1955-1959

1955

This season was pretty active. I'll focus on the three storms with the biggest impact, but there were several other non trivial storms. The big ones: Connie, Diane, and Janet. Connie and Diane are pretty inseparable storms: both hit North Carolina and both dropped heavy rains throughout the Northeast. And, they hit within a week of each other. That's the problem. While both storms were bad on their own, Diane dropped its rain on thoroughly saturated ground, causing massive flooding throughout the Northeast. Connie flooded NYC and Diane was particularly devastating to New England. Diane was the first storm to cost over a billion dollars.

Janet was probably the worst storm of the season. Certainly it was the strongest and deadliest. It struck the Lesser Antilles pretty badly, and struck the Yucatan as a cat-5, killing hundreds of people. It struck mainland Mexico a little later, causing massive flooding in an area already saturated with rain from previous storms in the season. Janet was probably one of the worst storms on record for Mexico - it's hard to determine because the Yucatan has gotten struck by some of the strongest hurricanes ever: Janet, Gilbert, Dean. Wilma, for that matter. And a lot of others.

1956

Something weird about going through these old seasons is seeing names used for weak storms that would later be used for strong storms. For instance, this season contained storms named Betsy, Carla, and Dora, names that would be used for important hurricanes in the 1960s. Betsy and Flossy are the two most interesting storms in this season. Betsy caused heavy damage in Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico. Flossy was apparently the first storm to cause damage to oil refining in the Gulf. It also produced a fair amount of rain on the coast and throughout the SE United States.

1957

One storm of note in this season: Audrey. Before Rita (and Ike), there was Audrey. The storm speeded up before landfall and struck without warning, killing hundreds. It was the last hurricane to kill over 100 people in the US until 2005. The storm surge was particularly severe because of the land it struck - flat, marshy land where the surge could penetrate inland for a while. As a kind of bonus, the storm combined with a front and caused heavy rains in the Midwest, a tradition much later followed by Hurricane Ike.

1958

Two semi-interesting storms: Ella and Helene. Ella was a political storm: it struck Cuba, causing the Batista troops to stay indoors while the Castro rebels could advance or make progress or whatever the hell they did. Helene did not make landfall but grazed the NC coast, causing heavy damage to the towns on the coast.

1959

Before Hugo, there was Gracie - another bad storm for South Carolina. Thankfully, the storm struck at low tide so the surge wasn't too bad. There was heavy wind damage and some flooding in the state. Elsewhere, Gracie dropped a fair amount of rain on drought-stricken areas. As major hurricanes go, it could have been worse. Intriguingly, Gracie's retirement status is unclear. However, if the storm hit today, it would almost certainly be retired.