Rank Hurricane Year Category Damage in billions 1. SE Fla.,Alabama 1926 4 $72.303
Bill was born on 29 June 2003 in the Gulfof Mexico, made landfall on the Louisiana coast, and came nearCartersville on 1 July 2003, bringing about 4 inches of rain, but notmuch wind. Bill was very asymmetrical - its East half brought a lotof moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico, but its West half brought dryair down from the continental USA. That Wet East / Dry West structuremade Bill
a Yin-Yang 
Storm.
Even as Bill moved on toward the Chesapeake Bay, it left a stringof clouds and rain
stretching back through Valdosta, Georgia (where my motherBillie Ham Smith grew up), and along the GulfCoast. They persisted around Valdostafor the 4th of July 2003
and then came up toCartersville on 5 July 2003.
Images of Bill were taken from images ontheUnisys weather web site: radar on 2315Z 1July 03, infrared on 1415Z 2 July 03, radar on 1715Z 4 July 03, andradar on 1615Z 5 July 03.
Kenna was born on 22 October 2002 in the Pacific Ocean off thecoast of Mexico, and grew to be a category 5 hurricane on 24 October2002, according to the Unisysweather web site, which also containedthis 0715Z 25 OCT 02 enhanced infrared satellite image
and the 1845Z 28 OCT 02 radar image shownbelow.
According to a 27 October 2002 article by Tim Weiner in TheNew York Times: "... a powerful Pacific hurricane ... calledKenna ... which passed 180 miles from a meeting of world leaders ...in Cabo San Lucas on the Baja peninsula, was the third most powerfulstorm ever recorded to strike Mexico from the Pacific ...".
After crossing Mexico, Kenna was less organized but its remainscontinued eastward and northward, producing wind and over an inch ofrain in Cartersville on 28 October2002.
Floyd itself did not come to Cartersville,but many refugees did come to Cartersville from coastal Georgia,Florida, and South Carolina after an evacuation of two million peoplethat, according to the BBC,"... "President Clinton has described ... as "the largest peace-timeevacuation in our history". ...".
According to the BBC,the evacuation followed a 15 September 1999 declaration by PresidentClinton of a federal state of emergency in Florida and Georgia.
The BBCsaid, 16 September 1999: "... One of the strongest hurricanes everrecorded in the Atlantic has battered the Bahamas ... When it hit theBahamas ... Floyd was classed a category four hurricane, and wasclose to being in the strongest category five. ...".
Floyd did not hit Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina, but did hitthe USA coast in North Carolina, and proceeded up the coast,
with the eye hitting Hamden, Connecticut, around 11:30 PM EDT on16 September 1999.
According to the DrudgeReport of 25 September 1999:
The viscous soup of floodwater, sewage, hog waste, animal andhuman carcasses, chemicals, gasoline, fertilizer, pesticides andother pollutants churns in Roseboro, N.C -- more than a week afterHurricane Floyd passed through. "Floyd has created a public healththreat unprecedented in the region," reports Sunday's PHILADELPHIAINQUIRER, "and any day now, on the surface of this 18,000-square-milecesspool, billions of mosquitoes will begin to hatch." The paper'sRichard Lezin Jones reports: "At week's end, epidemiologists, healthand environmental officials were expressing concern about thepossibility of an outbreak of gastrointestinal and other diseases,such as pathogenic e. coli, caused by contaminated drinking water."... ".
Georges killed at over 370 people (see AP reports on 29 Sep1998).
Georges began off Africa about 13 September 1998, then crossed theAtlantic Ocean and went to:
- ANGUILLA:Minor damage, temporary power outages.
-ST. KITTS AND NEVIS: Three dead, 3,000 homeless. 85 percent ofhomes damaged. Damage estimated at $402 million. Hospitals, policestations, schools damaged. Severe damage to airport terminal, controltower.
-ANTIGUA: Two dead, roofs ripped off hundreds of homes andbusinesses, main marinas damaged. Flooding along south coast towns.Hurricane caused island-wide power outage.
-GUADELOUPE: Flooding in northern towns, moderate damage tohomes.
-BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Flooding temporarily closed some roads,temporary power outages.
-U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS: Several injured, moderate damage to homes,some hotels, shops, schools on St. Croix. Widespread crop damage.
-PUERTO RICO: At least three killed directly by the storm, nineothers by heart attacks and other health complications, 28,000 peoplein shelters. More than 17,000 left homeless. Damage at least $2billion.
-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: At least 210 people reported dead, dozensmissing. About 100,000 homeless. Seventy percent of bridges damaged,90 percent of banana and other plantations destroyed. Damagesestimated at over $1 billion.
-HAITI: 147 deaths reported. Many missing. Flooding inPort-au-Prince, Artibonite Valley, northern coast around Cap-Haitien.Dozens of homes destroyed.
-CUBA: Five deaths, thousands of homes damaged. Nearly 20,000homes flooded in Holguin province. Damage to coffee, cacao and bananacrops. 200,000 people evacuated.
-FLORIDA KEYS: Major damage to 320 homes, including 75 houseboats.One death.
-LOUISIANA: Most of state saw wind 40 mph or less. About 14,000took shelter in the Superdome. A tidal surge topped a levee inFlorissant, east of New Orleans, letting loose 8 to 9 feet of water.Outages left as many as 260,000 without power. Two deaths.
-ALABAMA: Flash flood watches, gusts up to 85 mph. 25-foot wavesclipped off fishing piers on the Gulf. Mandatory evacuations of twocoastal counties. 177,000 customers without power at peak, 4,675 inshelters. No deaths or major injuries.
-FLORIDA PANHANDLE: 20 inches of rain recorded. 200 rescued fromflooded homes. Interstate 10 washed out near Alabama line. As many as82,000 without power. 225,000 evacuated. On Florida Keys, majordamage to 320 homes, including 75 houseboats. One death.
Sometimes I think that storms such as Georges are alive. Georgesseemed to go directly where it wanted to go, from Africa across theAtlantic toward Islands including Anguilla.
As Anguilla Local News said, then"... Georges was a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150MPH, and was predicted by some to go on to the highest Category, 5(catastrophic), [so the] people [of Anguilla] put inan extra effort. ... Then everyone in Anguilla and all of the friendsof Anguilla said a special prayer. They couldn't ask for Georges togo elsewhere, since that would be calling down evil on neighboringislands, but they could pray for it to lose strength. And it did. AsGeorges neared the islands, it came up against a weather pattern thatcaused it to disorganize; it lost its well-defined eye, top windsdropped steadily from 150 to 135 to 125 to 115 MPH. ..."
Georges was curious about the Island land masses, so it went fromIsland to Island from Anguilla to the Florida Keys. Then Georgesrealized that even though it had given up some of its strength, itwas still damaging the land it was visiting. Remorseful, it decidedthat even though it wanted to see New Orleans, it did not want todamage the City Below (6 feet) the Sea (level), so it went East toMississippi. Georges didn't want to die, so it kept trying to staymostly over the Gulf of Mexico, but Georges got weaker and was pulledNorth and East, more and more over land, eventually coming to Georgiato die.
Hurricane OPAL (27 SEP-05 OCT)
Storm Max - Max Winds: 130 Min Pres: 916 Category: 4
Opal formed as a tropical depression over the Yucatan Peninsula ofMexico. Initially forecasted to move due north and not intensify, itdecided to move west into the open gulf waters which allowed it toorganize before its turn to the north. Moving over very warm centralgulf waters, it rapidly intensified from a minimal category 1 to astrong category 4 in 12 hours. This was aided by strong thunderstormactivity near the center of the system. Opal never formed a clear cuteye which denotes most strong hurricanes. Moving over cooler watersas it neared the coast of Florida it quickly weakened to a category 3before hitting land just southeast of Pensacola FL. This was thesecond hurricane to hit Pensacola this season (Erin being the other).This storm produced heavy flooding rains over Mexico and over thesoutheastern US.
Type Category Pressure Winds ColorDepression ----- < 35 GreenTropical Storm ----- 35- 64 YellowHurricane 1 > 980 65- 83 RedHurricane 2 965-980 84- 95 Light RedHurricane 3 945-965 96-113 MagentaHurricane 4 920-945 114-134 Light MagentaHurricane 5 < 920 > 134 White
Although it was not a hurricane, a thunderstorm on 1 September2000 ( the day after aKolar proton decay paper appeared on xxx.lanl.gov ashep-ex/0008074 ) brought over 4 inches of rain toCartersville,.
It was part of a weather pattern that looked somewhat likeHurricane Floyd, but did not have enough strongwinds to be classified as a hurricane.
......