloman.

[Ola]

Take a look http://www.srh.noaa.gov/sju/georges88d.html

Thats Georges 1998. I live on the west coast in the third county from the bottom up. The highest sustaind winds recorded in PR were "SUSTAINED WIND...87KTS FROM E 0445 UTC SEP 22 1998 "(note those are kts and not mph) in the town which is right on top of mine, where the peak winds were "PEAK WIND.......113KTS FROM E(ESTIMATED)0445 UTC SEP 22 1998 ". The highest gust was on the north west coast "PEAK GUST.......143KTS FROM 360 DEGREES 0610 UTC SEP 22 1998 ". We received here 21.30" of rain too. This is all taken from the storm report form the NWS in San Juan http://www.srh.noaa.gov/sju/georges.html, go to the website if you want to read more about Georges.

The eye must have passed extremelly close to us because I have friends that live a few miles south of where I was and they say they were inside the calm for a few, but I never experienced the calm during Georges.

I also expereinced Hugo and Hortense. During Hortense (cat 1) I was able to see the eye, be inside of it. It wasnt a very well organized Hurricane so it had broken clouds in it but you could see the stars in between them and the wind really died down for a few minutes. I went outside and a little gust blew the door shut, and it scared the hell out of me so I went back inside and didnt come back out. Hortense didnt do much damage in PR. Only a lot of flooding.