Hurricane Hazel Totally Explained

Everything about Hurricane Hazel totally explained

Hurricane Hazel was the worst hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the worst hurricanes of the 20th century. Hazel killed as many as 1,000 people in Haiti before striking the United States just south of Wilmington, North Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane. 19 people were killed in North Carolina, and 81 people were killed when it subsequently hit Toronto, Ontario. It is the strongest hurricane ever recorded to strike so far inland.

Storm history

On the afternoon of October 5, hurricane hunter planes found the eye about 50 miles (80 km) east of the island of Grenada. On October 11, Hurricane Hazel crossed Haiti. It then moved northward across the Bahamas. By October 14, just before reaching the Carolinas, hurricane hunter planes found Hazel's winds to have accelerated to 150 mph (240 km/h), and the storm was moving at an incredible forward speed of 30 mph (48 km/h).
The storm made landfall at the North Carolina/South Carolina border in the morning on October 15 (External Link

). The storm center became extratropical as it passed over Raleigh, North Carolina (while a strong Category 3 storm) early on October 15.
   The rapid forward speed allowed hurricane conditions to spread farther inland than any other storm in recorded history. Wind gusts over 100 mph (160 km/h) were recorded as far as upstate New York, where Hazel still carried Category 2-force winds. The 113 mph (180 km/h) gust recorded in New York City, over 200 miles (320 km) from the storm's center, is still the highest wind speed recorded in the city's history.
   Moving very rapidly, the storm ran into a cold air mass over Toronto, Ontario and gave up its moisture — 210 mm (8.5 in) of rain. Wind gusts were estimated to be over 150 km/h (90 mph) and sustained winds were as high as 124 km/h (77 mph), meaning it was still a hurricane-strength storm – after over 600 miles (960 km) on land. 81 people were killed in Toronto where entire neighborhoods were washed away. It weakened below hurricane strength after about 18 hours on land about 120 miles (200 km) north of Toronto, at around 45°N latitude.
   The storm (finally no longer hurricane-strength) then continued north, into sparsely populated areas, then crossed the Arctic Circle, and finally broke near Scandinavia.

Records

Hurricane Hazel is the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to make landfall as far north as North Carolina, although several other hurricanes (including Diana of 1984 and Helene of 1958) have come very close to doing so. There have been ten recorded Category 3 hurricanes to strike North Carolina since 1851, and several others to strike farther north.

Impact

Haiti

When it struck Haiti on October 12, Hurricane Hazel totally destroyed three towns, causing a death toll estimated to be as high as 1,000 people. It also destroyed about 40% of the coffee trees and 50% of the cacao trees.

Bahamas

Hazel left six dead throughout the Bahamas.

United States

Hazel made landfall near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and it destroyed every pier along a 170-mile (270-kilometer) stretch of coastline. Hazel wiped out much of Garden City, South Carolina, especially its business district, where only three of the 275 buildings escaped damage and only two houses out of 275 remained habitable.
   At landfall, Hazel brought a storm surge of 14.5 feet (4.4 m) to a large area of coastline. Coastal damage was severe along the southeastern coast of North Carolina. The highest storm surge was recorded at Calabash, coincidentally arriving at the highest lunar tide of the year and reaching 18 feet (5.5 m) above mean low water. Southport and Wrightsville Beach were wrecked. Nineteen people were killed in North Carolina, with several hundred more injured; 15,000 homes were destroyed and another 40,000 damaged.
   In Washington DC and New York City, record winds were reported. The storm was so bad that gusts forced the abandonment of control towers at Newark and La Guardia Airports.
   The Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada estimates the total cost of Hurricane Hazel for Canada, taking into account long term effects such as economic disruption, the cost of lost property, and recovery costs, as being C$1,031,643,000.
   In 2004 the Canadian Hurricane Centre commemorated the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Hazel with a comprehensive website remembering Hazel's impacts in Canada.

Retirement

The name Hazel was retired and is unlikely to be used for an Atlantic hurricane again; this was before the formal lists were created, so it wasn't replaced with any particular name.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Hurricane Hazel'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://hurricane_hazel.totallyexplained.com">Hurricane Hazel Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.