| Date: |
Monday, January 1, 2001
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| Question/Topic: |
Hurricanes - Tallahassee
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| Answer/Pointer: |
Oct. 5, 1842 - Damage inTallahassee was estimated at $500,000; buildings lost roots and windows. Roads were blocked by fallen trees.
Aug. 22, 1850 - This hurricane came ashore near Cape San Blas, then turned northeast. In Tallahassee, the stormed lasted from 6 p.m. on Aug. 22
until sunrise on Sunday, Aug. 24. The Tallahassee Sentinel reported that "tall forest oaks were uprooted or rudely snapped asunder; China trees stood
no chance, fences were prostrated, tin roofing peeled up like paper, roofs turn up, brick bats flying; and altogether such a general scatteration
taking place as is not often seen."
Oct. 9, 1852 - St. Marks and Newport suffered the most damage from this fast-moving storm, which passed through Tallahassee in only six hours.
Winds again leveled trees, and at the Capitol a large chimney crashed through the roof and onto the floor of the Senate chamber.
June 21 and June 30, 1886. These were two of three hurricanes to come ashore in the Big Bend that year. Both caused heavy damage in Tallahassee.
In the first, winds of well over 100 mph were reported; more trees fell in the second storm, which arrived just nine days later with 80 mpl winds.
Oct. 7, 1941 - This unnamed storm came ashore at Carrabelle, but high winds downed trees and power lines in Tallahassee. With the power out, the
Democrat published 6,000 copies of an eight-page storm edition, which was written on typewriters, then mimeographed and stapled together.
Many cars were smashed by falling trees, and new cars were hard to come by because factories already had switched to wartime production.
Sept. 11, 1964: Dora. - Dora passed across North Florida from the east, and by the time it reached Tallahassee it had lost most of its power. Wind
gusts hit only 44 mph, though the city did set a record for low barometric pressure (29.29 inches).
August. 31, 1985: Elena. - This hurricane never came ashore in Florida, but as it wandered in the gulf it created winds that felled trees and power lines
and damaged about 50 cars in Tallahassee.
Nov. 21, 1985: Kate. - This is THE storm that Tallahasseeans today talk about. This rare Novembeer storm did most of its damage east of where it came
ashore near Mexico Beach. But it still did savage work in Tallahassee: Winds gusted to 87 mph; more than 500 homes were damaged and 200 miles
of electrical wires downed, causing outages for 95 percent of the electric customers. Kate even peeled off the Civic Center's roof in mid-sermon.
Although chain saws created 400 truckloads of limbs a day, curbside logjames didn't disappear until dogwoods bloomed in the spring.
Oct. 4, 1995: Opal. - Although Opal wreaked havoc farther west in the Panhandle, its impact was still felt in Tallahassee. Hotels and motels were
jammed by evacuees seeking rooms in a city already packed with fans here for the FSU-Miami football game.
(Tallahassee Democrat, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2000, p. 11A, from "Florida's Hurricane History," by Jay Barnes (R+Circ) 551.552 Bar)
See: Ante-bellum Tallahassee, by Bertram H. Groene, 975.9881 Gro, p. 91, for other hurricanes and weather that struck the greater
Tallahassee area.
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| Librarian: |
LCLCPL
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| Comments: |
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