Hurricane (Typhoon) — Lower Plaquemines, Louisiana

2005-07-05 to 2005-07-06 · Lower Plaquemines, Louisiana

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Cindy developed from a tropical depression that formed over the extreme western Caribbean Sea on July 3. This depression moved northwest over the Yucatan Peninsula and emerged over the south central Gulf of Mexico on July 4. On July 5th the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and moved north toward the southeast Louisiana coast. Cindy made landfall in southeast Louisiana early on July 6th just to the west of Grand Isle, and reached minimal hurricane strength for a short period of time. Cindy then turned toward the northeast and moved over the New Orleans area and toward the Mississippi coast before dissipating inland over central Alabama later that day. Cindy initially was classified as a tropical storm, but was later upgraded to a minimal hurricane based primarily on doppler radar wind estimates of a small area of hurricane force winds just east of the path of the hurricane in the coastal waters and extreme southeast coastal sections. Most of southeast Louisiana, including the metro New Orleans area experience long duration of tropical storm force winds and high gusts that resulted in considerable wind damage to trees and foliage as well as widespread power outages due to downed electrical lines. An estimated 278,000 electrical customers experienced power outages. Tropical storm force winds were recorded at the New Orleans Lakefront for five and a half hours starting around 11 pm CDT on July 5th with gusts greater than 55 mph recorded each hour during this period. The maximum sustained wind at the Lakefront Airport was 54 mph, or 47 knots, at 300 AM CDT on July 6th. A peak gust of 70 mph, or 61 knots, was recorded at the airport at 116 am CDT on July 6th. This was the highest wind gust measured during the storm over land areas with the exception of 74 mph, or 64 knots, along the coast at the elevated Burwood CMAN station at 149 am CDT on July 6th. A gust to 69 mph, or 60 knots, was also recorded at the NOAA C-Man station at Grand Isle. The maximum sustained wind recorded in southeast Louisiana was 55 mph, or 48 knots, at the NOAA C-Man station in Grand Isle. Heavy rainfall resulted in extensive street flooding with rainfall generally amounts ranging from 3 to a little over 6 inches across much of extreme southeast Louisiana. The lowest pressure measured in southeast Louisiana were 997.3 mb at the NOAA C-Man station in Grand Isle and also at the LSU Citrus Agricultural Station near Port Sulphur. High tides caused storm surge flooding and beach erosion at Grand Isle. The highest storm surge recorded was 5.5 feet NGVD at Bayou Dupree near Lake Borgne.Overall Hurricane Cindy caused approximately $50 million in damage in southeast Louisiana; with $2.5 million from storm surge and the remainder from wind damage. The damage estimate was based on damage estimates from Tropical Storm Bill which took a similar track but was a weaker tropical cyclone. No injuries or fatalities were reported.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5463299. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.