When did the last monster hurricane strike a major city?

[SouthernWx]

I'm sure some will immediately say "Andrew smashed Miami in 1992"....but in all honesty, the majority of the Miami metropolitan area fortunately escaped the wrath of hurricane Andrew's violent eyewall, including the downtown Miami area. Andrew was a direct hit on south Dade's 300,000 residents....but spared another 1.6 million (not to mention another million in Broward county).

So when did the last category 4 or 5 hurricane make a direct hit on a major metropolitan area; a metropolitan area of 1,000,000+ population (affecting most of the residents)? I'm honestly not sure it's ever happened....not in U.S. history...

Let's start back from 2004 and list the landfalling cat-4 and 5 hurricanes to impact the U.S....and see if any slammed major metropolitan areas AFTER they became highly populated.


Aug 2004 (Charley)...nope; highly populated Tampa/ St Pete metro area was spared...and Charley weakened to cat-1/2 before impacting Orlando metro area.


Aug 1992 (Andrew)...almost, but not quite. Obliterating south Dade was catastrophic....if core impact zone had included downtown Miami (or anywhere between Miami and West Palm Beach) it would have been far worse


Sep 1989 (Hugo)...not only did metro Charleston miss the worst of Hugo, but isn't a major metro area to begin with (far less than 1 million population)


Aug 1969 (Camille)...fortunately missed greater New Orleans by less than 50 miles; at that time, Mississippi Coast was sparsely populated....still hundreds drowned


Sep 1961 (Carla)...large, destructive core impacted largely rural, sparsely populated middle Texas Coast.


Sep 1960 (Donna)...was only cat-4 while crossing the Keys and as far north as Naples.


Jun 1957 (Audrey)...killed 400+, but core (eyewall region) didn't strike any major metro areas.


Oct 1954 (Hazel)...nope (even today, Wilmington/Myrtle Beach has less than 1 million residents).


Sep 1947 (noname)...huge, destructive hurricane, but just after World War II, the Florida Gold Coast between Miami and West Palm Beach wasn't highly populated (a repeat today would IMO be catastrophic).


Well, no direct hits on major, highly populated metro areas by cat-4/5 hurricanes since World War II ended...and before 1945, the only metro area located along the Atlantic or Gulf Coast with more than one million population was New York City, which has never experienced a cat-4/5 hurricane.


It's true Miami/Ft Lauderdale were nearly erased from the map by the monster 1926 hurricane, but less than 200,000 residents lived there at that time; it was same story in New Orleans back in 1915 when a cat-4 cane struck. Over 8,000 died in the severe 1900 Galveston hurricane, but over a century ago, there weren't a million residents along the upper Texas Coast in 1900; in fact, there were no metropolitan areas in Texas or anywhere else in America (except possibly the NE U.S.).


There's very strong evidence that a cat-4 or 5 hurricane has never directly impacted a metro area with 1,000,000 or more residents. If and when it occurs, it's likely the damage amount will dwarf the toll caused by hurricane Andrew in south Dade (by 3 or 4 times IMO).

PW

[StormChasr]

Aug 2004 (Charley)...nope; highly populated Tampa/ St Pete metro area was spared...and Charley weakened to cat-1/2 before impacting Orlando metro area.

Wrong! Charley was a CAT 2 in Orlando causing major damage, and a very strong CAt 1 in the Daytona Area. The metro areas affected by Charley had a population of 4 million....that isn't affected??

[EDR1222]

I think the point is that Charley did not strike a heavily populated area at category 4 or 5 strength.

Interseting analogy southernwx

[senorpepr]

Aug 2004 (Charley)...nope; highly populated Tampa/ St Pete metro area was spared...and Charley weakened to cat-1/2 before impacting Orlando metro area.

Wrong! Charley was a CAT 2 in Orlando causing major damage, and a very strong CAt 1 in the Daytona Area. The metro areas affected by Charley had a population of 4 million....that isn't affected??

Actually, you're wrong. He said, "Let's start back from 2004 and list the landfalling cat-4 and 5 hurricanes to impact the U.S....and see if any slammed major metropolitan areas AFTER they became highly populated. "

Charley, although category four at landfall, was only category two when it hit Orlando and category one when it hit Daytona Beach. Therefore, Charley doesn't make the cut.

[Aslkahuna]

He specifically said a Cat 4/5 hit so a Cat 2 in Orlando doesn't count.

Steve

[EDR1222]

Scary to think of such a thing. For example, what if Frances had maintained her category 4 intensity and came in a little further to the south. Or if Andrew had been a little further north.

[Derek Ortt]

charley was actually a 75KT cat 1 in Orlando

[EDR1222]

You beat me too it Derek. I thought Charley only brought sustained winds of Category one strength to Orlando with some cat 2 gusts.

[senorpepr]

charley was actually a 75KT cat 1 in Orlando

Ah, I thought that was the case, but I wasn't for sure. Thanks Derek.

[StormChasr]

Then I guess the 89 MPH at Daytona International Airport as sustained winds weren't real?

[senorpepr]

Then I guess the 89 MPH at Daytona International Airport as sustained winds weren't real?

I don't understand your point here. That's is still category one. He was speaking of category four or five storms.

[southerngale]

Then I guess the 89 MPH at Daytona International Airport as sustained winds weren't real?

That's a category 1. He was talking about cat.4/5 hitting cities with populations of a million+

[SouthernWx]

Then I guess the 89 MPH at Daytona International Airport as sustained winds weren't real?

In my post, I clearly stated major metropolitan areas (MSA) with 1,000,000 or more population.....and impacted (direct hit) by the eyewall region of a category 4 or 5 hurricane; sustained winds 135 mph or greater.

FYI: here's the 2000 census rankings of MSA's, and there aren't that many in areas where 135+ mph hurricanes are possible (a landfalling cat-4 hurricane north of Cape Hatteras, NC is extremely unlikely).
http://www.census.gov/population/cen200 ... /tab03.txt

[StormChasr]

My point is that Charley hit Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda with very strong category 4 force---population 140,000. It went on as a Cat 2 to hit Orlando, with over 2.5 million people, and still had sufficient strength to do siginificant damage to the Daytona area--population 450,000. If that isn't a catastrophic event, I don't know what is......does it really take a direct hit on Tampa or Miami to cause a catastrophe?

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

I heard there was gust into Orlando of over 100 mph. Charley did hit in a area that had alot of people.

[senorpepr]

My point is that Charley hit Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda with very strong category 4 force---population 140,000. It went on as a Cat 2 to hit Orlando, with over 2.5 million people, and still had sufficient strength to do siginificant damage to the Daytona area--population 450,000. If that isn't a catastrophic event, I don't know what is......does it really take a direct hit on Tampa or Miami to cause a catastrophe?

He's not discrediting Charley any, but he's saying that the situation could be far more grave. Charley did not strike a large metro area (>1M) as a category four or higher. As you pointed out, only 140K felt the category four effects. Many people were spared and a bigger catastrophe was dodged.

[senorpepr]

I heard there was gust into Orlando of over 100 mph. Charley did hit in a area that had alot of people.

That sounds about right for 75kt sustained...

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

A quastion was the damage from Charley like Andrew?

[StormChasr]

Hugo hit an area that had a 1989 population of 508.000. I'd say that was pretty significant.

[southerngale]

My point is that Charley hit Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda with very strong category 4 force---population 140,000. It went on as a Cat 2 to hit Orlando, with over 2.5 million people, and still had sufficient strength to do siginificant damage to the Daytona area--population 450,000. If that isn't a catastrophic event, I don't know what is......does it really take a direct hit on Tampa or Miami to cause a catastrophe?

But the point of his thread was a cat.4 or cat.5 directly hitting a major metropolitan area with populations of a 1,000,000 plus. Miami, Houston, etc. not just catastrophes. There are many of those. Ivan was one. His question wasn't "When was the last time there was a catastrophic event on a large city?"