00:00We're going to kick things off Labor Day, cookouts, coastlines, and a taste of summer, but the tropics don't always get the memo.
00:08This year they've managed to, from the Florida Keys to the Carolinas, some of the strongest storms in U.S. history have struck right around this holiday.
00:15AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson is live in Brevard County, Florida this morning, with a look back at the storms that reshaped the holiday, our coastlines.
00:25Hey, good morning to you, Anna. Yeah, we are here live in Brevard.
00:29As you mentioned, just behind me over my shoulder is the Cocoa Beach Pier.
00:33There has been rain, intermittent rain, this morning, so it has maybe staved off some of the folks that would maybe be headed to the beach.
00:40But as you can see behind me, there's definitely some folks around.
00:43They are trying to enjoy the holiday, and it has been several years since we've seen a major hurricane make landfall over the Labor Day weekend.
00:51The closest one was back in 2019, so six years ago, when catastrophic Hurricane Dorian made landfall in the Carolinas as a Category 1.
01:01Now, you may recall that it actually hit the Bahamas as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane, and then it moved up over towards Florida, and then eventually hit North Carolina.
01:12Now, since 1852, Florida has led the nation with the most hurricane landfalls in the month of September.
01:19Just behind the Sunshine State is Louisiana, North Carolina, and then Texas.
01:23One of the most infamous hurricanes to hit the U.S., though, was the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
01:30It was a catastrophic Category 5 storm that hit the Florida Keys on September 2nd with winds of 185 miles an hour.
01:38Wind gusts were estimated at 225.
01:42The storm's pressure dropped to 892 millibars, and it had a storm surge close to 20 feet.
01:48It still remains to this day the strongest U.S. landfalling hurricane to ever impact on Labor Day and all throughout hurricane season, for a matter of fact.
01:57The hurricane's force reportedly blasted off clothing off of the victims and flattened every structure in the upper keys.
02:05Now, there was only about 1,000 people that were in the Florida Keys at the time that hurricane struck, and over half of those people were killed.
02:12There was also a major railway that Henry Flagler tried to establish that was also destroyed, about $6 million in damage, which would equate to about $140 million today.
02:21Other big, notable hurricanes over the Labor Day weekend, Hurricane Francis.
02:24Now, if you have lived in Florida any length of time, you know the 2004 hurricane season.
02:30That is when four hurricanes impacted the state.
02:33Francis made landfall on September 5th in South Florida near Hutchinson Island as a Category 2.
02:39It spanned the size of Texas and dumped 13 inches of rain.
02:44Over 100 tornadoes were spawned from that particular hurricane.
02:4823 of those were in Florida, and more than 4.5 million people were without power.
02:53Again, Dorian moved through the Bahamas, blasted that area before coming up to the Carolinas as a Category 1.
03:00And then we go a little further back in time to Hurricane Elena, which made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, on Labor Day in 1935.
03:08Wind gusts up to about 135 miles an hour.
03:11That also triggered a bunch of tornadoes, about $1.25 billion in damage.
03:17And then one more notable one, Hurricane David.
03:20I was actually a kid in South Florida when that moved across South Florida as a Category 2.
03:25Winds were close to 100 miles an hour.
03:26Ten tornadoes spawned there as well.
03:29And then if you've been around and you have seen several hurricane seasons, you might remember Hurricane Donna.
03:35That also was a Labor Day weekend storm.
03:37Category 4, that produced hurricane force winds all the way from Florida to the Mid-Atlantic and New England.
03:44And that's the only hurricane that has ever done so.
03:47Now, the important thing to remember is, even though it's been quiet, if you can call it quiet so far this hurricane season,
03:53AccuWeathers hurricane expert Alex Da Silva says this year could be no different than what we saw last year.
03:59We always thought that there was going to be this lull, this quiet period, somewhere around the middle of the season.
04:09And it looks like we're seeing that right now, right at the end of August, beginning of September.
04:13And that's very similar to what we saw in 2024.
04:16And in fact, we saw eight hurricanes after September 1st in 2024.
04:21So it became a second half loaded season.
04:24And I worry that this season could be much of the same.
04:27We don't want people to become complacent that we've seen a fairly quiet hurricane season so far.
04:33So just remember that the Labor Day weekend, typically a hallmark of some very busy activities.
04:43Some other notable honorable mentions would be Hurricane Irma, as well as Hurricane Irmene, and then Tropical Storm Gordon back in 2018.
04:52Reporting live from the Cocoa Beach Pier, I'm Leslie Hudson.
04:54Back to you.
04:56Dorian does stand out in my mind, very much so.
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