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User:CapeVerdeWave/1947 Fort Lauderdale–New Orleans hurricane

Category 4 Atlantic hurricane From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1947 Fort Lauderdale–New Orleans hurricane (Air Weather Service designation: George[2][a]) was a long-lived and an intense tropical cyclone that affected the Bahamas, southernmost Florida, and the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1947. The fourth Atlantic tropical cyclone of the year, it formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on September 4, becoming a hurricane, the third of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season, less than a day later. After moving south by west for the next four days, it turned to the northwest and rapidly attained strength beginning on September 9. It reached a peak intensity of 145 mph (233 km/h) on September 15 while approaching the Bahamas. In spite of contemporaneous forecasts that predicted a strike farther north, the storm then turned to the west and poised to strike South Florida, crossing first the northern Bahamas at peak intensity. In the Bahamas, the storm produced a large storm surge and heavy damage, but with no reported fatalities.

FormedSeptember 4, 1947 (1947-09-04)
ExtratropicalSeptember 21, 1947 (1947-09-21)
DissipatedSeptember 21, 1947 (1947-09-21)
Highestwinds145 mph (230 km/h)
Quick facts Meteorological history, Formed ...
Hurricane Four (George)
1947 Pompano Beach hurricane
Surface weather analysis of the hurricane nearing landfall in South Florida on September 17
Meteorological history
FormedSeptember 4, 1947 (1947-09-04)
ExtratropicalSeptember 21, 1947 (1947-09-21)
DissipatedSeptember 21, 1947 (1947-09-21)
Category 4 major hurricane
1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS)
Highest winds145 mph (230 km/h)
Lowest pressure938 mbar (hPa); 27.70 inHg
Overall effects
Fatalities51 direct
Damage$84.2 million (1947 USD)
($1.21 billion in 2025 USD)
Areas affected
[1]
Part of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season
Close

A day later, the storm struck South Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, its eye becoming the first and only of a major hurricane to strike Fort Lauderdale. In Florida, advance warnings and stringent building codes were credited with minimizing structural damage and reducing loss of life to 17 people, but nevertheless widespread flooding and coastal damage resulted from heavy rainfall and high tides. Many vegetable plantings, citrus groves, and cattle were submerged or drowned as the storm exacerbated already high water levels and briefly threatened to breach the dikes surrounding Lake Okeechobee. However, the dikes held firm, and evacuations were otherwise credited with minimizing the potential death toll. On the west coast of the state, the storm caused further flooding, extensive damage south of the Tampa Bay Area, and the loss of a ship at sea.

On September 18, the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the Florida Panhandle, but later its track moved farther west than expected, ultimately leading to a landfall southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. Upon making landfall, the storm killed 34 people on the Gulf Coast of the United States and produced a storm tide as high as 15.2 ft (4.6 m), flooding millions of square miles and destroying thousands of homes. The storm was the first major hurricane to test Greater New Orleans since 1915, and the widespread flooding that resulted spurred flood-protection legislation and an enlarged levee system to safeguard the flood-prone area. In all, the powerful storm killed 51 people and caused $110 million (1947 US$) in damage.[b]

Background

In South Florida the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 killed thousands,[7] marking the end of a 1920s land boom there.[8] Economic recovery from the Great Depression commenced with World War II, which brought military bases and population growth to the area.[9] In the 1940s the population of the Gold Coast—comprising Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties—nearly doubled, from 387,000 to 692,000.[10] In the meantime the region, spurred by the 1920s disasters, took measures to mitigate storm effects, with Miami Beach adopting the first municipal building code designed for hurricanes in the United States.[11][12] Additionally, by 1937 the United States Army Corps of Engineers built the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, enabling flood control—a means to forestall a repeat of the 1920s events.[13][14] By 1947 improved weather warnings and construction standards lessened storm impacts.[15][16]

Meteorological history

Map plotting the storm's track and intensity, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
Map key
Saffir–Simpson scale
  Tropical depression (≤38 mph, ≤62 km/h)
  Tropical storm (39–73 mph, 63–118 km/h)
  Category 1 (74–95 mph, 119–153 km/h)
  Category 2 (96–110 mph, 154–177 km/h)
  Category 3 (111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h)
  Category 4 (130–156 mph, 209–251 km/h)
  Category 5 (≥157 mph, ≥252 km/h)
  Unknown
Storm type
triangle Extratropical cyclone, remnant low, tropical disturbance, or monsoon depression

The origin of the storm was from a tropical wave first seen at Dakar, French West Africa, on September 2, where it moved offshore.[17] Detectable aloft as a trough in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ),[18] it developed further over water,[19] as shown by data from nearby stations.[20] On September 4, the hurricane databases (HURDAT)—tropical cyclone records run by the National Hurricane Center (NHC)—initiate a tropical depression midway between Cap-Vert and its archipelago,[5] based on reanalysis done in 2014. It became a tropical storm next day,[21] passing near the Cape Verde islands.[22] It headed south of due west at a brisk 17 mph (27 km/h),[23][17] undetected for five days.[18] The ship Arakaka radioed its location on September 10,[17] the storm having crossed half the tropical Atlantic. Reports from aircraft a day later showed it to be of modest force, with sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km/h) based on observed pressures.[c][21]

At this stage it turned north of due west and began rapidly intensifying,[5] with aircraft barometers falling 22 mb (0.65 inHg) in 24 hours.[d] Its winds rose to 100 mph (155 km/h), making it equal to a Category 2 storm on the Saffir–Simpson scale.[21] Trekking west-northwest, it acquired major hurricane status—winds of 115 mph (160 km/h) or more—a day later.[5] Aircraft sighted twin eyewalls, an Atlantic milestone.[25] On September 14 the storm deepened further; pressures dipped to 938 mb (27.7 inHg), as shown by eye data from the Hurricane Hunters.[21] This was the lowest aircraft reading to date in an Atlantic cyclone.[26] Due to a smaller-than-usual eye, scientists assigned winds of 145 mph (230 km/h), equal to high-end Category 4 status.[21] Some time afterward, the storm underwent an eyewall replacement cycle that ended before landfall on Florida.[16]

Within a day it weakened and slowed drastically,[17] stalling off the northeastern Bahamas,[27] likely due to the interplay of a strong, elongated Bermuda High—a ridge in the subtropics—and a low-pressure area over the Southeastern United States.[28] Nearing the Abaco Islands, on September 16 it drifted west-southwest,[17] from a point 250 mi (405 km) east of Palm Beach, Florida.[29] At 19:00 UTC it struck Great Guana Cay with winds of 120 mph (195 km/h).[21] An anemometer atop a hill in Hope Town, sited on Elbow Cay, clocked 160 mph (260 km/h),[25] alongside a pressure of 28.37 inHg (961 mb);[30]: 1-A  winds there later lulled a bit, marking the eye rim, and implied a lower value—judged to be 954 mb (28.2 inHg)—at its exact center.[25] Due to its elevation and uncertainty as to whether it was a gust,[e] reanalysis demoted the storm from a Category 5 to a Category 3 in the Bahamas.[21] Veering west-southwest, the storm brushed Grand Bahama and began to regain force.[5]

On September 17 it regained Category 4 winds,[5] and at 16:30 UTC moved ashore Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with winds of 130 mph (215 km/h).[f][33] An elevated anemometer at Hillsboro Inlet Light measured a gust of 155 mph (249 km/h)[34]—the strongest verified in a Florida cyclone before 1992's Andrew,[35] hinting at near-surface sustained speeds of 131–138 mph (211–228 km/h).[36][21] The site also noted a low pressure of 27.97 inHg (947 mb),[17] along with a brief let-up in the winds,[21] as the northern edge of the eye moved overhead.[20][18] The eye stretched from Biscayne Park to near Pompano,[37] with the longest calm in Fort Lauderdale; the lowest pressure, however, occurred at the edge of the eye,[38] perhaps due to eyewall mesovortices. A blend of these data suggested a central value of 943 mb (27.8 inHg).[21][g] The storm struck with a near-average eye width of 30 mi (50 km),[21] a slower-than-normal motion of below 10 mph (15 km/h),[41] and a larger-than-normal hurricane-force wind field of 120 mi (195 km),[17] factors that—along with the Hillsboro report—substantiated the landfall winds.[21]

Upon landfall, the storm turned west,[5] slowly weakening over the Everglades.[41] On September 18 it reached the Gulf of Mexico just north of Naples, skirting the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva,[5] the latter of which observed a pressure of 969.5 mb (28.63 inHg).[42] At the time it bore winds of 100 mph (155 km/h). Near the coast, it turned west-northwest and then northwest once over water, gradually restrengthening;[5] its forward pace rose to 18 mph (29 km/h).[17] Around 14:00 UTC on September 19, the hurricane transited the Chandeleur Islands and hit St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, as a high-end Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h).[33] Its 25-mile-wide (40 km) eye passed over Saint Bernard, Belle Chasse, and downtown New Orleans; several barometers read 967 to 974 mb (28.6 to 28.8 inHg), supporting a central value of 966 mb (28.5 inHg), as Belle Chasse Naval Air Station (NAS) and the New Orleans Weather Bureau intercepted the calm center.[21] Passing inland, the vortex hit the Louisiana state capital Baton Rouge.[17] It lost hurricane status within 10 hours and weakened further over Ark-La-Tex, becoming a tropical depression in North Texas on September 20. Past the Red River its track bent northeast, and next day the system became extratropical, at which time it also dissipated.[5]

Records

The severest to threaten South Florida since 1928,[43]: 1  the storm was the second of five Category 4 cyclones to hit the region from 1945–1950.[44][45] It remains the only major hurricane to strike Broward County.[h][47]: 13-A  By size and intensity meteorologist Grady Norton dubbed it a "Great Hurricane"[i]—one of 10 such storms to hit Florida from 1880–1948;[48] his understudy Gordon Dunn ranked it "Extreme".[j][49] It was among the biggest to hit the state, similar in size to 1961's Carla[50]—then the largest Atlantic cyclone on record.[51] Peak winds—exceeding 100 mph (160 km/h)[17]—radiated over 100 mi (160 km) outward, compared to just 12+1⁄2 mi (20.1 km) in Hurricane Andrew.[52] Winds topped 50 mph (80 km/h) over most of Florida below Brevard County, a radius of 150 mi (240 km).[41]

Impact (Notes)

  • Approach at 90° incline magnified impacts from its winds[17]
  • A National Weather Service (NWS) digest deemed it the worst weather event to hit Broward County.[53]
  • Little damaged the Big Cypress area,[17] as well as rural Collier and Broward counties.[41]
  • 17 deaths, $51.9 million in losses[54]
  • The storm's top winds were between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale,[17] lashing lesser-populated areas such as Pompano, Deerfield, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, and Margate.[36]
  • Louisiana suffered more severe effects than Florida, due to weaker buildings and less readiness[55]
  • Authorities shut down Highway 30 between Panama City and Carrabelle[56]: 1 
    • Local beaches emptied, including 3,000 denizens on and near Blakeley and Dauphin islands; fishing boats at Bayou la Batre headed upstream Mobile River; electrocution in WPB; 188 buildings damaged in FLL; $4 million lemon, tangerine, orange, grapefruit losses at Fort Pierce; tomatoes and other vegetables ruined across St. Lucie County[56]: 2 
  • PBC (preliminary survey): 175 homes irreparable, 2,500 others affected; 3,200 other buildings damaged or destroyed; SR 78 closed due to bridge washouts between Okeechobee and Lakeport; 150 WPB aid applicants; lake effects on streets, crops, and trees; Miami: $1 million; Miami Beach: $2 million to seaside and hotels[57]
  • Sarasota: a few deaths, slight damage (≤$100,000); Englewood: some homes damaged; Lee County: losses $320,000; 90% grapefruit, all vegetables ruined; Bartow: some trees felled, one of which damaged a roof; Tampa: homes burned to the ground during storm; wooden buildings at MacDill AFB, shipyard buildings lightly damaged; localized flooding and evacuations in northern Tampa; Plant City: floods cut off access, including by Highways 17/23; some roof damage; loss $7,500; Melbourne: half grapefruit, 5% oranges lost; Cocoa: $50,000 citrus; Lakeland: fallen tree wrecked car; half of $10,000 loss to power lines; roofing torn off; Eloise: canal overflowed, swamped 14 homes; Pahokee: 600 acres (240 ha) beans a total loss, oranges 25% damaged; Belle Glade: 600 acres (240 ha) ramie, plus celery and beans; only corn intact; Clewiston: sugarcane, roofs damaged[58]
  • Pompano: fire station roof damaged;[59] 10 homes razed[60]
  • Hollywood: four damaged[60]
  • Dania: one wrecked[60]
  • Fort Lauderdale: WFTL mast bent, along with a few WGBS antennae outside the city; road linking city to beach 4 ft (1.2 m) underwater; 1 mi (1.6 km) inland waves surged over Las Olas Boulevard[61]
  • Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood: most (80%) property loss along beach[62]: 16-A 
  • Deerfield: semi-trailer house dismantled,[62]: 16-A  along with a few multi-story homes (on the shore)[63]
  • Oakland Park: the storm leveled 15 homes and damaged 159[63]
  • Miami: looter[64]
  • Miami: looting[65]
  • Coastal flooding and erosion accounted for most structural damage.[citation needed][67]
  • Deerfield: gust to 150 mph (240 km/h)[59]

Broadly comparable to the great 1926 and 1928 hurricanes, it killed far fewer people—only 17—than its size and intensity suggestedlargely due to improvements in warnings, preparations, and building codes since the 1920s when the storm had the Gold Coast relative to land

Aftermath (Notes)

  • On September 19 the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched the cutter Macoma to supply Grand Bahama with food and medical necessities. Aircraft also dropped food onto the island.[68]
  • The Red Cross delivered aid to 27,075 families (in Florida).[69]

Warnings and preparations

On September 13 the storm's trajectory prompted the U.S. Weather Bureau to issue an alert for eastern Florida,[70]: 1-A [71] though forecasters expected it to curve offshore.[72] A few days later, the agency still foresaw a north turn,[73]: 1-A  suggestive of landfall between Jacksonville, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia. As a precautionary measure, small watercraft between Jupiter, Florida, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, were advised to remain in port.[74] The following day, the storm drifted west,[75]: 6  revising the forecast. As a result, hurricane warnings were issued for eastern Florida from Titusville to Fort Lauderdale,[30]: 1-A  later to be expanded to Miami, to Lake Okeechobee, and to the western peninsula south of Tampa,[76] with storm warnings in the Florida Keys and up to Jacksonville and Cedar Key.[77]: 1 

Military aircraft flew to safer locations, in some cases four or more days in advance,[78] and personnel vacated coastal installations, including 115 out of 200 sailors at NAS Banana River. Storm rules governing the raising and lowering of drawbridges went into effect on the Miami River. Evacuees crowded hotels at places such as Melbourne and Cocoa. At Jacksonville Beach the American Red Cross finalized a plan to relocate 10,000 people, dispatching a 100-man team to oversee the operation.[30]: 4-A  PanAm diverted three planes from the storm area to South America and rerouted others to Cuba. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Florida East Coast Railway sent evacuation trains to relieve 5,000 residents in South Bay and Lake Harbor.[76] Up to 10,000 motorists fled low-lying areas,[77]: 1  with the Red Cross sheltering over 40,000 evacuees.[79]

At least 5,000 people sheltered in a courthouse at Miami,[43]: 1  and 4,700 occupied Red Cross shelters in Broward County.[16] In Lake Worth nine official shelters housed 1,800 people.[80]: 4  Fearing a 1928 redux, up to 15,000 people left the Lake Okeechobee region,[81]: 1  emptying communities such as Clewiston.[43]: 1  Vehicles blocked Miami streets as people hurriedly bought storm supplies. West Palm Beach residents alerted hospitals, bolted windows, and removed boats. The Coast Guard airdropped notices to vessels unequipped with radio. MacDill Air Force Base marshaled 7,000 men to do rescue work.[81] Florida governor Millard Caldwell readied 1,500 National Guard troops to be mobilized as needed.[76] During the storm, the MacArthur, North Bay (now Kennedy), and Venetian causeways halted traffic.[82]: 2 

As the storm entered the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters issued hurricane warnings from St. Marks westward, foreseeing landfall in the Florida panhandle, but later extended them westward to Morgan City, Louisiana.[83] Fleeing flood zones near Apalachee Bay, up to 250 refugees arrived in Apalachicola at the county courthouse.[84]: 1  Authorities shut down Highway 30 between Panama City and Carrabelle. In Alabama up to 3,000 people deserted Blakeley and Dauphin islands, while fishing boats at Bayou la Batre headed upstream the Mobile River.[56]: 2  As the storm neared Louisiana, acting governor of Baton Rouge Emile Verret closed the state capital and dismissed public officials. In New Orleans, local National Guard units were mobilized.[55]: 1 

Impact

More information Impacts by region, Region ...
Impacts by region
Region Deaths Injuries Locale Deaths Injuries Damages Source
Caribbean
and Bahamas		 0 ? Bahamas0N/aN/a[85]
United States 51 935 Florida17186$31,800,000[86]
Louisiana1295$24,000,000[87]
Mississippi22654$28,438,000[87]
Total 51 935 $84,238,000 [88]
Close

The Bahamas

As it passed nearby, the storm flooded Green Turtle Cay with 2 ft (0.61 m) of water,[75]: 1  causing the local weather station to be abandoned.[77]: 2  Heavy seas flooded Hope Town as well.[43]: 2  On the Abaco Islands the storm destroyed all crops, leading to food shortages,[89] and knocked down most of the coconuts. Seawater damaged vegetation on the islands. No casualties occurred,[90] but settlements noted substantial damage,[43]: 2  as did the western tip of Grand Bahama, where the storm badly damaged or destroyed the majority of docks and homes.[91] Media reported worse losses there than anywhere else in the Bahamas.[92] Storm surge peaked at 12 ft (3.7 m) in West End, displacing 111 out of 300 families. The storm razed or flipped 56 homes and acutely damaged 55 more. A weather station measured winds of 125 mph (201 km/h), with the loss of a 40-foot (12 m) tower. The storm also damaged a cannery owned by Swedish industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren, unroofing the main building and collapsing a warehouse. Despite the losses, only minor injuries took place on Grand Bahama.[93] Bimini and Harbour Island reported lesser damage from the storm.[91]

Florida

Man dwarfed by heavy surf near Miami
Main article: Effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in Florida

The storm caused 17 deaths in Florida,[94] including eight drownings.[95] Of these, the storm directly caused 11,[79] with the rest being due to accidents.[17] 186 people received injuries, with 22 being hospitalized. The storm destroyed 205 homes and badly damaged 10,543. Losses totaled $31.8 million, mostly to agriculture, landscaping, utilities, roadways, and waterfront objects;[95] initial counts showed $25 million of these occurred in South Florida,[58] primarily in the Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach area.[57] Authorities credited efforts to fasten loose objects and shutter windows with minimizing property losses,[95] along with stricter building codes.[16][96] Evacuations also prevented additional deaths, particularly near Lake Okeechobee.[97]: 9  Additionally, the storm threaded the two main population centers of South Florida, Miami and Palm Beach, thereby lessening the impact of its peak strength,[36] despite approaching at a 90° incline that amplified effects from its expansive winds.[17] Owing to enhanced readiness, the 1947 storm killed far fewer people,[15] despite rivaling the 1920s storms in overall size and potency.[98]

The core of the storm,[99] with its top winds, lashed lesser-populated areas between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale,[17] such as Pompano, Deerfield, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, and Margate.[36][100] Overall damage was greatest at Delray Beach,[101] where the storm uprooted half the trees,[102] swept away a pavilion,[103]: 1-A  and tore out a 1-mile (1.6 km) portion of Ocean Boulevard.[104] Additionally, the storm destroyed seven homes, badly damaged 15, and lightly damaged 174. It also flattened 1,000 outbuildings,[105] and gravely damaged a school.[106] Losses totaled $1 million.[102] At the Boca Raton Army Air Field soldiers decamped to sturdier buildings,[107]: 1-A  following the destruction of barracks during the storm.[59] The hurricane demolished temporary frame structures on the base,[108] including 150 barracks, supply houses, warehouses, the post stockade, the fire station, and the theater and mess buildings.[103]: 1-A  Winds also punctured the roofs and dislodged the doors of seven hangars.[109] The base suffered losses of $41⁄2 million,[97]: 9  more than any other point statewide,[107]: 1-A  hastening plans for its closure by November 30.[110][111] The storm also damaged hotel grounds and a golf course at the Cloister Inn,[109] and lopped off the upper portion of a water tower. Trees impeded traffic on the road tying the town and Delray Beach,[101] along with assorted debris and billboards. Winds also tore apart homes and extensively damaged local businesses.[107]: 17-A  High seas pounded the Cabana Club as well.[112]

At Hillsboro Inlet, the storm wrecked a dwelling at the light station and flooded a bridge,[113][114] generating a surge of 9.8 ft (3.0 m).[115][116] It battered Hillsboro Beach, damaging most windows and roofs, but with little structural damage. Shrub tangles coated the ground.[67] In Pompano the storm razed a school and 10 homes. It also damaged 200 other homes,[k][63] 25 seriously;[63] half a dozen school windows;[103]: 1-A  and the roof of a fire station.[59] Winds unroofed a feed store, and leveled part of a lumbershed and school.[117][103]: 1-A  The storm caused leaks due to damaged roofing, and threw leaf litter onto houses, leaving stains.[114] Rising water engulfed 25 trailers, dislocating residents.[101] Waves halved an apartment as well, tearing out part of its foundation,[103]: 1-A  and for days floods lingered at the municipal beach,[67] covering ground floors.[103]: 1-A  In Deerfield the storm dismantled a semi-trailer house,[62]: 16-A  forcing five people to flee.[103]: 6-A  A private citizen reported a gust to 150 mph (240 km/h).[59] Hundreds of lightweight farm dwellings slid off their foundations, but remained repairable;[67] however, the storm shattered a labor camp.[117] Waves also eroded a 150-foot (46 m) strip of shoreline, leveling six homes,[67] including a few multi-story houses. The surf fragmented a coastal road, exposing sewerage, and scattered furniture.[63][59]

In Fort Lauderdale the storm produced wind gusts of up to 127 mph (204 km/h),[118] causing more wind damage than at any other point. The winds unroofed homes and splintered utility poles,[119] though few buildings incurred severe damage,[59] with only one home being destroyed.[63] Citywide the storm damaged 188 buildings.[56]: 2  Losses reached $2 million, mostly to windows, roofs, and vegetation. Rain damaged $200,000 goods in an unroofed warehouse—the heaviest loss in the city. A storage shed at a marina caved in, burying 25 yachts.[63] Winds smashed plate glass in shops, even where shuttered, with losses totaling thousands of dollars. Fallen trees blocked streets, notably in and around Rio Vista.[62]: 1-A  Winds bent a WFTL mast and downed a few WGBS antennae outside the city.[61] The storm also warped latticework on fencing at Port Everglades and damaged buildings at Merle Fogg Field.[103]: 1-A [120] It mangled seven aircraft—a pair of Piper Cruisers and five Piper Cubs—at Bradley Field, along with a scoreboard and fences at a baseball park.[121]: 1  At the port, the T2 tanker Cedar Mountain broke free, colliding with a linkspan and the freighter James Elwood Jones. Both ships were mildly damaged and the linkspan unusable.[121]: 13  The worst loss was to the beachfront,[63] notably a 3-mile (4.8 km) stretch of Ocean Boulevard.[62]: 1-A  A road linking the city to the beach lay 4 ft (1.2 m) underwater, and waves surged over Las Olas Boulevard 1 mi (1.6 km) inland.[61]

In Oakland Park the storm leveled 15 homes and damaged 159.[63] In Hollywood it damaged four homes,[60] eight store windows,[103]: 1-A  and beachfront properties. Water and sand penetrated ground-level interiors, while high seas destroyed a mini-golf links and a grill.[122] Gusty winds downed trees, some of which fell onto houses. Waves mangled several small boats as well, and churned up copious silt, suffocating fish. Onlookers collected and ate fish cast ashore by the storm. Witnesses sighted many swallows, hawks, and other birds at the height of the storm.[123] At Dania the effects of the storm swept away an 800-foot (240 m) parking lot, coconut palms, and showers, while tearing up skylights and a seawall.[103]: 6-A  Sand buried half a park as well,[124] and saltwater intrusion disrupted tomato harvests.[16] Winds felled a few chickees at the reservation,[125] but razed just one home.[63] At Davie winds knocked down at least half the citrus crop,[126] with estimated losses of up to $6 million,[127] the most countywide.[128] In Hallandale floods submerged farms for miles,[103]: 1-A  and immersed cropland farther north in the county, ravaging early bean crops,[67] and imperiling fall planting.[59] Along the coast the storm almost reopened an old inlet.[129] Across Broward County the storm felled 250 power poles,[16] destroyed 27 homes,[67] and damaged 400 others.[58]

Losses in the Miami area totaled $4 million,[56]: 2  with the city sustaining $1 million in losses and neighboring Miami Beach $2 million, mostly to the seaside and hotels.[57] Wave heights of up to 25 ft (7.6 m) severed access between the two cities. At the latter the storm damaged windows and downed trees, signs,[56]: 2  lumber, and fencing, clogging streets and parks such as Ocean Drive, Lummus Park, and Collins Avenue. Flying debris and rough seas battered apartments, homes, and other buildings, wrecking several groynes. High tides damaged 50 of 87 cabanas at the MacFadden–Deauville, while forcing guests at other hotels to flee. Sand lay 3 to 4 ft (0.91 to 1.22 m) deep in oceanfront lots. Seawater inundated neighborhoods on the Venetian Islands, including Belle Isle, with depths of several feet.[82]: 2  In Miami the cyclone destroyed a dozen airplanes at the main airport.[56]: 2  Wind gusts reached 110 mph (180 km/h), filling streets with power lines, signage, trees, and other obstructions.[41] The winds damaged hundreds of incomplete homes as well,[130]: 12-A  and collapsed a WIOD radio tower.[131]: 12-A  In Hialeah winds blew at 123 mph (198 km/h), unroofing most of the grandstand, dispersing captive flamingos, and damaging ornamental vegetation, a paddock, and barns at the Hialeah Park Race Track. Losses at the track totaled $30,000.[82]: 1 [132] Winds shattered several windows in Coral Gables, but with little other property damage.[103]: 1-A  Across southern Dade County crop damage, though modest, centered on the Redlands, with the worst losses to avocados and limes near Homestead.[131]: 12-A 

Impact (Old)

A man battles strong winds during the hurricane at South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach
Front page of The Miami Daily News on September 18, regarding the hurricane's impact

As a result, its winds lightly damaged structures, destroying just 37 homes, mainly small, in Broward County, blowing hundreds more off their foundations, and unroofing lightweight structures in the Palm Beaches, while doing less damage to new buildings. Rainfall and surf did most damage.[67][133][16] Gusts of 127 to 150 mph (204 to 241 km/h) in the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood area tore off roofs and broke utility poles "like toothpicks".[134][118] At Hillsboro Beach homes suffered roof and window damage but survived.[67] At West Palm Beach, 40% of the initial $11⁄2 million in losses were to roofs. Gusts there reached 140 mph (230 km/h),[133][103] snapping many trees.[135]

Storm surge battering a seawall in the west side of North Bay Village in Miami during the hurricane

The storm ravaged the Boca Raton Army Air Field, doing $41⁄2 million in losses there and hastening its closure; on base the hurricane mostly destroyed makeshift structures, including 150 barracks, supply houses, warehouses, the post stockade, the fire station, and the theater and mess buildings.[136] At Hialeah, the 11,000-seat race track was mostly unroofed, its barns and paddocks damaged and many of its flamingos missing.[137] Gusts of 110 mph (180 km/h) flipped and wrecked aircraft at Miami International Airport, while destroying hangars. Across Miami the winds felled power lines, signage, awnings, and trees.[41]

A large storm tide inundated the beaches, peaking at 11 ft (3.4 m) at Hillsboro Inlet; similar levels occurred elsewhere from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, eroding long swaths of State Highway A1A. Washouts also occurred from Sunny Isles Beach to Baker's Haulover Inlet.[134][138][139] Near Lake Worth the ocean eliminated a 5-mile-long (8.0 km) segment of roadway,[140] and washed out a 1-mile (1.6 km) section at Delray Beach.[141] High tides reconfigured the coast, opening new channels and old inlets,[129] and "whitecaps broke" 1 mi (1.6 km) inland on Las Olas Boulevard. The waves unmoored a few freighters at Port Everglades.[16] A 6+1⁄2-foot-high (2.0 m) storm tide hit Bahia Mar Yacht Club, near the port.[142] Large waves battered apartments, homes, and many of the 334 resorts on Miami Beach,[137] causing severe flooding.[41] A 3-to-4-foot-deep (0.91 to 1.22 m) layer of sand covered many grounds, and nearby neighborhoods on the Venetian Islands, like Belle Isle, were flooded to a depth of several feet.[82] At Pompano floods lingered five days after the storm, covering the municipal beach and isolating the Hillsboro Inlet bridge.[67][114] The sea also left sand drifts at Dania Beach,[124] and swept away six homes at Deerfield.[67] Tides reached 5.8 ft (1.8 m) at Fort Pierce.[143]

Downed palms and utility poles in South Florida

As it crossed South Florida, the storm dropped prolific rains over a broad area,[20] peaking at 10.12 in (257 mm) at St. Lucie Lock,[41][144] and so worsened a rainier-than-average wet season.[l][147][16] In Miami, floods swamped 200 mi (320 km) of city streets, and in Miami Springs over half the homes. Homestead "resembled Venice".[41] Davie, having lost 35,000 citrus trees to floodwaters in past months, incurred devastating losses to groves and vegetable beds. In Fort Lauderdale the New River overran its banks, submerging downtown streets.[67][148] The storm ruined vegetable beds in Broward County,[59] delaying cultivation.[67] It yielded 6 to 8 in (150 to 200 mm) of rain over the Everglades, flooding farms and drowning cattle.[20][149] On Lake Okeechobee, the cyclone rivaled the 1928 hurricane,[150] imperiling—but not overtopping—the Herbert Hoover Dike.[151][20] Tides reached 21.6 ft (6.6 m) at Clewiston and 20.9 ft (6.4 m) at Moore Haven. Near the north shore, tides crested at 13 ft (4.0 m).[150][151] A 150-foot-long (46 m) section of dike collapsed, stranding 700 cattle and flooding 1,800 acres (730 ha) of cropland. On Conners Highway floodwaters and debris combined to obstruct motorists; the former seeped over at 30 spots and overwhelmed a 3,000-foot-long (910 m) stretch.[152][153]

Map of the total rainfall from the hurricane across the United States

On the state's west coast, sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km/h) buffeted Naples, which likely missed the worst conditions.[21] "Heavy" impacts affected the Fort Myers–Punta Gorda area, and 3 ft (0.91 m) of water covered the Sanibel Island Light grounds.[20] Tides at Everglades City peaked at 5+1⁄2 ft (1.7 m), forcing denizens into attics and flooding local streets.[41] However, winds blew offshore over Tampa Bay, resulting in below-normal tides and lesser damages.[154] In Pinellas County winds damaged boats and ripped off roof shingles. In St. Petersburg the storm and a walk-out strike coincided, disrupting trolley service for 15 hours.[155] In Fort Myers, hundreds of trees were prostrated and the city left powerless.[149] During the storm, two vessels, with a total combined crew of nine people, went missing; as of September 18, contact had been established with the former and the crew declared safe, but the remaining vessel, with a crew of two, had not been accounted for.[156] Additionally, six Cuban schooners carrying 150 crew members in all sheltered off Anclote Key late on September 17 and rode out the storm.[156] However, another Cuban vessel, the Antonio Cerdedo, foundered and sank off Fort Myers with a loss of seven of its crew members.[146] On September 19, a tornado generated by the storm struck Apalachicola, cutting a 3-mile (4.8 km) path, killing two people, and injuring 100 others. The tornado damaged or destroyed 58 homes over a 100-yard-wide (91 m) area, inflicting F3-level damage on the present Fujita scale.[157]

Gulf Coast of the United States

Moisant Airport flooded
Weather map of the hurricane approaching southeast Louisiana on September 19

Wind instruments at Moisant Field were disabled after recording sustained winds of 90 mph (140 km/h). Due to northerly winds, water overtopped sections of the levees on Lake Pontchartrain, leaving some lakefront streets "waist deep," above the 3-foot (0.91 m) delimiter. Local communications failed during the storm, so the New Orleans Weather Bureau office handed responsibility to its counterpart in Fort Worth, Texas, which issued public advisories instead.[55] The storm flooded a large part of Greater New Orleans: up to 2 ft (0.61 m) of water covered Moisant Field, forcing it to shut down, and up to 6 ft (1.8 m) in parts of Jefferson Parish.[158] The storm surge in Louisiana peaked at 9.8–11.2 ft (3.0–3.4 m) at Shell Beach on Lake Borgne and at 11.5 ft (3.5 m) in Ostrica.[m][158][160] In Orleans Parish the surge overtopped the 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) seawall—built by the Orleans Levee Board in the 1920s to stop a repeat of the 1915 hurricane there—and spread water over 9 mi2 (23 km2) of the parish, as far from Lake Pontchartrain as Gentilly Ridge. Water covered large parts of Jefferson Parish for as long as two weeks.

Subsidence settled behind the levees, forming "topographic bowls". These contained up to 6 ft (1.8 m) of water, which was dredged and pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain. An 11-foot (3.4 m) storm surge also hit remote areas of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.[161] Tides of up to 15.2 ft (4.6 m) impacted the western half of the Mississippi coast,[154] causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi. These recorded their highest tides on record until Hurricane Camille.[162] Although the storm was not a major hurricane at landfall, it still did significant damage, in part owing to the hydrology of the region. 12 people were killed in Louisiana and 22 in Mississippi.[94] In both states combined, the Red Cross reported that the storm destroyed 1,647 homes and damaged 25,000 others, mostly by water.[154] In New Orleans, the storm produced an estimated $100 million worth of damage to the city.[158]

Aftermath

In Florida, a federal state of emergency was declared by then-U.S. President Harry S. Truman.[119] The hurricane, a subsequent tropical storm, and an October hurricane generated one of the worst floods in South Florida's history, spurring the creation of the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District, along with a plan for new flood-control levees and canals.[163][164][16] In New Orleans, the United States Congress approved the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Project to assist ongoing efforts to increase the height of the existing levee along the lakeshore; to bolster the existing seawall in Orleans Parish, an 8-foot-high (2.4 m) levee was erected along the lakeside in Jefferson Parish.[165] New Orleans' Walnut Street Ferry was damaged and never replaced. If this same storm were to hit in 2006 it would probably do around $14.406 billion (2006 USD) in damages.[166]

See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    Tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin were not formally named prior to World War II. Storms such as this one were denoted by their attributes, including coincidence with Catholic saints' feasts. Starting in 1947 the United States Weather Bureau office in Miami, working with the military, informally applied the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet to Atlantic tropical cyclones; the first storm to be so identified in public advisories was Hurricane Fox in 1950,[3][4] when the names also first appear in Atlantic HURDAT.[5] The 1947 storm has also been colloquially called the Pompano Beach (or simply Pompano), Broward, or Southeast Florida storm, as well as the New Orleans hurricane.[6]
  2. [b]
    All damage totals are in 1947 United States dollars unless otherwise noted.
  3. [c]
    These were much lower than the original HURDAT, which depicted a hurricane over a week earlier, within a day of formation. (Conversely, meteorologist Ivan Ray Tannehill and the United States Weather Bureau first noted a storm on September 11.)[21]
  4. [d]
    The flight also logged winds of 144 mph (232 km/h),[21] but these were biased high, like other aircraft reports before the mid-1970s.[24]
  5. [e]
    Sustained winds are based on recordings taken 10 m (33 ft) above sea level.[31]
  6. [f]
    HURDAT formerly showed landfall farther north, near Boca Raton, with winds of 155 mph (250 km/h).[32]
  7. [g]
    HURDAT once listed a landfall value of 940 mb (28 inHg).[39][40]
  8. [h]
    Winds of Category 3 or higher last affected the county in 1950.[46]
  9. [i]
    A storm with winds over 125 mph (200 km/h) and a hurricane-force wind radius of at least 100 mi (160 km), besides high tides, low pressures, extensive damage, and casualties.[48] The 1947 storm was the sole "Great Hurricane" in the late 1940s.[19]
  10. [j]
    A storm with winds of at least 136 mph (219 km/h) and a barometric pressure of no more than 28.00 inHg (948 mb).[49]
  11. [k]
    Some sources list only 20[60]
  12. [l]
    Since March heavy rains had deluged the region; by July a "flood emergency" prevailed.[145] Before the storm the area was waterlogged.[16][146]
  13. [m]
    The completion of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in 1968 led to erosion, so Shell Beach is submerged today.[159]

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Sources

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