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On This Day: Hurricane Betsy Makes Landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane
September 7, 2020 at 02:43 PM EDT
By WeatherBug's Christopher Smith
Fifty-five years ago today the second named Atlantic storm of the season was on a collision course with the southern Louisiana coast.
On September 8, 1965, the Florida Keys were ravaged by major Hurricane Betsy. South Florida also saw the brunt of the damage thanks to high winds and storm surge. It then headed northwest and pounded the Louisiana coast with sustained winds of 155 mph, making it a high-end Category 4 major hurricane at landfall early on September 10 due south of New Orleans in Grand Isle, La.
As Hurricane Betsy came ashore, its strong winds created a destructive storm surge. Many levees around the city of New Orleans failed, causing large parts of the city to be flooded.
The problems with Hurricane Betsy extended beyond its wind and surge at landfall. Parts of southeast Louisiana picked up more than a foot of rain from Betsy, and the heavy rain spread inland. Hurricane Betsy weakened as it pushed onshore, but it dumped deep, tropical moisture up the Mississippi Valley. A large footprint of five inches or more fell from Louisiana up through eastern Arkansas and southeast Missouri.
By the time Hurricane Betsy was finished, more than 80 lives were lost and an estimated $1.4 billion in damage had been done. Hurricane Betsy’s name was retired, meaning there will not be a tropical system in the Atlantic Basin given the name Besty again.
Hurricane Betsy was only the second named storm of the 1965 Hurricane Season, which warranted 10 named storms. Betsy was the only hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. during the season, but it serves as a reminder to always be prepared as it only takes one hurricane strike to cause an array of problems each year.
Sources: NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HRD), Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT), Weather Prediction Center (WPC), nhc.noaa.gov
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Story Image: Flooded areas of New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), after the hurricane "Betsy" in September 1965 (Wikimedia Commons).
On September 8, 1965, the Florida Keys were ravaged by major Hurricane Betsy. South Florida also saw the brunt of the damage thanks to high winds and storm surge. It then headed northwest and pounded the Louisiana coast with sustained winds of 155 mph, making it a high-end Category 4 major hurricane at landfall early on September 10 due south of New Orleans in Grand Isle, La.
As Hurricane Betsy came ashore, its strong winds created a destructive storm surge. Many levees around the city of New Orleans failed, causing large parts of the city to be flooded.
The problems with Hurricane Betsy extended beyond its wind and surge at landfall. Parts of southeast Louisiana picked up more than a foot of rain from Betsy, and the heavy rain spread inland. Hurricane Betsy weakened as it pushed onshore, but it dumped deep, tropical moisture up the Mississippi Valley. A large footprint of five inches or more fell from Louisiana up through eastern Arkansas and southeast Missouri.
By the time Hurricane Betsy was finished, more than 80 lives were lost and an estimated $1.4 billion in damage had been done. Hurricane Betsy’s name was retired, meaning there will not be a tropical system in the Atlantic Basin given the name Besty again.
Hurricane Betsy was only the second named storm of the 1965 Hurricane Season, which warranted 10 named storms. Betsy was the only hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. during the season, but it serves as a reminder to always be prepared as it only takes one hurricane strike to cause an array of problems each year.
Sources: NOAA Hurricane Research Division (HRD), Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT), Weather Prediction Center (WPC), nhc.noaa.gov
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Story Image: Flooded areas of New Orleans, Louisiana (USA), after the hurricane "Betsy" in September 1965 (Wikimedia Commons).