On This Day: Hurricane Irene Hits The U.S. East Coast in 2011

One of the largest and most destructive hurricanes swept through the East Coast on this day in 2011. Hurricane Irene battered the Outer Banks of the Carolina coastline before hammering the Northeast, making sure to become one of history’s most devastating storms.

Like any other tropical system, “Irene” would get its start by sweeping through the central Atlantic off the African coastline as a tropical wave on August 15. From there, the storm would undergo typical tropical genesis and eventually form into a tropical storm late on August 20 near the Lesser Antilles. The warm waters of the Caribbean as well as low shear would allow for the system to strengthen as it travelled along the Bermuda High, the semi-permanent high pressure over the Atlantic Ocean. This would steer the system on a west-northwestward path with early forecast bringing the system towards the U.S. East Coast. Irene would make its first landfall as a strong tropical storm with winds estimated at 70 mph over Puerto Rico on August 22. However, this did not slow the storm’s development as it would continue to strengthen and eventually become the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Hurricane Irene would continue its trek northwestward and would undergo rapid intensification once more as it moved over the Bahamas. By August 23, Hurricane Irene broke another barrier as the storm intensified into a Category 3 hurricane, becoming a major hurricane with sustained winds estimated between 111-129 mph. Thankfully, Irene would move into a region just off the Florida East Coast where cooler waters resided and the eye of the storm would become disorganized, leading to gradual weakening of the system. 

By the morning of August 27, Hurricane Irene neared the Carolina coastline now as a category 1 hurricane. Although the storm had lost its major hurricane status, it was still a predominant threat to the Carolina locals, especially along the coastline. Although this storm was packing winds of 85 mph, the central pressure was said to be 951 mb or 28.08 inches of mercury which is abnormally low for a Category 1 hurricane. Irene would make landfall over the Outer Banks of North Carolina before moving into the Chesapeake Bay near Virginia, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds. Irene would eventually continue up the East Coast and make its final landfalls in New York and New England before becoming a post-tropical low on August 30.

Hurricane Irene would claim the lives of 5 people in North Carolina with rainfall totals between 15 to 17 inches. Peak wind gusts were recorded to be 115 mph in Carteret County, N.C. Alas, this wouldn’t be the highest of the toll that Irene wrought. The total deaths responsible for Hurricane Irene’s carnage from the Caribbean to Canada would be nearly 60 people with damages totaling $14.2 billion. The hardest hit was the United States with estimated damages of $13.5 billion and 48 deaths . Nearly $300 million in damages was recorded in New York after historical rainfall led to flooding throughout the state with Coney Island receiving storm surge of more than four feet. 

Due to the sheer devastation of Hurricane Irene, the name “Irene” would be retired from the Atlantic naming list. 

Sources: NHC, NOAA 

Story Image: Hurricane Irene located over the eastern coast of North Carolina as a Category 1 storm on August 27, 2011. (NOAA-NASA GOES Project/Wikimedia Commons)