HURRICANE HISTORY AND DUNNELLON

 

Because of greater hurricane activity the past few seasons many people have asked about the vulnerability of the Dunnellon area. The Dunnellon area is approximately 20 -30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. The downtown elevation of Dunnellon is around 50’ above sea level; however some of the surrounding areas of town are significantly higher.

 

While this information may be helpful to know, the main question is how prone is the Dunnellon area to taking a direct hit from a hurricane coming in off the Gulf? Records are sketchy to the exact number of hurricanes coming in off the gulf to directly pass over Dunnellon; rumor has it that there have been only three in the past 127 years.

 

Therefore I did a little research to find out if there were any major hurricanes (category 3 or higher). To do this I accessed NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) website (WWW.NOAA.GOV). There they have a link that will allow you to see the storm paths of all major category 3+ hurricanes that affected the US during the past 150 years.

 

Only once did a category 3+ hurricane come close to making land fall with the Dunnellon area in its path. That was in 1950 when hurricane “EASY” (Cat 3) brushed along the central west coast near Crystal River traveling northward to Cedar Key before making a loop out into the gulf turning southward and finally making land fall north of the Tampa Bay area. “Easy” dropped 38.70 inches of rain in 24 hours on Yankeetown (West of Dunnellon), an all time Florida state record.

 

While it is comforting to know that no major hurricane during the past 150 years has come in off the Gulf passing directly over the Dunnellon area, the Dunnellon area still has had to endure several lesser storms. Most storms that affect the Dunnellon area make landfall elsewhere in the state and loose much of their punch by the time they pass by the Dunnellon area.

 

        Most recently in 2004 two hurricanes, Francis and Jeanne, passed by the Dunnellon area and while still dropping a good amount of rain, the winds where greatly reduced. The damage that ensued mostly resulted in downed trees that because of a lack of previous storms had overgrown power lines thus pulling them down or a few trees falling on some homes.

 

        Even though over the years history shows that the residents of the Dunnellon area have avoided the worst of the storms we will continue to pray that history prevails for we know all too well that it takes only one.     

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