On this date in 1947…The most severe hurricane of the year hurricane struck South Florida. It was the first of two major hurricanes to strike the Sunshine State that year. Meteorologists at the Weather Bureau Forecast Office in Miami unofficially named the hurricane “George,” a practice begun by Pacific meteorologists to distinguish between typhoons. The one minute average wind at Hillsboro Light reached 155 mph, the highest measured in the storm and one of the highest measured in Florida history. The lowest recorded pressure was 27.76 inches at Mayfield, Florida. The hurricane would go on to strike Louisiana two days later. The U.S. Weather Bureau’s warnings were reliable by that time and extensive evacuations in advance of the large and powerful hurricane kept the death toll low. A total of fifty one people died in the storm, including seventeen in Florida, twelve in Louisiana and twenty two in Mississippi.
On this date in 1988...Call it The Hurricane Bowl, or the college football game that didn’t happen. University of Alabama football coach Bill Curry made the decision not to fly the Crimson Tide to College Station, Texas to play Texas A&M as Hurricane Gilbert moved across the Gulf of Mexico. The storm later moved into Mexico. At what would have been game time on Saturday, viewers on ESPN watched as the announcers sat in an empty stadium awash in beautiful blue skies and hot temperatures. The game would eventually be played in December, and Alabama would win. Some accused Coach Curry of using the hurricane as an excuse to delay the game until later in the year because of injuries.
On this date in 2003...A shadow of her former category five self, Hurricane Isabel was still one of the most significant storms to ever strike eastern North Carolina. After being dubbed the “Supercane” by the national media, Isabel fortunately weakened significantly before reaching the East Coast of the United States. Isabel made landfall as a category two hurricane on the North Carolina Outer Banks before crossing into southeastern Virginia. In places like Hatteras Village, where damage was heavy, locals dubbed Isabel “the hurricane with category two winds but category five waves.” Even though the storm’s winds had diminished from the 170 mph estimated on September 11th, powerful waves still battered the coast. Extensive flooding from the storm was reported in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, which was several hundred miles away from the point of landfall. Millions were without power for several days across the Mid-Atlantic region. Total storm damage was estimated at $3.4 billion. Sixteen people died in the storm.
On this date in 1988...Call it The Hurricane Bowl, or the college football game that didn’t happen. University of Alabama football coach Bill Curry made the decision not to fly the Crimson Tide to College Station, Texas to play Texas A&M as Hurricane Gilbert moved across the Gulf of Mexico. The storm later moved into Mexico. At what would have been game time on Saturday, viewers on ESPN watched as the announcers sat in an empty stadium awash in beautiful blue skies and hot temperatures. The game would eventually be played in December, and Alabama would win. Some accused Coach Curry of using the hurricane as an excuse to delay the game until later in the year because of injuries.
On this date in 2003...A shadow of her former category five self, Hurricane Isabel was still one of the most significant storms to ever strike eastern North Carolina. After being dubbed the “Supercane” by the national media, Isabel fortunately weakened significantly before reaching the East Coast of the United States. Isabel made landfall as a category two hurricane on the North Carolina Outer Banks before crossing into southeastern Virginia. In places like Hatteras Village, where damage was heavy, locals dubbed Isabel “the hurricane with category two winds but category five waves.” Even though the storm’s winds had diminished from the 170 mph estimated on September 11th, powerful waves still battered the coast. Extensive flooding from the storm was reported in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, which was several hundred miles away from the point of landfall. Millions were without power for several days across the Mid-Atlantic region. Total storm damage was estimated at $3.4 billion. Sixteen people died in the storm.