Hurricane Edna

Infobox Hurricane
Name=Hurricane Edna
Type=hurricane
Year=1954
Basin=Atl
Formed=September 2, 1954
Dissipated=September 15, 1954
1-min winds=105
Pressurepre=≤
Pressure=954
Da

Inflated=0
Fatalities=20 direct, 9 indirect
Areas=North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Atlantic Canada
Hurricane season=1954 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Edna was a Category 3 hurricane that moved along the east coast before striking the New England region of the United States in mid-September 1954.

Meteorological history

Edna formed off of Barbados on September 2. Moving northwestward and slowly strengthening, Edna followed the shape of the Caribbean islands, never moving more than 100 miles away from land. Edna reached hurricane strength on September 7, reaching Category 3 strength by the time it took aim at North Carolina's Outer Banks on September 10. Edna raked the Outer Banks, which had already been devastated by Hurricane Carol less than a month earlier. Fortunately, Edna's strongest winds were too far offshore to affect the battered area. The hurricane weakened slightly as it moved north over cooler waters. Before striking New England, its eye actually split into two different ones, up to 60 miles apart. It then moved over Cape Cod before finally making landfall near Eastport, Maine on September 11, with sustained winds of around 92 mph. Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts reported a peak wind gust of 120 mph during Edna, and much of the rest of the affected area had gusts of 80 to 100 mph.Cite web
url=http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history.shtml#carol
title=Hurricane History - Carol and Edna 1954
publisher=National Hurricane Center
accessdate=2007-09-12] cite web|author=WILLIAM MALKIN AND GEORGE C. HOLZWORTH|title=September 1954 Monthly Weather Review|year=1954|publisher=NOAA|accessdate=2007-12-26|url=http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/082/mwr-082-09-0267.pdf]

Impact

Edna was one of Maine's worst hurricanes, yet this storm could have been much worse. Carol hit Long Island directly as a Category 2, while Edna hit a less densely populated part of New England and was weaker. As it was, Edna still killed 29 people and caused $40.5 million in damage. For the citizens of Maine, it was a painful reminder that they were not immune from the dangers of hurricanes. The state would have the occasional hurricane brush by in the years to come, but none of them (with the possible exception of Gerda in 1969) were as destructive as Edna.

Eight people died due to drowning in Maine. In Unity, a family of 10 was trapped on top of their car, cut off by raging flood waters. A human chain of rescuers managed to save 9 of them. One 8 year old girl was swept away as her father lost his grip on the child when a house smashed into the guard rail. A 47 year old man was also swept away as he was trying to rescue the family. In all, a total of 29 people died in the storm, 12 people in New England, and 8 of those were in Maine.

In New York City, around 5 inches (127 mm) of rain fell in the space of 14 hours.cite book|title=Storm|pages=102|publisher=Time Life Books|author=Addison Whipple|year=1982|place=Alexandria Virginia|id=ISBN=0-8094-4312-1]

Edna affected New-Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in Canada, after Maine. Its winds causing great damage and a few deathsCite web
url=http://www.atl.ec.gc.ca/weather/hurricane/storm54.html
title=Storms of 1954
publisher=Canadian Hurricane Center
accessdate=2007-04-08
date=202-05-07] .

Though Edna's storm center was nowhere near Nova Scotia, the storm's damaging winds occurred out to approximately 500 km from the storm center track, destroying approximately 0.7 billion board feet of timber across Nova Scotia.Cite web
url=http://www.novaweather.net/Hurricane_Juan_files/Edna_Juan_comp.pdf
title=A Comparison of the Wind Fields in Hurricane Edna (1954) and Hurricane Juan (2003)
publisher=Canadian Hurricane Center
accessdate=2007-09-12] .

Retirement

The name Edna was eventually retired due to this storm, but only after it had been used again in the 1968 season. It will never be used for an Atlantic hurricane again. [http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/B3.html]

References

ee also

* List of tropical cyclones
* List of Atlantic hurricanes

External links

* [http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/mwreviews/1954.pdf Monthly Weather Review]
* [http://www.pivot.net/~cotterly/edna.htm Article on Edna]
* [http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/082/mwr-082-09-0267.pdf Report on Hurricane Edna]
* [http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history.shtml#carol]