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(FOX Weather)
Updated on Monday, August 26, 2024 at 9:15 am.
On this day 32 years ago, Hurricane Andrew made landfall for the last time. After traveling along the Louisiana coast for several hours after midnight, modern analysis suggests it made landfall around 3:30 a.m. CT on a spit of marshland called Point Chevreuil, 20 miles southwest of Morgan City.
The morning before, nerves were frayed when it looked like an attack in the New Orleans metropolitan area might be a Louisiana version of Andrew’s horrific attack in South Florida. In the end, the center of circulation shifted from the Gulf of Mexico to the swampland of southern Louisiana, about 90 miles west of the Big Easy. In the city, wind gusts reached 66 mph at the airport.
The relatively new National Weather Service radar, over 200 miles away in the Houston area, captured the moment of landing. The blocky appearance was because the radar was so far away. The WSR-88D NEXRAD network (WSR stands for Weather Service Radar, “88” stands for the original 1988 technology, and “D” stands for digital) was still in use in the early 1990s. The location marked P92 on the map is Salt Point, Louisiana, just off the coast of Point Chevreuil.
This image shows the radar as Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Louisiana.
Because the radar was far to the west, only half of the storm is visible in the Houston image. The old WSR-57 (yes, “57” means 1957 technology with improvements over time) captured the landfall and the eastern half of Andrew’s circulation. We have this blurry image, but you can see the brightest colors rotating over the Morgan City area, with a strong outer band pushing toward the New Orleans metropolitan area.
This image shows the radar as Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Louisiana.
The data analysis project conducted by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center on the 10th anniversary of Andrew’s landfall concluded that peak winds had weakened to about 115 mph (Category 3) by the time of his landfall, but the storm was moving at about 9 mph (14 km/h). Damage was extensive from southeast Louisiana to Mississippi.
Perhaps because people had seen what had happened in South Florida two days earlier, residents largely followed evacuation orders. In the end, over 20,000 homes were damaged. About 40 tornadoes in Louisiana and Mississippi made the misery even worse. The strongest tornado occurred in La Place, Louisiana, northwest of New Orleans, where two people died and over 150 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.
Off the coast of Louisiana, barrier islands were severely damaged and Louisiana’s valuable fishing industry was hit hard. Over 200 oil platforms were damaged offshore.
By the afternoon of that Wednesday, Andrew was downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed southwest Mississippi, and overnight it became a tropical depression. Andrew’s rampage was finally over, although heavy rain continued as the remnants of the storm moved northeast.
The last official trace of the great hurricane of 1992 was over the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in western North Carolina.
Because of the catastrophic events in South Florida, the impact of Hurricane Andrew in Louisiana is often overlooked. The disaster alone was worth more than a billion dollars and was a life-changing event for thousands of people who lost their homes.
There are many lessons to be learned from Hurricane Andrew’s onslaught on South Florida and Louisiana. One of them I mentioned in a previous post is: “The worst happens.” An expanded version of that thought is: “Most of the time, you overprepare because there’s a good chance the worst of the hurricane WILL NOT hit you – unless it does.”
Another point is less a lesson than a reminder: “The four strongest storms ever to hit the United States were all tropical storms three days before making landfall.”
Evacuations and preparations are done based on what COULD reasonably happen. Both are inconvenient, but living on the coast means living with hurricanes. There is nothing left to do but have a hurricane plan and be ready to implement it when the inevitable hurricane comes your way.”
The tropical Atlantic is surprisingly calm for the end of August 2024. No developments are expected this week.
The macro factors we normally consider are still present and usually favor more frequent and stronger hurricanes than average. But other factors are out of balance. More on that tomorrow.
In the Pacific, Tropical Storm Hone is now passing well south of the Hawaiian Islands. Some peripheral effects will be felt on the islands today. Hone is expected to weaken to a patch of moisture in the central Pacific in a few days.
Hurricane Gilma and Tropical Storm Hector are moving toward Hawaii. Neither system is expected to have significant impacts on the islands. Cooler waters and hostile upper-level winds are expected to destroy both systems.
