Hurricane Hattie

Hattie was one of the strongest and deadliest tropical cyclones of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. It became a Category 5 hurricane on October 28, making it the second-strongest hurricane of the year. It weakened to Category 4 before making landfall south of Belize City on October 31. It then weakened rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1.

About Hurricane Hattie in brief

Hurricane Hattie was one of the strongest and deadliest tropical cyclones of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season. Hattie originated from an area of low pressure that strengthened into a tropical storm over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 27. The storm quickly became a hurricane and later major hurricane the following day. It weakened to Category 4 before making landfall south of Belize City on October 31. It then weakened rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1. It was initially forecast to continue north and strike Cuba, prompting evacuations on the island. While turning west, Hattie dropped heavy rainfall of up to 11. 5 in on Grand Cayman. Overall, the storm caused about USD 60 million in losses and 307 deaths in the territory. It also killed 11 people elsewhere in Central America. It made it the latest hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to reach Category 5 status until a re-analysis of the 1932 Hurricane Four revealed that Hattie had reached the status of a hurricane on November 1. The hurricane was the ninth tropical storm, seventh hurricane, fifth major hurricane, and second Category 5 of the season. It produced hurricane-force winds and caused one death on San Andres Island. The destruction was so severe that it prompted the government to relocate inland to a new city, Belmopan. It left more than 10,000 people homeless, leaving the territory governor estimated that 70% of the buildings in the city had been damaged, leaving more than 8,000 homeless.

It is the only hurricane to make landfall in Belize, which was at the time known as British Honduras, and to cause more deaths than the 1931 hurricane that killed 2,000. It caused about $100 million in damage and left 11 people dead in the Central American country. It became a Category 5 hurricane on October 28, making it the second-strongest hurricane of the year. It later weakened to a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph. It hit the Cayman Islands on October 30, passing between the Caymans and the Swan Islands on the Florida coast. It dissipated on November1. The strongest hurricane of 1961 was Hurricane Donna, which made landfall in Florida on October 26. It had sustained winds as high as 140 mph and was the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean since Hurricane Donna in 1961. It killed more than 1,200 people in the United States and Puerto Rico, mostly in the Southwestern United States, as well as a handful of people in Central and South American countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador. It has been the most powerful hurricane to hit Belize since Hattie in 1961, when it made landfall on October 29. It reached a peak intensity of 165mph about 190 mi east of the border of Mexico and Mexico and the British-Mexico border of the Mexican-American border on October 25. It died on November 2.

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