On This Day in 1954: Major Hurricane Hazel Impacts The Carolinas

The deadliest, costliest and intense hurricane of the 1954 Hurricane Season impacted the Carolinas almost 80 years ago. Hurricane Hazel wrecked the Mid-Atlantic coast as a major hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

This monstrosity began as a tropical wave discovered just east of the Lesser Antilles on October 5, 1954. From there, the embedded storms in the system would continue to organize and push westward into the warm waters of the Caribbean. The storm would undergo rapid intensification the same day it was discovered and astonished Hurricane Hunters with sustained winds of 100 mph. This led to the formation of Hurricane Hazel just east of Grenada the same day. 

Just before making landfall in Grenada, the storm’s winds were reassessed, and the storm was weaker than previously thought. However, it was still a hurricane with winds estimated at 75 mph as it barreled down on the island of Grenada. After churning over the island, Hazel would push into the Caribbean Sea before making a beeline northward towards Haiti. Hazel would make landfall twice over Haiti before moving towards the West Indies as a major Category 3 hurricane with winds estimated at 120 mph on October 12. 

After Haiti’s bout with this storm, Hazel would slightly weaken to a Category 2 hurricane before it would make another landfall, this time targeting Inagua, an island of the Bahamas on October 13. Once cleared from the Bahamas, Hazel was on an unstoppable path towards the Carolinas. By October 14, Hurricane Hazel would be found with sustained winds of 150 mph, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane. 

Hurricane Hazel would make landfall near Myrtle Beach, N.C., on October 15, 1954. Storm surge over 12 feet flushed the Carolina coastline. Some areas even reported 18 feet of surge as the system pushed onshore. Hazel’s impacts did not just stop there as heavy rains between 9 to 11 inches and strong winds greater than 90 mph battered the Mid-Atlantic coastline. Damages over $160 million were calculated across the Carolinas with more than $300 million in total in the U.S. Among the damages, nearly 100 people in the U.S. loss their lives to the storm with Haiti losing between 400 to 1,000 people due to the storm. 

Due to the shear carnage from this storm in and out of the U.S., the name “Hazel” was retired from the Atlantic hurricane naming list. 

Sources: National Hurricane Center (NHC), National Weather Service (NWS)

Story Image: 15 UTC map of October 1954 showing Hurricane Hazel and the meteorological set-up. (NOAA/Wikimedia Commons)