Apalachicola history this storm formed in the western Caribbean and moved across the western tip of Cuba, then northward to Gulf County, 21 deaths

Hurricane in Cuba, kills 600

Category SS-5
Date September 9th 1932
Affected provinces Camagüey / Ciego de Ávila / Las Tunas
Barometric minimum 915 hPa (not registered over Cuba)
Wind speed 240 km/h (At Nuevitas, Camagüey)
Main feature storm surge
Material damages not exactly quantified
Human loss 3 033 death and thousands injured and affected

Synopsis
It constitutes the greatest natural disaster of the XX century in Cuba. It mainly affected buildings on the province of Camagüey, but coastal facilities on the south coast were completely devastated. This hurricane produced a 6 m storm surge at Santa Cruz del Sur and other locations on the south coast of Camagüey. On this village alone it caused over 2500 death.

Kills 6,000 in Cuba & Haiti

Mississippihistory The most intense hurricane to ever make landfall on the mainland U.S., Camille formed in the NW corner of the Caribbean from an African easterly wave and rapidly developed into a 200 MPH
hurricane as it crossed the western tip of Cuba and entered the SE Gulf of Mexico. Prior to the advent of more sophisticated computer models, like those the NHC uses today, hurricane forecasters had difficulty forecasting the track of storms. For two days, as Camille moved NW toward Gulfport, MS, forecasters in Miami continued to predict the storm would begin to curve toward the Florida coast, with landfall expected between Pensacola and Panama City, but the storm never curved and the eye slammed into the coast near Bay St Louis. The track did put NW Florida in the right front quadrant of the circulation as it passed to our south, generating huge swells and waves which caused extensive beach erosion from Destin westward. However, this was insignificant when compared to the immense damage and loss of life which occurred in Mississippi and the Delta region of Louisiana, where the pressure dropped to 909 mb at landfall and the storm surge exceeded 24 feet at Pass Christian, MS. Damage totalled $1.4 billion (1969 dollars, approximately $6.1 billion in today's dollars) with 256 deaths.

just west of Dauphin Island history Frederic was another storm which was in the process of rapidly intensifying prior to landfall of the eye along the Miss/Ala border SW of Mobile. It strengthened from a Cat 1 to a Cat 4 in 30 hours. During its early history in the Atlantic and Caribbean, its development was inhibited by outflow from David, a major hurricane several hundered miles out ahead of Frederic.As it followed in David's wake, where ocean waters had been cooled, it did not get an opportunity to develop until David moved up the east coast of Florida and Frederic continued westward, emerging into the southeast Gulf of Mexico near the western tip of Cuba. From there, the storm followed a path very similar to Camille, except shifted about 75 miles farther to the east than the 1969 storm. It was about 70 miles south of Eglin AFB at its closest approach and generated a very large and destructive storm surge along the beaches of Perdido Key, just west of Pensacola. Hardest hit was Dauphin Island, which received a 15 foot storm surge and 145 MPH winds, wiping out virtually every beach condominium on the island and washing out the eight mile causeway connecting it to the mainland. From Gulf Shores and Bayou La Batre ,AL to Ocean Springs, MS, all waterfront property was either destroyed or severely damaged, especially in Pascagoula, MS, where the eye passed overhead and hundreds of millions of dollars damage was done to the huge Ingalls Shipyard complex where U.S. Navy ships are constructed. The total damage approached $3 billion (1979 dollars) , making Frederic the 5th most destructive storm in U.S. history.

October 18 1996, Hurricane Lili
(CNN) -- Havana was spared a direct hit on Friday as Hurricane Lili blew into Cuba after killing at least eight people in Central America. The storm's path was expected to take it across Cuba's mainland, through the Florida Straits separating Cuba and Florida and toward the Bahamas.
	Scores of deteriorated buildings in downtown Havana collapsed in heavy winds and rains preceding the storm. Hours later, Lili set a more easterly course without causing additional damage in the capital as had been feared. There were no reports of injuries or deaths, the official Prensa Latina news agency said Friday morning.
President Fidel Castro visited the the town of Surgidero de Batabano on Cuba's southern coast Friday and urged residents to comply with emergency plans meant to minimize damage. Appearing on state television late Thursday, a worried- looking Castro warned Cubans to prepare for an onslaught that he said could prove "catastrophic." He welcomed scores of evacuees from the Havana neighborhood of La Timba into the National Palace, where they were to wait out the storm. Some Cubans won't evacuate Civil defense workers went door-to-door in the rain in some of the capital's more deteriorated neighborhoods, persuading residents to seek shelter in sturdier buildings. By nightfall Thursday, at least 28,000 residents had been evacuated from low-lying coastal areas. Thousands of others refused to leave their homes for fear of looting. Cuban authorities said that 80,000 people would have to be evacuated from dangerous dwellings in Havana alone. In Havana's hospitals, all but the sickest patients were asked to go home so there would be empty beds in the event of heavy casualties. Schools sent home 100,000 students. Impact on Central America In Central America, Lili left thousands homeless and stranded more as rain-gorged rivers made bridges and roads impassable in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. Costa Rican authorities said a child and two adults were reported dead Wednesday, in addition to five drownings reported in the region on Tuesday.

Ocean Springs, MS history storm report from NHC Georges formed in the tropical Atlantic from a vigorous African wave and quickly deepened to near-Category Five status as dropsondes released into the eyewall by reconnaissance aircraft measured winds near the surface as high as 147 knots, and up to 152 knots at 10,000 feet (with an eye SLP of 937mb) east of the Lesser Antilles. Georges weakened prior to moving across these islands and striking Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba. However, very heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding that killed over 600 people and washed many villages away (damage in the Caribbean exceeded 3 billion dollars).

The storm fluctuated in intensity over this two-day journey across the islands, as it weakened moving across mountainous terrain, only to re-intensify each time it emerged back over the warm ocean waters. It moved into the Gulf of Mexico near Key West and curved northward reaching the Mississippi coast as a Category Two storm.

While sustained winds never reached hurricane force in NW Florida (the strongest wind clocked at Eglin AFB was an isolated gust to 79 knots in a feeder band), there were several reports of tornadoes being spawned by Georges in and around the Eglin reservation. It was also responsible for the heaviest rainfall event on record at the base with a total of 19.16 inches falling over a 72 hour period including 9.60 inches on the 28th of September, the most ever measured at Eglin on a single day.

Flooding was limited in Okaloosa County, but extensive in other locations in the Panhandle with $340 million in damage to Florida, and over $3 billion total for the Gulf states. The worst damage occurred in coastal Mississippi where much of Jackson County was cut off by high water and was without electricity and telephone service for several days. In Cuba, two deaths were blamed on Georges. Cuban President Fidel Castro went on TV for the second day in a row to give advice. "We can't be too trusting, because hurricanes play tricks," he said. Reports from Cuba's eastern provinces described widespread flooding, crop destruction, and damage to roads and buildings. State media said more than 2,000 houses in Holguin and Guantanamo were below water, and officials in Guantanamo said coffee and banana crops had been ruined.

MIAMI (Reuters) -- The ninth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season became a hurricane early Thursday, threatening Havana and western Cuba and on a track for Florida. Tropical storm watches were issued for lower and middle Florida. At 5 a.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Irene was about 125 miles south-southwest of Havana, near latitude 21.6 north and longitude 83.7 west. It was moving north at about 7 mph, a track it was expected to continue through Thursday. Maximum sustained winds were at minimum hurricane strength of about 75 mph, with hurricane force winds extending 15 miles (24 kms) and tropical storm winds extending 115 miles. Rains of from 6 to 12 inches were forecast for the path of the storm.

On Wednesday, Cuba's government issued a hurricane warning for the western provinces of Pinar Del Rio, Havana, Ciudad Havana and the Isle of Youth. A hurricane watch was issued for the lower and middle Florida Keys west of Craig Key, including the Dry Tortugas.

The Keys are a 110-mile-long chain of low-lying islands off the southern tip of the state. Squalls and gusty winds were spreading northward over the Caymans, a three-island British colony south of Cuba, and parts of Cuba and the Florida Straits separating Cuba from the Florida Keys, forecasters said.

Hurricane Michelle is losing strength as it tears through Cuba, but its winds and rains have caused mass evacuations, floods, and huge tidal surges. Gusts of wind up to 120 kilometres per hour (75mph) were recorded in the capital Havana, as the island faced its most powerful hurricane for more than 50 years. The Cuban authorities have evacuated at least 700,000 people from low-lying areas. But the force of the hurricane has been downgraded from four to three - on a scale from one to five - as it slowed over Cuba's central mountains. Tourists have been taken from resorts to hotels in the capital, and student camps on the southern Zapata peninsula have been evacuated. All national and international flights have been cancelled and public transport suspended.

Electricity in the capital has been cut off to avoid accidents with falling power cables. "The whole of Havana is in total darkness, everyone is using candles," one resident said. Reports say that large areas of agricultural land, especially in the west and centre of the country, have been devastated and homes have been damaged.
There is also severe flooding, mostly in coastal areas. The state television, running on emergency generators, spoke of medical workers wading knee-deep through sea water in Havana's main hospital.

Successful preparation But there are few reports of casualties. The BBC correspondent in Havana, Daniel Schweimler, says this is probably thanks to the huge civil defence operation launched by the Cuban authorities over the past few days. "Don't worry, we'll survive the hurricane. We're well prepared," Cuban President Fidel Castro told his public. "Fortunately [the hurricane] crossed rapidly."

As Hurricane Michelle clears Cuba on Monday, it could hit the southern tip of Florida, before heading out towards the Bahamas. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency, and residents in the Florida Keys and South Florida have been advised to evacuate their homes. Homes and businesses are already being boarded up in southern Florida, and people are being told to stock up on food.

Wreaking havoc Earlier, Hurricane Michelle led to the deaths of at least 12 people in Central America, as heavy rains flooded rivers and caused mudslides. Thousands of residents of the Atlantic coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua have been left homeless. Ten people were confirmed dead in Honduras, where some coastal areas received half their usual annual rainfall in five days last week. Atlantic coast residents were reportedly trapped for days on rooftops or patches of high ground, and some were said to be surviving on the carcasses of drowned farm animals. In Nicaragua, officials say some 10,000 people have been made homeless by the hurricane. The two countries are still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when some 20,000 people were killed in the region, and more than six billion dollars' worth of damage was caused.

Downpour in Cuba On Friday, Isidore battered western Cuba, with winds of up to 160 km/h (100mph) and heavy rains. The storm uprooted trees and blew off some rooftops in Mantua, about 140km (85 miles) west of Havana, before moving towards the Gulf of Mexico.

About 250,000 people and thousands of farm animals were evacuated in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province, and the island's civil defence programme was activated. No fatalities have been reported.

Cuban President Fidel Castro travelled to the worst hit area to personally supervise evacuation and emergency measures. He heaved a sigh of relief after the storm veered from its initial trajectory, when it threatened to batter more populous areas of Cuba. The storm dumped about 63cm (25in) of rain in 24 hours, damaging tobacco stocks, the source of the best leaves for Cuba's famed cigars. As the storm pulled away, President Castro said it would not hinder Cuba's efforts to recover from the damage caused by last year's Hurricane Michelle, which destroyed thousand of homes. Michelle - a category four storm which battered Cuba last November - killed five people and cause $1.8bn damage.

US aid. The food crisis caused by that hurricane led to the first US-authorised commercial shipments of food to the communist island since the US imposed a trade embargo in 1962. In 1998, Hurricane Georges also left six people dead in Cuba and hundreds killed across the Caribbean. The constant damage wrought by hurricanes has led to the formation in Cuba of local neighbourhood watch groups which co-operate with civil defence officials. The Atlantic hurricane season typically lasts from June to November. The storms which form later in the season tend to be more slow-moving, giving them more time to gather force, heavy rains and potentially deadly floods.

August 13, 2004 10:00 AM

Hurricane Charley pounds Havana

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Hurricane Charley has pummelled western Cuba and darkened Havana with howling winds that uprooted coconut trees and ripped roofs off houses on its furious path to the Florida coast.

Charley packed winds of 105 mph (165 kph) and a 10-14 foot (3-4 metre) storm surge when it hit Cuba's southern coast at midnight near
the fishing village of Guanimar. The storm uprooted coconut trees and ripped off roofs of houses, people in nearby Batabano said.

The hurricane crossed Cuba at its narrowest point, losing some intensity as it headed for the north coast at Baracoa, just west of Havana. The capital city and its province endured the onslaught in total darkness, as authorities cut off power to avoid electrical accidents. "It's a disaster. The gusts smashed windows and doors, and lifted off the roof of a shelter," said a local official in San Antonio de los Banos, a town in the storm's path 22 miles (34 km) south of Havana.

Weather experts said Charley would regain strength and become a "major" hurricane as it headed out over the Florida Straits on a path toward the fragile Florida Keys island chain and the densely populated St. Petersburg-Tampa area. Emergency officials on Thursday ordered more than 600,000 people in western Florida to leave seaside dwellings, mobile homes and low-lying areas before Charley's arrival.

Racing winds and heavy rainfall scattered debris in the empty streets of Havana, a city of 2 million, were residents left work at midday to form long lines to buy food and water and rush home to secure their houses.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who turned 78 on Friday, showed up after midnight at Cuba's weather centre and discussed Charley's advance for an hour on a live television broadcast. He was pleased the full force of the storm did not hit Havana directly. "This was like a birthday present from Nature, a special present, because a hurricane can cause most damage in a capital city, to housing industry and electricity lines," said Castro, dressed in his trademark green uniform.

EYE ON THE STORM

Authorities on Thursday evacuated 149,000 people from flood-prone areas of western Cuba and precarious colonial-era buildings in danger of collapse in downtown Havana. About 1,300 tourists were flown out of Key Largo off the south coast. Havana's airport was closed and flights diverted to the seaside resort of Varadero. At 2 a.m. EDT (7 a.m. British time), Charley was 14 miles (22 km) west of downtown Havana, at latitude 23.0 north and longitude 82.6 west, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre in Miami said. It was moving north-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).

The eye of Charley was expected to cross the southeastern Gulf of Mexico toward the west coast of Florida later on Friday, strengthening into a major hurricane as it approached, the centre said. Hurricane warnings stretched up the west coast of Florida and a storm watch was declared for the southeast coast up to South Carolina. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said 2 million people could be affected if Charley pounds the tourist resort island of Key West and then curves into Florida's west coast. In total, 6.5 million Americans lay in the storm's potential path, the U.S. Census Bureau said.

Hurricane Ivan brushes Cuba's tip BBC- Tuesday, 14 September, 2004, 06:29 GMT 07:29 UK - One of the fiercest storms on record is moving towards the Gulf of Mexico after lashing the western tip of Cuba.

Hurricane Ivan battered the island with winds gusting at 300km/h (186mph), after leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean.

The hurricane had been expected to hit Cuba head on, but the centre drifted west into a sparsely populated area. It now seems to be heading towards the southern United States, but a hurricane warning remains in force in Mexico. The hurricane touched the tip of Cuba at 1845 (2245GMT), according to the head of the country's National Meteorology Institute.

Snub

The BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Havana says there is a sense of relief as the country sees the back of Ivan. The island certainly is not unscathed. The damage resulting from nearly 24 hours of very high winds and torrential rain has yet to be assessed - but everyone knows that it could have been much worse, our correspondent says. About 1.3 million Cubans were evacuated and thousands across the country sat out the storm in government shelters.

President Fidel Castro - who visited the region - made repeated TV appearances ahead of Ivan's arrival and urged people to follow instructions from state officials. Mr Castro also said he would not accept "a penny" in hurricane aid from the United States. "The hurricane before this they offered $50,000, an insignificant amount," he said referring to aid Washington proposed following Hurricane Charley last month.

Hurricane Dennis: July 2005

Hurricane Dennis kills 10 in Cuba Saturday July 9 2005 More than half-a-million people across Cuba have fled their homes. A hurricane has killed at least 10 people in Cuba and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. Hurricane Dennis made landfall in the south-east of the country on Friday, bringing torrential rains and winds of up to 240km/h (150mph). The storm is expected to pass east of the capital, Havana, travelling into the Gulf of Mexico before hitting southern Florida at the weekend. Earlier it killed at least 10 in Haiti and caused heavy flooding in Jamaica. Hurricane Dennis has "arrived, with all its diabolical force", Cuban President Fidel Castro said. He added that eight people had died in Granma province and two in Santiago. The storm also damaged buildings and knocked out power. About 600,000 people have fled their homes. Cuban Meteorological Institute chief Jose Rubiera said the storm made landfall at 1300 (1700 GMT) near the central province of Cienfuegos. At the US navy base at Guantanamo Bay, on the southern tip of Cuba, a guard tower was torn down by the fierce winds. The storm later weakened from a category four hurricane to a category two, but it is expected to gain strength again once it reaches the Gulf of Mexico. At 2300 (0300 GMT), the storm was 30km (20 miles) east of Havana and about 180km (110 miles) south of Key West in Florida. The hurricane is expected to dump up to 38cm of rain on eastern Cuba, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami. The hurricane is the strongest to form in the Atlantic this early in the season since records began in 1851, the centre said. Cuba-Junky's Help after Dennis

Hurricane Wilma Oct 2005

BY GABRIEL DAVALOS SINCE dawn on Wednesday, October 26, engineers’ units of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), supported by brigades from several construction contingents, have been collecting debris and cleaning up Havana’s seafront highway and boardwalk, the Malecón. Repair work was concentrated on 13 points between Manrique Street, in the Central Havana neighborhood, and Calzada in El Vedado. It also includes reestablishing a bridge that was affected in the same area. Most of the damage is along northbound section of the Malecón, where the sea water lifted up asphalt and pieces of sidewalk and knocked down part of the wall. The troops arrived at dawn to begin their mission. Second Lieutenant Eliécer Barbán Garcés, of a FAR engineers’ unit, began demolition and debris cleanup duties along with his soldiers at 8:00 a.m. in front of the Ameijeiras Hospital. "When we got here, we reviewed the area to organize our work and then began," he said. The FAR engineers’ units, along with brigades from the Blas Roca, Raúl Roa and Compaña de Las Villas contingents, and forces from Construction Enterprise No. 5 of the Ministry of Construction, were planning to work 24 hours around the clock until the Malecón can be opened to traffic again.