On This Day in 1959: Hurricane Dot Makes Landfall in Kauai

On August 6th, 1959, Hurricane Dot made landfall on the island of Kauai. Weeks before the islands even became a state, Hurricane Dot entered the record books as the costliest known tropical cyclone in Hawaiian history.

Hurricane Dot may have been the continuation of an unnamed tropical storm that formed off the Baja California Peninsula in mid-July, but due to a lack of ship reports, this was never confirmed. However, the SS Pacificus picked up a tropical storm about 1,000 miles west of the peninsula on July 24, prompting the Navy to take note of the storm. Another ship, the SS Sonoma followed the storm as it moved closer to Hawaii, reporting that it reached hurricane intensity.

As the system moved into the central Pacific, it underwent rapid intensification, reaching peak intensity on August 3, with sustained winds as high as 150 mph, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (which was not in use at the time). As is typical with storms as they approach Hawaii, the hurricane began to weaken, making landfall on Kauai on August 6 as a Category 1 hurricane before dissipating west of the Hawaiian Islands on August 8.

Across most of the territory - Hawaii became a state on August 21 - Dot produced heavy rain and gusty winds as it passed to the south. In Oahu, where Honolulu is located, some homes along the coast lost their roofs. Two indirect deaths occurred in Lanai, with damages totaling $150,000 (in 1959 dollars, approximately $1.4 million in 2021 dollars) for these islands.

Kauai was directly hit by Hurricane Dot, causing extensive damage. More than 8 inches of rain fell in Lihue, with wind gusts reaching as high as 103 mph, toppling trees and power lines. Power outages spread across the island, causing telecommunication and water system failures. Infrastructure suffered damages, but the headliner was the agricultural loss. Cane sugar crop losses totaled $2.7 million ($25.2 million today), with the total estimated bill reaching about $6 million (nearly $50 million in 2021 dollars). The U.S. Weather Bureau, the predecessor to today's National Weather Service, awarded the Sonoma a public service award for its assistance in providing reconnaissance on the hurricane.

Although Dot was the costliest storm to hit Hawaii at that time, it has since been surpassed. Hurricane Iniki, which also slammed Kauai, produced $3.1 billion in damage in 1992 ($6 billion in today's dollars), with recent Hurricane Iselle producing $148 million in damage in 2014.

Source: NOAA
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