Hurricane Alicia 27 Years Ago

[srainhoutx]

2 AM on August 18, 1983 Hurricane Alicia made landfall on the W end of Galveston Island. A night I will not soon forget...

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/storm_w ... im/alicia/

[somethingfunny]

1983 was the least active season of the modern era, but Houston took it squarely on the jaw.

[SouthFloridawx]

[vbhoutex]

I believe the landfall was on the West end of the island. It is not a night I will soon forget. We had an 8 month old and a 4 yr old then. Had a tornado go right over the house and lift a huge tree right out of the ground. 7 days without power. Long story short.

[Ikester]

Yes, Alicia hit at San Luis Pass...the extreme west end of the island putting downtown Galveston in the right front quad. The Coast Guard Cutter 'Buttonwood' recorded 96 mph sustained winds and a gust to 126 mph. One of the defining things about Alicia was the damage done to all the brand new skyscrapers downtown. Downtown Houston experienced a large building boom of highrises at that time and many of them were topped with gravel roofs. As the winds were accelerated through the narrow streets (Bernouli's Principle/Canyon Effect) the gravel was picked up and thousands upon thousands of windows were knocked out of the highrises. One of the most damaged was the brand new 72-Story Wells Fargo Plaza which lost a huge majority of its windows. Amazing.

Wells Fargo Plaza:

[img]http://www.aawe.org/images/gallery/HurricaneAliciaHouston(1983).jpg
[/img]
Flagship Hotel:



Downtown Houston after Ike (Same idea as Alicia):

[srainhoutx]

Jamaica Beach, San Luis Pass is certainly W Galveston Island.

[Roxy]

Damn was that 27 years ago? I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm getting old.

I remember the boat on top of the kemah bridge.....and the poor guy whose corvette got crushed in his garage when a tree fell on it.