1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
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 Storm path |
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| Duration | Sept. 4 - 21, 1947 |
| Highest winds | 160 mph (260 km/h) sustained |
| Damages | $930 million (2000 USD) [1] |
| Fatalities | 51 direct |
| Areas affected | Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi |
| Part of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season | |
The Fort Lauderdale Hurricane (or Pompano Beach Hurricane or Forgotten Hurricane) was an intense category 5 hurricane that affected Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi in September of 1947. It killed 51 people and caused $110 million (1947 USD) in damage.
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Formation
The hurricane was the fourth tropical system and the third hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin during the 1947 hurricane season. It formed as a Cape Verde-type hurricane and strengthened quickly off the coast of Africa. Hurricane analysis suggests it achieved tropical storm status on September 4, and became a hurricane about a day later. It traveled westward along the 15th parallel, then dipped southwestward before turning northwest, slowly but steadily strengthening as it did so. Unlike most intense hurricanes, it featured a slow, even rise in strength from Tropical Storm status to Category 5 strength with little fluctuation in intensity. It passed north of the Bahamas and then slowed down, turned west, and continued strengthening.
By September 16 the hurricane peaked at Category 5 status north of Grand Bahama. The storm skirted over the northern portion of Abaco Island, where a weather station claimed a wind reading of 160 mph (260 km/h) (but note all such wind measurements are suspect). As the storm passed over the Gulf Stream, it lost some strength before landfall.
Impact on Southern Florida
The storm made landfall on September 17 near Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a minimal category 4 hurricane. Wind gusts of up to 155 mph, with sustained winds in excess of 120 mph, were reported from Hillsboro Lighthouse near Pompano Beach [2]; until Hurricane Andrew in 1992, this storm held the Florida record for the highest observed wind speed. The lowest pressure reading, however, was only 27.97 inHg (947 mbar) (modern estimates suggest the pressure at landfall was around 940 mbar). An 11 foot storm surge was reported along the coast. The hurricane was unusually large: some reports indicate hurricane-force winds may have extended 120 miles out from the eye center (from Cape Canaveral to Coral Gables). The storm proceeded due west across the peninsula, passing over Sanibel Island and out into the Gulf of Mexico.
At Lake Okeechobee a very large storm surge (approximately 20 feet) was reported along the south shore between Clewiston and Moore Haven, nearly overrunning the Herbert Hoover Dike that surrounded the lake. Unlike in the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. the dike held and a much larger catastrophe was prevented. However this 1947 storm inspired a further strengthening of the dike in the 1960s.
The storm was also slow-moving (about 10 mph) and dropped a prodigious amount of rain over the area - records for single-month rainfall were set in many areas, some of which still stand today (others were broken in 1992 or 2004), and flooding was among the worst in southern Florida's history [3]. The storm killed 17 people in Florida.
Impact on the Gulf Coast
The hurricane weakened over Florida, then continued, likely as a category 1 storm, along a track very similar to that of Hurricane Andrew. It made landfall again in Louisiana, with hurricane force winds measured at 6am along the coast on 19 September, and in New Orleans two hours later. The eye of the hurricane passed directly over New Orleans, with gusts estimated at 125 miles per hour. Much of the city flooded, with two feet of water shutting down Moisant Airport, and six feet of water in parts of Jefferson Parish. The storm produced an estimated 100 million United States dollars worth of damage to the city.
A 12 foot storm surge was reported along the western half of the Mississippi coastline, causing heavy damage in Bay St. Louis (which received a 15 foot storm surge), Gulfport, and Biloxi.
Although weaker at its second landfall, the hydrology of this location makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 12 people were killed in Louisiana and 22 in Mississippi.
See also
The Forgotten Hurricane
Coming as it did shortly after the end of World War II and at the start of the Cold War, and striking an area that had recently been hit by other, even more destructive hurricanes, this hurricane was largely forgotten. Building codes and hurricane awareness had improved in Florida since the destructive hurricanes of the 1920s, limiting both damage and loss of life. Yet if this same storm were to hit today it would probably do around $11.72 billion (2004 USD) in damages [4].
