No Major Hurricanes In The United States In 9 Years A Blessing And A Curse

The last major hurricane in the United States,
Hurricane Wilma, slamming Miami Beach, Fla
in Oct. 2005. Photo from UltimateChase.com  

As The Vane pointed out the other day, the official Atlantic Hurricane season ended Sunday with a whimper making this the ninth year in a row the United States has not been hit by a major hurricane.

Only one hurricane actually struck the U.S. coastline in 2014, a Category Two story names Arthur that hit the North Carolina coast with 100 mph winds.

A major hurricane is defined as a Category 3 on what is known as the Saffir-Simpson scale. A Category 3 hurricane has sustained winds of 111 to 129 mph, so you can see such a hurricane is pretty nasty.

On one hand, it's good that the United States hasn't had a Category 3 hurricane since Wilma hit Florida in October, 2005.  We don't need the destruction.

But its also bad because many coastal residents have been lulled into a false sense of security. They don't remember what a Category 3 hurricane is like, so they might be less likely to evacuate when one is approaching.

Also, during these nine years, there's been a lot of additional home, condo, business and resort construction on the United States' coasts, so there's that much more property to endanger, and more lives to put at risk.

Of course, a hurricane need not be a Category 3 to cause much death and suffering, as survivors of Super Storm Sandy and Hurricane Irene know.

Destruction from Super Storm Sandy in
New Jersey, 2012.  

Both Sandy and Irene hit during those ongoing nine years in which the United States had no Category 3 hurricanes.

Super Storm Sandy, an immense monster of a storm, was in the midst of a transition from a hurricane to a huge non-tropical storm when it slammed into the coast of New Jersey in October, 2012.

Sandy killed 286 people, including 148 in the United States. (The rest of the victims succumbed as Hurricane Sandy passed through the Caribbean.)

Sandy caused $65 billion in damage in the United States, second only to Katrina for most destruction.

In August 2011, Hurricane Irene hit the Northeast Coast as a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained winds of less than 95 mph.  

Flooding from Hurricane Irene in Waitsfield, Vermont
in August, 2011. Via AP.  

But as it moved inland, it caused massive flooding, especially where I live in Vermont, which suffered the most severe flooding since an epic flood in 1927. The storm caused six deaths in Vermont and nearly 60 in the United States as a whole.

Extreme flooding also hit parts of New York and New Jersey during Irene.

So you see,  you don't need a Category 3 hurricane to cause incredible havoc.

The official Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, though its possible to have a rare tropical storm outside those dates.

Coastal residents of the United States can breathe easy without a threat from hurricanes until next summer. But it's only a matter of time before a monster of a hurricane slams the U.S. coast somewhere between Brownsville, Texas and Eastport, Maine.

Let's hope when that happens, people get out of the way of such a horrible storm.

If you want a taste of what a Category 4 hurricane is like, which can easily hit the United States watch this video of Hurricane Charley dismantle this Florida gas station in 2004.

Totally scary: