Indianola Hurricane Of 1886 (Vanity)

If thought Hurricane Katrina could destroy the city of New Orleans or the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 did to Galveston. There was another strong hurricane that hit Texas in 1886. This hurricane hit the town of Indianola, which is located on the Gulf Coast. It was a thriving port town, second to Galveston. Indianola was established in 1846 in Calhoun County. It was hit by a hurricane on September 15, 1875, which claimed hundreds of lives. However, it quickly rebuilt, but on a smaller scale. Sometimes in early August, a cluster of thunderstorms moved off the coast of Africa and became a tropical wave. Then on August 12th, somewhere east of the Antilles, it develops into a tropical depression. It encounters favorable conditions and becomes a tropical storm and eventually hurricane. It hits Dominican Republic and Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane. It kills a total of 74 people. Than the hurricane weakens and heads for the Gulf of Mexico. The Loop Current helps strenghten the hurricane. The hurricane explodes into a Category 5 hurricane with more than 155 mph sustained winds, with gusts up to 185 mph. Then it hits Indianola, which is in the daytime. The hurricane levels the town and fire erupts. Only eight buildings are undamaged. Hundreds of people died, one estimate puts it around 275. Indianola was abandoned as a result and today it is a unincorporated fishing village. All shippng was diverted to Galveston, which would also meet the same fate in 1900. The hurricane at landfall had a pressure of 925 millibars, making it the fifth most intense hurricane to make landfall on America, only to be topped by 1935 Labor Day, Camille, Katrina, and Andrew. The hurricane help end a severe drought plaguing Texas, by giving beneficial rains. Also, that year, Texas was hit by four hurricanes, which would happen to Florida in 2004.

Thank you for the post. People living in the coastal areas of Texas have been lulled by years of relative inactivity in the Atlantic hurricane patch. A few big storms have made landfall in Texas, like "Carla" in 1961 and "Allen" in 1980. "Alicia" was a Category III storm in 1983, and the Weather Service and NOAA warned at the time that people shouldn't think "Alicia" was typical of a "big" hurricane.

"Rita" and "Katrina" in 2005 were the wakeup call. The meteorologists have been issuing preliminary forecasts for the 2006 hurricane season indicating that, like 2005 and 2004, it will be a very active year, with possibly even more numerous really severe storms.

As a final note, both "Katrina" and "Rita" faded their punches as they made landfall, weakened IIRC by cooler nearshore waters cooled by recent rain showers in the coastal areas. "Wilma" was a severe hurricane in south Florida, but fortunately its "dirty side" passed over Florida Bay and largely-empty mangrove swamps in the Everglades; Naples was on the left side of the fast-moving storm and received a double benefit of offshore winds, which militated against the storm surge, and the storm's forward motion, which reduced the top winds experienced in Naples and, by its rapidity, worked against the accumulation of a big tidal surge.

Naples was very, very lucky. If the storm had landed 50 or 75 miles farther north, they'd have been creamed every bit as badly as the Mississippi Gulf Coast was by "Katrina" two months earlier.

We've been more lucky with hurricanes. However, I fear this year could be much worse. I would not be surprised if there are even more Category 5 hurricanes and one hits the Gulf Coast and another the East Coast. Even though Katrina and Rita weakened as they made landfall, they did damage. Katrina was weakened because of dry air got in. As for Rita, it hit cooler waters. Wilma moved very fast, so the damage was not as bad. Like you said, it could of been much worse. Had Katrina went over or west of New Orleans, the flood would of happened sooner and there would be great wind damage. Many more lives could of been lost. If Houston was hit by a Category 5, it would be very catastrophic.

Actually, both "Rita" and "Katrina" were weakened by influxes of warm, dry air from the West Texas/Mexican high off to the west, which was present when both hurricanes came ashore (end of August, late September), three weeks apart.

Thanks for reminding me.

"Rita" lost power very fast as it approached the Texas coast and had become only a Category II storm by the time the eye reached 30 miles inland. That was unusually quick deterioration, and both warm air and cooler coastal waters contributed.

The point is, that neither condition could be counted on to help a coastal area impinged on by a later hurricane.

Indeed, "Charley" in 2004 actually intensified considerably to Category III as it reached shore. What saved a lot of lives in that case was that the storm was relatively compact, resembling more, as one meteorologist put it, an F5 tornado 50 miles in diameter. Another source mentioned that "Charley" disposed of about 1/4th the total energy of "Katrina", measured when "Katrina" was still out in the Gulf and still a Category V storm.

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