Hurricane Carmen

By Wikipedia

Hurricane Carmen was the third named storm of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the strongest and most intense of the season. She had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 km/h), putting her at Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. It was a storm from August 29 to September 10, 1974.

Hurricane Carmen formed a few hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles. It strengthened considerably becoming a tropical storm passing just south of Hispaniola and Jamaica as a category one hurricane. The storm strengthened quickly making landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula as a category two hurricane on September 2, down from a category four just 150 miles east of the coast. Just as quickly as the storm strengthened it weakened back to a Tropical Storm.

Carmen once again fed off of the 85 degree September waters of the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened right back to category four just before making landfall in Morgan City, Louisiana on September 8 as a category one hurricane. It deteriorated further dissipating over East Texas on September 10.

Carmen claimed only four lives. Only one person was killed in the United States. United States damage is estimated at $150 million. The name Carmen was retired following this storm.

Click for a larger version; courtesy of NOAA.

Carmen in the Movies

Hurricane Carmen was also mentioned in the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest's shrimp boat was the only one to survive the full fury of the storm.

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