Charley, Ivan, Frances and Jeanne. Are they close relatives or good friends, co-workers or maybe acquaintances? No, these are the four hurricanes that struck Florida this year, tying the record of 1886 when four consecutive hurricanes hit Texas.
"We have passed the peak of the season as of Sept. 10, but we expect more activity in October," said Michael Black, research meteorologist of the hurricane research division.
Even though the invention of the telegraph in 1844 helped seamen warn landlubbers of a nearing storm, there was still no way to detect the power surge the storm would bring. Technology has come a long way in 160 years, but it will always have imperfections.
"It's not always possible to tell exactly where the center of a developing storm is, in what direction it's heading and how quickly it will move," said James L. Franklin, a hurricane specialist at the
Tropical Prediction Center in Miami, Fla.
Texas was warned of the most deadly hurricane in United States history. The Weather Bureau knew of the storm's development on Sept. 4, 1900, but the surge was greater than anyone expected. More than 8,000 people died when the Category 4 storm (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) with 15-foot waves took Galveston residents by surprise. A Category 4 hurricane is very strong, with winds from 131-155 mph.
Engineer Herbert Saffir and Bob Simpson, then director of the National Hurricane Center, invented the Saffir-Simpson scale in 1965. The categories range from one to five with winds from 75-156 mph and surges from 4-19 feet.
Hurricane Camille, a Category 5, which came ashore at the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969, was the most intense storm to hit the U.S.While it was not the most intense, Andrew was certainly the most costly on record. Florida suffered $25.5 billion in damages and Louisiana suffered $1 billion. It destroyed or damaged 126,000 homes, leaving 180,000 people homeless. Nearly 10,400 people were injured and 50 were killed. Andrew was reclassified as a Category 5 in 2002. In his book "The Scariest Place on Earth," David Fisher recalls his neighbor's last days before Andrew.
Mary Cowan had phoned her daughter two days before Andrew and told her not to worry because she had purchased water, non-perishables and hurricane shutters. The shutters remained, but Andrew took the roof off of her home and the walls collapsed on top of her. She was dead for two days before rescuers found her body.
Cowan's name adds humanity to the 14,963 lives that the 30 deadliest hurricanes have claimed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
The name Andrew was retired after 1992. According to the National Hurricane Center, a storm name is officially retired when, "a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate." Hurricanes were named in the early years after the saint's day on which they occurred. Later, latitude and longitude were tried, but that proved too complicated and prone to errors.
Some reports say an Australian began naming them after politicians he disliked. World War II brought in a new era of the name game. Army Air Corps and Navy meteorologists began naming hurricanes after their wives and loved ones.
Today the World Meteorological Organization uses names from six rotating lists. Storms in the Atlantic basin and the Eastern Pacific are given "A" names. The first hurricane in the Central Pacific takes the next name assigned, regardless of the beginning letters.
Research Meteorologist Black said the hurricanes in August and September were expected due to prevailing conditions in the ocean and atmosphere.
"What we didn't expect was the number of storms that hit Florida," said Black. "It was extraordinary and a coincidence."
