Tropical Storm Allison
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Otherhurricaneuses Template:Infobox hurricane Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in 2001. It was one of the deadliest and most destructive storms of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, killing 55 people across the United States and causing over $5 billion in damage in Houston. Allison is the only Tropical Storm to have its name retired without reaching hurricane strength.
Contents |
Storm history
Template:Storm path Allison formed from a low pressure system that had wandered north out of the Bay of Campeche. While 120 nm south of Galveston, Texas, the low developed deep convection and mid and low-level circulation, and on June 5, 2001, it was named Tropical Storm Allison. Allison would retain some subtropical characteristics, but caused more damage than most full hurricanes of even high intensity.
Allison strengthened to a 60 mph (100 km/h) tropical storm, well below the threshold of hurricane strength, and the storm was not expected to cause much damage. The tropical storm made landfall in the afternoon on the 5th near Freeport, Texas, causing coastal flooding in Galveston and Kemah. For a typical tropical system, landfall on the mainland United States marks the beginning of its end, but Allison was not typical.
Allison, having degraded to a tropical depression, moved northward into Texas, reaching Lufkin on June 7. It then stalled and drifted south on the 8th, bringing more rain to the area and overwhelming all of Houston's bayous, sluggish streams vital to drainage in the flat region. Many areas reported upwards of 10 in (250 mm) of rain while the Port of Houston's rain total reached 37 in (940 mm) of rain by the morning of June 9. On the 10th Allison re-entered the Gulf of Mexico near its landfall location, having lost many of its tropical characteristics, and was classified as a subtropical depression.
After restrengthening while travelling east over the Gulf, Subtropical Storm Allison made landfall again near Morgan City, Louisiana. Allison continued east-northeastward, passing through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The center of the subtropical depression then drifted north over eastern North Carolina, and moved over the Atlantic Ocean on June 17. Allison merged with a cold front the next day, and by the 19th it had dissipated.
Impact
Allison was a major flooding disaster in Houston soaking areas of the city with over 30 inches of rain. Unlike Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and an earlier Allison in 1989 which also looped over southeast Texas, Tropical Storm Allison (2001) culminated in a major rain event in the early hours of Saturday June 9th, which inundated a majority of the city. Click here for the storm total rainfall graphic for Allison.
Image:Tropical Storm Allison.jpg
Over two hundred thousand customers were without electrical power at some point during the disaster. Several hospitals at the Texas Medical Center had to be closed and evacuated after flood waters disabled emergency power generators and major medical equipement all of which were in basements. In addition years of medical research was destroyed due to lack of power and thousands of laboratory animals perished during the flooding at the Baylor College of Medicine and other medical research falcilites in the Texas Medical Center.
In Downtown Houston, many of the below grade pedestrian tunnels that link many major office buildings were completely submerged, as were many streets and parking garages adjacent to the Buffalo Bayou. One death occurred as a woman drowned in an elevator at the Bank of America Center as she tried to retrieve her car. In the adjacent Theatre District the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and Alley Theater lost millions of dollars of costumes, musical instruments, sheet music, archives and other artifacts. Local TV stations ran all-night coverage of the June 9th deluge, including KHOU-TV 11, which was forced to cut off its broadcast when floodwaters entered the station's new digital production studio. As a result, the station was forced to transmit its signal via satellite truck. By midnight nearly every freeway and major road in the city was underwater, forcing hundreds of motorists to abandon their vehicles for higher ground.
Over seventy thousand buildings reported flood damage, some in neighborhoods that had never flooded in history. Twenty-two people died in the Houston area.
Retirement
Template:Seealso The name Allison was retired in the spring of 2002 and will never again be used in the Atlantic basin; it is the only Atlantic tropical system ever to have its name retired without ever reaching hurricane strength. The name will be replaced with Andrea in the Template:Tcseason. Template:Clear
See also
External links
- National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report on Allison
- US National Hurricane Center Tropical Storm Allison advisory archive
- HPC Storm Summary/Advisory Archive for Allison
- HPC Rainfall Summary for Allison
- NWS Service Assessment
- Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project Community resources and continuing research of the continued flood threat to Houston
- The Hurricane Hut - A comprehensive summary of Tropical Storm Allison