'Storm of the Century'

As my many — okay, my few — readers know, I enjoy anniversaries of significant events. Certainly, one of the most memorable for me marks its 40th anniversary this week: Hurricane Gloria.

It was the first significant tropical cyclone to strike the northeastern United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and the first major storm to affect New York City and Long Island — especially our area — directly since Hurricane Donna in 1960.

We’re going to get a tad wonky here: Gloria began as a tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa on September 15, 1985. The next day, a tropical depression formed. And the day after that, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Gloria, and it began to meander westward.

On September 21, the Hurricane Hunters began flying into Gloria to measure the storm’s intensity, and the next day a flight observed winds of 78 mph. As a result, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Gloria to a hurricane about 465 miles east-northeast of the Lesser Antilles. (Is there a Better Antilles?)

Gloria turned more west-northwest on September 22. It remained a minimal hurricane until two days later, when it began quickly intensifying. It became a major hurricane while passing northeast of the Bahamas.

Gloria developed a 10-mile-wide eye, surrounded by an eyewall. On September 25, Hurricane Hunters discerned that there was a barometric pressure of 27.1 and reported flight-level winds were 145 mph. At the time, this was the lowest pressure measured by reconnaissance aircraft over the northern Atlantic Ocean. This was estimated to have been Gloria’s peak intensity, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

After peak intensity, Gloria weakened while turning to the north. Shortly after peaking, Gloria’s asymmetrical wind field caused the storm to rapidly weaken, and, 18 hours later, its sustained wind speed decreased to 90 mph. Later that day, a buoy about 60 miles east of the center recorded a wave height of 46.9 feet, which at the time was the highest buoy wave recording in an Atlantic hurricane.

While accelerating toward North Carolina, Gloria reintensified slightly to winds of 105 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane. On September 27, the hurricane struck southern Hatteras Island off the coast of North Carolina. Gloria then passed just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and New Jersey and interacted with a cold front.

Its strongest winds remained on the eastern edge of the circulation, and the storm was gradually losing tropical characteristics. Later that day, the hurricane made landfall between JFK Airport and Islip, with sustained winds of 85 mph on western Long Island.

About an hour after striking Long Island, Gloria made its final landfall near Westport, Connecticut, and proceeded to move through New England while weakening. By September 30, it had moved through Atlantic Canada and passed south of Greenland. The extratropical circulation of Gloria was last noted on October 2, although the storm’s remnants later affected Europe.

Let’s return to Long Island: The high storm surge flooded hundreds of streets and caused heavy beach erosion. High winds downed thousands of trees and damaged hundreds of homes, causing widespread power outages. About 1.5 million people in the state lost power, including two-thirds of the Long Island Lighting Company customers, making it one of the worst power outages in the state.

Storm surges reached 7 feet, but the effects were mitigated by Gloria’s fast motion and arrival at low tide. Had Gloria moved more slowly and struck at high tide, the storm surge at the Battery would have been 9.8 feet, a record for the location, and storm surges at Bergen Point and Willets Point would have been 10 and 8.4 feet, respectively.

There were four deaths on Long Island, two of them caused by heart attacks and the other two related to fallen trees. There were also 14 injuries in the region, many of them due to downed tree branches. In the New York mainland, heavy rainfall flooded rivers and overcompensated for drought conditions.

It is believed that peak gusts reached 115 mph on eastern Long Island. Weather forecasters determined that damage across parts of Long Island indicated winds in the Category 3 range. Gloria’s high winds caused significant damage across Long Island and southeastern New York.

A few forecasters brayed that Gloria was the “Storm of the Century,” though more than a few locals pointed to the Hurricane of ’38 as serving up a bigger blow.

We, here on the South Fork, were hit the worst by Gloria, where high wind gusts blew thousands of trees into buildings and across roads. The broadcast tower of WBLI-FM toppled on Bald Hill in Farmingville. In addition, the winds ripped roofs off many buildings, including hangars at MacArthur Airport, a hangar at the Bayport Aerodrome, and the roof of the Islip Police Station.

Prolonged exposure to high winds and waves led to moderate beach erosion, washing away several piers and docks. The storm surge, though relatively weak, destroyed 48 houses on the ocean side of the island. Gloria’s high winds left 683,000 people in New York without power, with some lacking electricity for over 11 days.

In the case of my family, it was nine days without power. We lived in Noyac, and no electricity was especially inconvenient with a 15-month-old child. Every day seemed longer than the day before.

The most valued friends that week-plus were those with generators. The price of ice soared, with some shopkeepers accused of gouging. For some of us, the only way to bathe was to jump in the bay. Uprooted and downed trees and wires were everywhere.

Cleaning up after the hurricane’s destruction continued well into the next year.

As this is being written, Hurricane Gabrielle is working its way north. Being that we’ve already been hit by the deadly Hurricane Sandy, do we get a pass for the rest of the century?

Given the increasing impact of climate change, I suspect we will have a storm of the century at least once a decade.