Do you have a hurricane in your family history?Have you or any of your ancestors had the experience of living through a hurricane?
In the midst of an active and destructive hurricane season in 2017, I wondered if anyone had ancestors that had a significant experience living through a hurricane. If so, there is a lot of information available to help you document that experience in your family history.
You can find out interesting facts about individual hurricanes, comparisons between hurricanes, how to measurement hurricanes, meteorological history, and pictures and maps that will help you tell your story.
The National Hurricane Center has records going back at least to 1900. Some of these major historical hurricanes have a lot of information available that will help you better understand the experience of your ancestor. Impact, amount of damages, the strength of the wind, the height of the storm surge, and death tolls are all facts that might be recorded. You might find out the track of the storm-where and when it hit landfall. Click on educational resources, then historical hurricane summaries. Then click on a hurricane of interest.
Interesting facts about hurricanes
An interesting fact might add to your story. For the 1926 Miami Hurricane, I found out that
“when the eye moved over the city, many came outside to assess what happened. Unaware that the second half of the storm was coming, many were killed despite warnings from city officials to get back inside.”
If your ancestor died in that storm, that fact might give you a little more information about why they might have died. While the idea of an ‘eye’ of the hurricane seems pretty well known today, back then it was an unknown concept.
Other interesting facts:
Hurricane Diane was called the first billion-dollar hurricane (August 1955)
Hurricane Inez was known as “The Crazy One” because of its erratic path of death and destruction (October 1966)
Hurricane Beulah produced about 150 tornadoes after making landfall, the most ever produced on record by a tropical system. (1967)
Compare one hurricane to another
You could also compare that hurricane with others. Maybe it had higher winds but less storm surge. Or maybe it caused more damage but had fewer deaths. What if it was a record breaker?
The Galveston hurricane of 1900 estimated 6000-12,000 deaths, whereas Hurricane Katrina recorded about 1200 deaths and Hurricane Sandy under 250.
How is a hurricane measured?
Information about the measurements of the hurricane can give the readers of your family history a better understanding of what your ancestor might have experienced in the storm.
Hurricane winds are measured using the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. The five categories are determined by wind speeds. This chart does not address the potential for other hurricane-related impacts, such as storm surge, rainfall-induced floods, and tornados created by the storm. It also does not take into consideration the duration of the storm, nor local building codes.
This page also includes an animated visualization of wind damage that is amazing and horrifying to watch.
You might choose to discuss when a hurricane is called a typhoon or cyclone. Or you could discuss the spiral nature of the storm and how the ‘eye’ is at the center.
It is called making landfall when it reaches land. When it is over land, its fuel source is gone and it begins to wane, although rains may continue, all information that may be interesting to your readers.
What is a hurricane’s meteorological history?
You can even find the meteorological history of some storms, as with Hurricane Katrina, which might include the track of the hurricane, when it hit hurricane status (from a tropical depression), and where is originated and dissipated.
Let pictures tell the story
Pictures and maps prepared by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and other government agencies are in the public domain (FEMA requests that the photographer is cited). If a picture is worth a thousand words, these maps and pictures can give a clear picture to your readers of the storm and its aftermath.
Here is a photo showing the track of Hurricane Katrina.
Storm surge is the measure of the amount of water rising above what would be expected due to normal tide movement. Many casualties in these storms are due to storm surge. This is a picture of the storm surge for the 1900 Galveston hurricane, named before hurricanes were given names.
A FEMA map shows all of Hurricane Katrina’s disaster areas.
A NOAA map shows where the levees were breached. The inadequate floodwalls breached in more than 50 locations, during Hurricane Katrina.
Photos indicating damage by the storms can give an idea of the massive problems faced by your ancestors or relatives.
There is a lot of information available, including pictures and maps, that can help you tell the story if your ancestor has experienced a hurricane. Has anyone in your family had that experience?
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