1975-1979

1975

One storm of note: Eloise. The storm caused heavy rainfall - up to 30 inches - on Puerto Rico. The storm did most of its damage around Pensacola. The storm did particular damage to buildings, undermining foundations and causing heavier than expected damage around the point of landfall. The storm later caused flooding in the mid-Atlantic. Eloise isn't too remembered today - more recent hurricanes were even worse, Dennis and particularly Ivan.

1976

One storm of note: Belle. This storm actually was less damaging than expected, but still interesting since it hit so close to NYC. The storm surge was pretty light, and the rainfall was also not too bad - nowhere near as bad as Eloise last year for instance.

1977

One storm of note: Anita, a rare southwest moving hurricane. And a good thing too: if it had moved northwest it would have struck Texas. The storm caused much damage where it hit - but it hit in a sparsely populated area. Anita is remembered today as the only good storm of the season, in a year which curiously also featured an inactive East Pacific season. (Generally one is active while the other is inactive and vice versa.)

1978

Two storms of note: Amelia and Greta. Amelia was one of those small and boring tropical storms that makes landfall on Texas and causes a shitload of rainfall. Indeed, Amelia set the US record for rainfall from a single tropical system: 48 inches in Medina, Texas. The storm caused 26 inches of rain in 12 hours (!!!!) at Abilene. Greta was a strong hurricane that bounced off the Honduran coast and then made landfall in Belize. Greta was a bad storm, but is remembered in Honduras as the storm that wasn't nearly as bad as Fifi. Greta's remnants moved to the East Pacific and became Hurricane Olivia over there.

1979

This was the year in which male names started alternating with female names: Ana, Bob, Claudette, David. Three notable storms: Claudette, David, and Frederic. Claudette is mostly known for setting the 24 hour rainfall record in the US: 42 inches in Alvin, Texas. David was probably the worst storm of the season. It left 75% of people in Dominica homeless and destroyed the crops there. The storm was a flood event in Puerto Rico, destroying many crops. It killed 2000 people in the Dominican Republic when it made landfall as a Cat-5, causing extreme amounts of rain. Interestingly, it didn't cause much damage in Haiti. The storm caused light and widespread damage in the US, including power outages in NYC. Frederic intensified the damage caused by David in the Caribbean, but it is mostly remembered for its effects in Alabama, where it destroyed the coast. Apparently, there was a lot of development around the Mobile area and Gulf Shores, etc. after the destruction of the storm. Frederic was the last severe hurricane to hit the area until Ivan.