Hurricane Gilbert
Hurricane Gilbert remains one of the largest tropical cyclones to ever hit the US eastern seaboard and brought widespread destruction to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. In total, 15 different countries were affected by the storm which hit the area in early September 1988. The hurricane became famous for the great difficulty it caused weather forecasters due to its erratic movement, the number of predicted paths it could take and its constantly fluctuating intensity. Luckily it was an occasion that they got right and in doing so saved many lives.
The origins of the Gilbert can be traced back to an elongated zone of low pressure that left the West coast of Africa on the 3rd September. Over the subsequent days, the low pressure zone crossed the tropical Atlantic where it became warmer, wetter and picked up the familiar ‘spin’ associated with tropical cyclones. The weather system remained disorganised until the National Hurricane Center recognised it as a tropical depression located 400 miles off the coast of Barbados on the 9th September. The storm intensified rapidly to become a tropical storm and eventually a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale on the 12th September. The storm made its first landfall in Jamaica.
The storm travelled the whole length of the island moving in a westerly direction. The storm produced a storm surge of 6m in some areas and brought up to 32 inches of rain causing severe flash floods. Wind speed reached up to 130 mph which knocked down most power cables on the island and tore the roofs of 80% of the houses in the capital Kingston. All in all, 49 people were left dead and 500,000 homeless. The predicted cost of the storm was said to be approximately $4 billion and it remains the worst natural disaster to ever affect Jamaica.
Gilbert then left Jamaica and headed West. The true extent of the power of the storm was only really realised after it hit Jamaica. This led to major hurricane warnings to be issued for the Cayman
The origins of the Gilbert can be traced back to an elongated zone of low pressure that left the West coast of Africa on the 3rd September. Over the subsequent days, the low pressure zone crossed the tropical Atlantic where it became warmer, wetter and picked up the familiar ‘spin’ associated with tropical cyclones. The weather system remained disorganised until the National Hurricane Center recognised it as a tropical depression located 400 miles off the coast of Barbados on the 9th September. The storm intensified rapidly to become a tropical storm and eventually a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale on the 12th September. The storm made its first landfall in Jamaica.
The storm travelled the whole length of the island moving in a westerly direction. The storm produced a storm surge of 6m in some areas and brought up to 32 inches of rain causing severe flash floods. Wind speed reached up to 130 mph which knocked down most power cables on the island and tore the roofs of 80% of the houses in the capital Kingston. All in all, 49 people were left dead and 500,000 homeless. The predicted cost of the storm was said to be approximately $4 billion and it remains the worst natural disaster to ever affect Jamaica.
Gilbert then left Jamaica and headed West. The true extent of the power of the storm was only really realised after it hit Jamaica. This led to major hurricane warnings to be issued for the Cayman