50 Year Anniversary of Hurricane Donna

Today through the weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Donna, a history-making storm which brought major devastation to parts of Southwest Florida in 1960. Hurricane Donna was a dangerous Cape Verde type hurricane...meaning the system first began development near the west coast of Africa's Cape Verde Islands. The inclement weather, of the tropical disturbance that later became Donna, may have caused the crash of a French airliner attempting to land at an airport in Dakar, Senegal.

On it's route through the Atlantic, Hurricane Donna impacted the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the southeastern Bahamas with Donna's first U.S. landfall in Marathon on the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm. Donna then made a turn to the north and paralleled the Southwest Florida coastline until it made a second landfall in between Naples and Ft. Myers on September 10th, again as a powerful Category 4 hurricane. 92 mph winds were reported in Ft. Myers with gusts to 121 mph and winds likely gusted to near 150 mph in Naples and in Everglades City! Donna demolished the Naples Fishing Pier that had withstood all previous hurricanes since it's construction in 1888.

Hurricane Donna brought 11 feet of storm surge to the coast of SWFL with the storm tide pushing to the center of Naples. Donna was a slow-moving hurricane, dumping an estimated 7+ inches of rain across our area...estimated because nearly all of the rain gauges in Ft. Myers and points south were either blown away or tipped over by the powerful winds. Donna's impacts were devastating for the Everglades where 50-90% of the foliage was torn away and 35% of the white heron population was killed.

Hurricane Donna went on to cross the Florida peninsula and re-emerged into the Atlantic near Daytona Beach. Donna made another landfall at Topsail Beach, NC as a Category 2 hurricane. The storm continued up and off-shore of the Eastern Seaboard bringing 75 mph wind gusts to Norfolk, VA and 100 mph wind gusts to Wildwood on the NJ coast, making a final landfall on eastern Long Island as strong Category 1 with winds near 95 mph. Hurricane Donna then continued northeastward through New England where wind gusts to 79 mph were reported in Boston, making Donna the only hurricane on record to produce hurricane-force winds in Florida, the Mid-Atlantic states, and New England.

Hurricane Donna holds the record for maintaining major hurricane status in the Atlantic Basin for the longest period of time, as for nine days, from September 2nd to 11th, Donna consistently had maximum sustained winds of at least 115 mph, and was a Category 5 at it's strongest over the open Atlantic. Donna is still one of the ten costliest U.S. hurricanes with damages estimated at 6.6 billion in 2010 dollars. The name Donna was retired and replaced with Dora in 1964.

For more on Hurricane Donna...

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mfl/?n=donna

Have a great day,
Lauren