Hurricane Lili

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Template:Otherhurricaneuses Template:Infobox hurricane Hurricane Lili was a powerful hurricane during the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season that caused damage across the Caribbean and into Louisiana. The storm was initially categorized as a tropical depression on September 21, and made its final landfall on October 4. Lili was responsible for 14 direct deaths and large amounts of property damage.

1 Storm history
- 1.1 Observation
2 Impact
3 See also
4 External links

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Storm history

Template:Storm path Lili formed as a tropical depression on September 21 about 900 nm east of the Windward Islands. The depression moved rapidly westward and developed into a tropical storm. It crossed the Windward Islands on the 24th. Its development was short-lived, and Lili degenerated to a tropical wave the next day.

Lili began to regenerate on September 27. On the 28th Tropical Storm Lili began circling around the north side of Jamaica, dumping heavy rain on the island and nearby Haiti. Lili continued strengthening as it approached Cuba. By the time it reached the Isle of Youth, it was a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and it maintained this strength as it hit the western end of Cuba.

After leaving Cuba on October 1, Lili began to rapidly intensify, and early on October 3 had reached Category 4 strength. The storm was halfway across the Gulf of Mexico and approaching the Louisiana coastline. However, instead of making landfall as an intense hurricane, Lili weakened almost instantly, dropping to a Category 1 storm in the twelve hours before landfall. It was the most dramatic weakening since Hurricane Ethel in 1960 dropped from Category 5 to Category 1 in six hours. This drop surprised forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, who had been predicting that Lili would make landfall as a strong Category 3 storm. It crossed the coastline near Intracoastal City, Louisiana, and it caused a storm surge in excess of 10 ft along the coast.

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Observation

Lili was a well-observed hurricane at its final landfall in Louisiana, as three mobile radars were deployed to the area of predicted landfall, including the National Severe Storms Laboratory's SMART Radar. These high-resolution systems complemented NOAA's fixed NEXRAD radars in Lake Charles and New Orleans. Several instrumented towers were also deployed in the path of the hurricane to provide other measurements.

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Impact

Deaths and damage by region
Region	Deaths		Damage (2002 USD)
Region	Direct	Indirect	Damage (2002 USD)
St. Vincent	5		?
Jamaica	4		?
Haiti	4		?
Cuba	1		?
United States		2	$860 million
Total	14[1]	2[2]	$860+ million

Lili killed sixteen people (fourteen of them through the direct effects of the storm) and left at least $860 million dollars in damage. Lili also broke a two year hiatus of U.S. landfalling hurricanes.

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East Caribbean

Four people were killed in St. Vincent and there was flood damage in Barbados and St. Lucia [3] In Jamaica, Lili heavy rains brought flashflooding that killed four people and caused extensive damage to homes and buildings that were already weakened by Hurricane Isidore weeks earlier.[4]

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Cuba

Hurricane Lili made landfall near Pinar del Rio on October 1. According to the Cuban Red Cross, about 50,000 homes were ether damaged or destroyed.[5] The Pinar del Rio and Isle of Youth was hardest hit. 60% of the water supply was disrupted. and most of the tobacco, rice and food stocks was significantly affected by the storm.[6] There was only one death. [7]

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United States

Image:Lili2002rain.gif Lili approached Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane but weakened to a Category 1 when it made landfall. However, the storm still did considerable damage to sugar cane fields, homes and businesses. The surge caused many levees to fail along the southeastern coast of Louisiana, and disrupted oil production. There were two indirect deaths from the storm. The damage total from Hurricane Lili was $860 million dollars (2002 USD), of which $30 million was in Mississippi and the rest in Louisiana. [8]

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Retirement

Template:Seealso The name Lili was retired in the spring of 2003 and will never again be used in the Atlantic basin. It was replaced with Laura for the Template:Tcseason.

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