The 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane was a powerful tropical cyclone that devastated much of the East Coast of the United States. At least 202 people died and the storm caused more than USD 9.6 million in damage across the U.S. and Canada. The hurricane razed 5,000 sq mi of dense pine forests in northern Florida, crippling the turpentine industry, and left thousands of individuals homeless.
About 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane in brief
The 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that devastated much of the East Coast of the United States. The storm’s rapid movement allowed it to maintain much of its intensity after landfall and cause significant damage over a broad area. It became one of the costliest United States hurricanes at the time. At least 202 people died and the storm caused more than USD 9.6 million in damage across the U.S. and Canada. The hurricane razed 5,000 sq mi of dense pine forests in northern Florida, crippling the turpentine industry, and left thousands of individuals homeless. It also destroyed many of the red cedar trees that played an important role in the economy of the region. Its track has been re-analyzed multiple times since the early 20th century and has been consistent with the effects of a Category 1 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson scale. It entered the Gulf of Mexico as the equivalent of a major hurricane, and struck the Cedar Keys early on the morning of September 29 with winds of 125 mph. In Savannah, a 45-minute onslaught of fierce winds unroofed thousands of structures, and the Savannah River saw dozens of wrecked boats. It then tracked through mostly rural sectors of North Carolina and did significant wind damage in the Raleigh–Durham area. Although the hurricane was weakening and transitioning into an extratropical cyclone late on September 29, its rapid forward movement contributed to high wind velocities across parts of the Mid-Atlantic states, with gusts approaching 100 mph.
In Virginia, cities and agricultural districts alike suffered extensive damage. Heavy rainfall reached west into Ohio and the hurricane’s remnants wrought havoc on shipping in the Great Lakes. In Washington, D. C., thousands of trees were uprooted or snapped, communications were severed, and localized streaks of violent gusts damaged many public and private buildings. It demolished a 5,390 ft bridge over the Susquehanna River, while the Gettysburg Battlefield lost hundreds of trees, a few of which struck and damaged historical monuments. It caused the failure of an earthen dam upstream from Staunton, unleashing a torrent of water that swept houses from their foundations and ravaged the town’s commercial district. It ravaged southeastern Georgia and the Sea Islands, passing the Caribbean Sea as a low-end hurricane on September 25. The cyclone turned northward, and moved through the Yucatán Channel on September 28. It made landfall on Cedar Key, Florida, with a minimum pressure of 960mb, central pressure of 1,960mb, on the early morning of the September 29. It was the fourth tropical storm of the 1896 Atlantic hurricane season, and formed by September 22, likely from a tropical wave, before crossing the Caribbean Sea just south of the Greater Antilles. As the storm entered the Leeward Islands as a tropical storm, it likely originated from a Tropical wave that exited the western coast of Africa.
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This page is based on the article 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
