Hurricane Ike (1-15 September 2008) and Hurricane Categories
(Gabi Laske)
Hurricane Ike was the 9th named storm in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, the fifth hurricane and the third major hurricane. There were several deadly storms in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Fay killed 36 people in the Caribbean and Florida. Hurricane Gustav killed 138 in the Caribbean and U.S. (43). Gustav made landfall in Louisiana almost exactly 3 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The city had been evacuated and a group of remaining residents in the city was estimated at only 10,000 at some point. Hurricane Hanna killed 537 in Hispaniola (529 in Haiti) and U.S. (7). With 195 fatalities, Hurricane Ike was not the deadliest 2008 hurricane overall but the deadliest in the U.S. and a remarkable hurricane in several other respects. Perhaps the scariest of all was the fact that it made landfall near Galveston, TX, at the same location where a hurricane made landfall in 1900 and killed 6000 people as the deadliest natural disaster that ever struck the U.S..
Death Toll
Numbers on Wikipedia:
- total: 195: 103 direct and 92 indirect (mostly U.S.)
- Haiti: 74
- Dominican Republic: 2
- Cuba: 7
- U.S.: 112 killed; 34 missing
Damages
| Rank (wikipedia) | Hurricane | Year | Cost (2008 USD)1 | Wikipedia top ten2 |
| 1 | Katrina | 2005 | $108 billion | $108 billion |
| 3 | Ike | 2008 | $29.5 billion | $37.6 billion |
| 2 | Andrew | 1992 | $26.5 billion | $40.7 billion |
| 4 | Wilma | 2005 | $21 billion | $29.1 billion |
| 5 | Charley | 2004 | $15.1 billion | $18.6 billion |
| 6 | Ivan | 2004 | $18.8 billion | $18.1 billion |
| 7 | Agnes | 1972 | | $15.2 billion |
| 8 | Hugo | 1989 | | $14.1 billion |
| 9 | Rita | 2005 | $12 billion | $10.5 billion |
| 10 | Frances | 2004 | $9.5 billion | $10.4 billion |
1source: NOAA
2source: various
NB: Ike caused significant damage to the oil-producing infrastructure. Lecture 1 also lists some other hurricanes in the list of most costly events and the $$ numbers may vary from the ones given here. Additional costly hurricanes were the notorious Ivan (unpredictable path and significant damage to oil infrastructure) in 2004 and Wilma and Rita in 2005.
Wind Speed and the Saffir-Simpson Scale
Ike's History and Far-Reaching Effect
Remnants of the storm merged with a large cold front that was moving in from the west. The combined unstable air then became an extratropical storm system wreaking havoc on September 14th and 15th. The system moved across the Midwest and brought heavy rain, causing almost half of the total death toll attributed to Ike (indirect fatalities). States affected include Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Canada was also affected with record-breaking rain in Ontario.