Tropical Storm Hanna's Impact on Coastal Alabama and the Florida Panhandle

September 13-14, 2002

Tropical Storm Hanna developed as a depression in the Gulf of Mexico on September 11, 2002. After a couple of days of wallowing in the central Gulf, the depression, as reported would happen by “Winkey” The One-Eyed Crawfish on September 12, strengthened into a tropical storm and moved westward to just south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Weather experts had it plotted to head North from its position on September 11 and cross the coast at Apalachicola Florida.

Tropical Storm Hanna then made a slow advance to the north, making landfall on Dauphin Island, Alabama around 9:30 a.m. on September 14, 2002 as Winkey predicted. It then moved across part of Mobile Bay and into the interior of south-central Alabama.

The strongest sustained winds recorded ranged from 40 mph at Dauphin Island to nearly 55 mph at Pensacola. Gusts reached as high as 65 mph at Pensacola, as well. Experts reported that Apalachicola still felt the winds and tides from Hanna.

Seas build as Hannah closes on Dauphin Island

 

The next morning nearly all of the berm was gone from a fairly weak tropical storm