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Hurricane Inez

Hurricane Inez was a deadly and powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that carved an erratic path through the Lesser Antilles, Hispaniola, Cuba, the Bahamas, Florida, and Mexico in 1966. Forming unusually far east for late in the season, Inez is among the deadliest hurricanes on record, with an approximate death toll of over 1,000 people across several Caribbean countries. In addition to being exceptionally deadly and intense, Inez was the first solitary storm on record to affect the West Indies, Bahamas, Florida, and Mexico all on one track.

Meteorological history

Inez originated as a weak tropical wave that formed off the west coast of Africa on September 18. The disturbance was tracked west-southwestward by satellite, and the cloud mass organized into a tropical depression on the 21st in the central tropical Atlantic. The depression began to move west-northwest on the 23rd, with little intensification until the afternoon of September 24, when significant development began to occur and the depression was upgraded to Tropical Storm Inez while located 800 miles east of Martinique. Upon reaching tropical storm status, a more westward course commenced, and Inez continued to intensify and became a hurricane on the 26th. Conditions were favorable for intensification, and Inez rapidly intensified the next day, reaching Category 3 strength while passing through the islands, with the center of the small hurricane passing almost directly over Guadeloupe, where hurricane-force winds extended only 60 miles from the center. At the time, intensification temporarily halted due to interaction with mountainous Guadeloupe terrain, with the pressure rising to 970 mbar (hPa).

Intensification resumed after passing Guadeloupe, and Inez rapidly reached its peak of 150 mph while south of Puerto Rico on September 28. Shortly after peak intensity, Inez struck the Barahona Peninsula of the Dominican Republic on September 29, weakening to 140 mph while crossing the southwest peninsula of Haiti. Inez weakened significantly as it crossed the Haitian terrain, weakening to a 90 mph minimal hurricane as it emerged from the northwest coast of Haiti with a pressure of 987 mbar (hPa); however, the hurricane rapidly intensified over the Windward Passage to a major hurricane before striking the southeast Cuban coast near Guantanamo Bay on September 30. Inez became disorganized over the rugged terrain, and it quickly weakened to a 75 mph hurricane while slowly paralleling the south coast of Cuba under weak steering currents over the next 36 hours. In response to a ridge weakness, Inez moved inland over central Cuba and moved slowly northward, briefly losing hurricane intensity before emerging into the southwest Bahamas on October 2.

Turning north-northeast, Inez slowly stalled and gradually regained intensity over the Bahamas on October 2 and 3, with winds of 90 mph reported at West End on Grand Bahama. A building upper-level anticyclonic ridge from the western Gulf of Mexico slowly forced Inez to the southwest on October 4, where more conducive upper-level conditions for intensification set in. Inez crossed the Florida Keys on October 5 as a strengthening hurricane, delivering hurricane-force winds to all of the Keys. Inez moved west-southwest south of the Dry Tortugas, continuing to intensify to a major hurricane while brushing the Yucatán on October 7. Inez then began to curve into a weakness in the upper-level ridge over the western Gulf of Mexico, reaching its peak in the Gulf of Mexico with 140 mph winds and 948 mbar (hPa) on October 9. The threat to Texas increased, but Inez was forced southwest late on October 9 by rising heights to its north, and the storm weakened before making landfall near Tampico, Mexico, on October 10. Inez weakened rapidly after landfall, and the storm later dissipated over mainland Mexico the following day.

Impact

On Inez's very long track as a powerful major hurricane, passing through the Lesser Antilles, Haiti, Florida, and especially Mexico, it killed over 1000 people. Damage was about $1.2 billion (2005 dollars). The total was less than expected, possibly due to the small, compact size of the storm. In small storms, rain is not as big of a threat, as it normally is in big ones.