1960-1964

1960

Two storms of note: Donna and Ethel. Donna was one of the most serious hurricanes to hit the Atlantic coast of the US ever. It holds the record for longest duration as a major hurricane - 11 days. It was strong, it was large, and it was slow moving. The storm made landfall in South Florida and proceeded up the entire east coast, producing sustained winds of over 100 mph as far north as Long and Rhode Islands. The storm caused anoxia around the Keys. The storm was followed by the comic relief of the season, Ethel, which formed in the Gulf, strengthened to a Cat-5, weakened to a TS, and made landfall in Mississippi. WTF? I believe, but cannot prove, that it was not a cat-5, not even close. Hurricanes aren't supposed to intensify or deintensify like that!

1961

Two storms of note: Carla and Hattie. Carla was unquestionably the worst hurricane to hit Texas since 1950. Ike may have been the most costly, but Carla made Ike look like Yahtzee. It caused hurricane force winds in Galveston. Its storm surge was 22 feet, which I believe is the record for Texas. It spawned an F4 tornado in Galveston. Dan Rather broadcast live from the seawall in the storm, paving the way for Geraldo, Anderson Cooper, the Hurricane Ike bear, the Anderson Cooper chicken, etc.

Hattie didn't strike the US. It struck Belize and Belize City dead on. The damage was severe enough that Belize moved the capital of the country to Belmopan further inland. Also, Esther.

1962

Not much happened in this season. The only storm that did any real damage was Daisy, which struck Nova Scotia. The storm caused high tides and (in Maine particularly) heavy rain and flooding.

1963

Two storms of note: Flora and Ginny. Flora struck Cuba at Gitmo, executed a loop over eastern Cuba, then departed. It also struck Haiti. And unfortunately, when anything strikes Haiti, thousands of people die. Flora is the sixth deadliest Atlantic hurricane. Flora also killed over 1000 in Cuba - I believe this is the storm that made Castro take hurricanes seriously. Cuba these days generally has death tolls in the single digits from hurricanes. (Of course, you probably have to take those statistics with a grain of salt.) Anyway, look at the rainfall map from Cuba. I can honestly say I don't know of any other rainfall map like that. Flora was also Haiti's rainiest hurricane ever, and by a lot.

Ginny was the comic relief of the season - I'm calling it notable because hurricane tracks don't come much stranger than that. Interestingly, Ginny struck late enough - in October - to cause snow in Maine. Snowicane!

1964

Four storms of note: Cleo, Dora, Hilda, and Isbell. Unfortunately, I'm getting tired. Cleo fucked up the following places pretty good: Guadeloupe, Dominican Republic, Haiti (gets fucked up by a passing thunderstorm), Miami area, Georgia, South Carolina, Norfolk area. Dora struck the Jacksonville area. It is the only known hurricane to make landfall around Jacksonville. It also fucked up St. Augustine pretty good. Hilda fucked up the following places pretty good: the offshore oil industry, Louisiana, really the entire Southeast US (rains). Isbell fucked up South Florida, especially by causing tornadoes.

No one really talks about Cleo anymore - there have just been too many strong Miami hurricanes. Betsy, for instance. Hilda was also overshadowed by Betsy, I think. Isbell - again, a lot of south Florida hurricanes over the years. Donna comes to mind. Dora has not been overshadowed and is still the storm of record for that region of the country. Tomorrow, I will cover Betsy.