Hurricane Alice (June 1954)
| Category 1 hurricane ( SSHWS ) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Emergence | June 24, 1954 | |
| resolution | June 26, 1954 | |
|
Peak wind speed |
|
|
| Lowest air pressure | Unknown | |
| dead | 55-153 | |
| Property damage | over $ 2 million (1954) | |
|
Affected areas |
Mexico , Texas | |
| Season overview: 1954 Atlantic hurricane season |
||
Hurricane Alice was a hurricane that struck northern Mexico and southern Texas in June 1954, killing at least 55 people. Hurricane Alice is most often thought of in connection with the worst flooding on the Rio Grande on record , destroying bridges and levees and destroying numerous towns along the river's banks. The hurricane was one of two storms that were named Alice that year. According to the criteria of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale developed later, Hurricane Alice was a Category 1 hurricane.
Storm course
Alice probably originated as a tropical storm on June 24th in the Bahía de Campeche , about halfway between the Yucatán Peninsula and the coast of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas . The storm moved to the northwest. In the western Gulf of Mexico , the storm quickly gained strength and intensified into a hurricane on June 25. The hurricane approached the coastline at the mouth of the Rio Grande on the border between the United States and Mexico, and eventually landed just south of the border in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Alice followed roughly the Rio Grande inland and, weakening, the storm moved over Laredo , Texas late on June 25th and dispersed over southern Texas early on June 26th.
Effects
Before Alice reached the coast, about 50 Girl Scouts were evacuated to Brownsville. The residents of Padre Island were also brought to safety, but generally the residents in the train path of the storm were unprepared because it had suddenly formed. The Weather Bureau issued warnings of a northwest storm in the Brownsville area and recommended that smaller craft remain in port. The damage along the coast around the landfall was relatively minor. Wind speeds reached 100 km / h in Brownsville, and flying debris injured one person. Across the United States-Mexico border in Matamoros , Tamaulipas, minor damage was reported and one person was killed by a ripped power line. A couple of shrimp fishing boats were thrown ashore by the strong wind. Although there was later significant inland flooding , a dam along the Rio Grande prevented extensive flooding in the Brownsville area.
Most of the damage caused by Alice was caused by continued heavy rain in upstate Texas, Tamaulipas, and Coahuila ; this was facilitated by the previous drought in the area , which had made the soil susceptible to soil erosion . Estimates of 12-hour rainfall range from 560mm to 1300mm, and the general estimate of 890mm of rainfall in 24 hours, close to the 1921 record for an unnamed Texas hurricane. However, a report from 2010 indicates that the maximum amount of rain was measured at 611 mm for pandals , of which 407 mm fell within 24 hours.
The heaviest rainfall from the storm occurred in a small area near the Pecos River . A measuring point along the Johnson Draw reported 270 mm of precipitation after almost no rain had fallen for three years. In some places in western Texas it rained more than the annual average. This contributed to a severe flood on the Pecos River, which reached a water level of 16.8 m in Pandale. The tide swept away a group of fishermen in Sheffield and at one point about 15 km north of Pandale, killing four people. Further downstream, the river reached its highest level at 29.35 m, washing away a road and three railway bridges. Due to the interruption of the railway lines, the Sunset Limited could not continue its journey, and the passengers went to Langtry to safety. A Southern Pacific Company train was also trapped in the flood and its passengers had to be rescued by helicopter . The highest water level runoff was estimated to be 26,800 m³ / s, and the International Boundary and Water Commission described this value as "probably the greatest [achieved] runoff in a catchment of this size in the United States". The heavy rainfall dumped over southern Texas and northern Mexico from Alice caused flash floods in the hinterland . Ozona , Texas was the most affected by the flooding city, and the damage was to two million dollars US , estimated (in prices of 1954 dollars in today's prices around 18.99 million). 15 people were killed in the city when, in the early morning of June 25, a “wall of water” up to nine meters high spilled out of a mostly dry watercourse through most of the city. Around a third of Ozona's residents had to be removed and a large proportion of the livestock drowned. About 500 families in the city were left homeless by the flood . Military helicopters were used to rescue people trapped in the water. At least seven cities were affected by the hurricane-triggered flooding on both sides of the border, including Lamesa and Laredo , which were badly affected by flash floods.
The Rio Grande rose sharply near the cities of Eagle Pass , Texas and Piedras Negras , Coahuila. While Eagle Pass was being evacuated, it did not happen in Piedras Negras. Both cities were completely flooded and the dike that was supposed to protect Piedras Negras was washed away. At least 38 or 39 people were killed after the dike collapsed at Piedras Negras. In Eagle Pass, property damage occurred when the commercial district was flooded over 2.5 m high. Before the onset of the storm, authorities assumed a moderate flood, the peak of which would be below the 1948 flood, but the river culminated in Laredo, Texas, with a water level of 19 meters, at least three meters higher than the previous record flood. The flood caused the sewage treatment plants to fail, so that the drinking water supply was interrupted until July 1st. The international bridge connecting Laredo and Nuevo Laredo was washed away. Although the city on the Mexican side was badly affected, there was no loss of life in either of these cities due to timely evacuations. The flood along the Rio Grande was the highest since 1865, and the annuality of the event is assumed to be 2000 years. Around 12,000 people had to flee Ciudad Acuña because of the flooding , where the flood left severe damage.
The total death toll varies from 55 to 153. In Texas, between 16 and 38 people died. The data for Mexico, where the records from that period are less complete, vary more widely. Several of the victims registered in Texas were attempting to enter the United States illegally, and as a result, these victims were not counted. Total data for the property damage is not available, but it is known that the flood caused by Alice caused significant crop failures , especially for cotton .
consequences
The disastrous floods that caused Hurricane Alice along the Rio Grande accelerated the United States-Mexico joint Amistad Dam project , a series of flood control dams designed to prevent such disasters from occurring in the future. The project, which had been in the planning stage for decades, was finally tackled in 1960.
The remaining ponds after the flood had run down led to an increase in the incidence of mosquitoes in Texas, which was due to the widespread spraying of larvicides by airplanes. On July 1, the floodplain in South Texas was declared a disaster area. The residents of Laredo, Texas provided the residents of the twin city of Nuevo Laredo in Mexico with food and drinking water. Emergency shelters were made available by the Mexican government, and the US authorities on the Texan side delivered typhus vaccines , water treatment tablets and insecticides to the cities on the Rio Grande. The supply of clean drinking water was finally restored in Laredo on July 12th, but disaster relief workers remained entrusted with dealing with the consequences until September 3rd. The US Air Force, Navy and Army were involved in the emergency response with 21 helicopters. A temporary bridge was opened to traffic on July 10th between Eagle Pass and Piedro Negro .
The name Alice was not removed from the list of tropical cyclone names ; it was used again in the same year and then again during the 1973 Atlantic hurricane season . After the name lists were changed, the name was no longer used in the Atlantic basin.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Walter R. Davis: Hurricanes of 1954 (PDF; 17.7 MB) In: Monthly Weather Review . United States Department of Commerce . 370, December 1954. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ First Hurricane is Reported (English) . June 23, 1954. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Gale Hits Mexico (English) . In: The Victoria Advocate , June 23, 1954. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Evil Alice . In: Time Magazine . July 1954. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Daniel Haulman: The United States Air Force and Humanitarian Airlift Operations 1947-1994 ( English , PDF, 3.2 MB) Air Force History and Museums Program. 1998. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ^ A b John C. Freeman: Texas Tropical Storms and Hurricanes . Weather Research Center. 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ^ John Metz: Weather Outlook for Texas, 2006 (PDF) National Weather Service (NWS). 2006. Archived from the original on September 21, 2006. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 6, 2007.
- ^ A b David Roth: Hurricane Alice - June 24-27, 1954 . Hydrometeorological Prediction Center . January 13, 2010. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e Jonathan Burnett: Flash floods in Texas ( English ). Texas A&M University Press, 2008, ISBN 1-58444-590-8 , pp. 151-161 (accessed May 12, 2012).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j F. J. Von Zuben, Jr., et al .: Public Health Disaster Aid in the Rio Grande Flood of 1954 . In: Public Health Reports . 72, No. 11, November 1957. PMID 13485295 . PMC 2031412 (free full text).
- ↑ a b c Rio Grande Floods 7 Towns; 6 Die, Thousand Homeless (English) . In: Sarasota Herald-Tribune . Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ Rio Grande in Biggest Flood Ever (English) . In: Greensburg Daily Tribune , June 29, 1954. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ^ John Nielsen-Gammon: Texas and Oklahoma's Greatest Hits ( English ) Texas Office of the State Climatologist. April 1, 2004. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ^ The Great Acuña Flood of 1954 ( English ) Del Rio Chamber of Commerce . 2006. Archived from the original on February 25, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
