Storm Surge/Tide — Lower Jefferson, Louisiana

2004-09-15 to 2004-09-16 · Lower Jefferson, Louisiana

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Ivan moved steadily northward across the north central Gulf of Mexico on September 15th before turning north-northeast and making landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane during the early morning of September 16th. Hurricane force winds affected the lower portion of Plaquemines Parish. The highest sustained wind recorded in southeast Louisiana was at the NOAA automated weather station at the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River with sustained winds of 72 knots (83 mph) and gusts to 87 knot (100 mph) The weather instruments are located at approximately 100 ft above the sea surface. Wind gusts of around 60 knot (69 mph) were recorded at an automated weather station along the coast near Point a-la Hache. Outside of the lower Plaquemines Parish area, tropical storm force winds were recorded from coastal Terrebonne Parish northeast through the New Orleans area to eastern St. Tammany Parish. The lowest barometric pressure recorded was 983.6 mb at the Southwest Pass automated weather station. Lower portions of Plaquemines Parish suffered the greatest wind damage. Several school buildings suffered roof damage as well as several public government buildings. Around 100 mobile homes had some type of wind damage, with approximately 30 mobile homes having major damage or were destroyed. Seven houses suffered major wind damage. 50 power poles were also downed by high winds. In lower St. Bernard parish about a dozen houses had some type of wind damage. In other areas of southeast Louisiana, generally only minor wind damage was reported with power outages. At least 55, 000 customers of the local electric power company experience power outages.The highest storm surge was confined mostly to areas east of the Mississippi River where storm surge averaged 3 to 5 feet above normal except locally higher in some inlets. The highest storm surge reading was 7.6 feet NGVD at Bayou Dupre in St. Bernard Parish. The storm surge flooded low lying property and roadways outside of the hurricane protection levees in Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. Around Lake Pontchartrain and west of the Mississippi River, storm surge was 2 to 4 feet above normal. No tornadoes were reported in southeast Louisiana and storm total rainfall was fairly light. The greatest storm rainfall total was 2.5 inches at Buras in Plaquemine Parish.Due to the threat posed by the powerful hurricane, many area residents evacuated the New Orleans metropolitan area at the urging of local emergency management officials. State Police estimated that approximately 600,000 people evacuated from southeast Louisiana including the the New Orleans metro area prior to the hurricane. Another 400,000 other coastal residents from Florida, Alabama and Mississippi moved through the area as they evacuated to the west, away from the expected landfall of hurricane Ivan. In an area west of Kenner, eastbound lanes of Interstate Highway 10 were reversed to handle west bound traffic. Traffic jams developed during the evacuation process due to the large number of evacuees. There were no direct fatalities related to Hurricane Ivan, however four elderly residents of southeast Louisiana died during the large scale evacuation in southeast Louisiana. The Louisiana Dept of Insurance estimated that insured property damage was approximately $7.9 million. In a manner utilized by the National Hurricane Center for estimating storm damage, the insured damage estimate was doubled to arrive at total dollar damage of $15.8 million. Approximately 75% of the damage was estimated to be related to wind - $11.8 million. Approximately 25% of the storm damage was estimated to be related to storm surge - $4.0 million.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5432685. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.