Hurricane Dora

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Hurricane Dora was the fourth named storm, second hurricane and one of six major hurricanes of the 1964 Atlantic hurricane season. Dora was the first and, to date, the only hurricane to make landfall on the First Coast region of Florida; more specifically, the metropolitan area of Jacksonville. Before it came ashore at St. Johns County just after midnight on September 10, 1964, no hurricane had made landfall there since record-keeping began in 1851.

Dora left two billion dollars (2005 USD) in damage, most of it in Florida and only three fatalities (1 direct, 2 indirect) due to advanced warnings. Dora was one of three hurricanes to affect Florida during the 1964 season.

[edit] Storm history

Dora originated as a low pressure area near Cape Verde on August 28. On September 2, the storm had quickly strengthened into a hurricane over 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Moving northwest, Dora continued to intensify, with a current path thought originally to suggest a New England threat or a turn out to sea. However, a high pressure system to the north slowly forced Dora on a curve back to the west. While in the process of turning west, Dora peaked at 140 mph and slowed in forward movement. Dora then weakened back to a Category 2 hurricane while moving westward towards the northeast coast of Florida. Dora quickly regained major hurricane status on September 7, and it maintained its intensity until September 9, when it weakened as it made landfall. The eye passed over St. Augustine on the evening of September 9 with winds reported at 110 miles per hour at landfall.

The storm cut a path across the northern part of the state before finally making a track to the northeast on September 12. As it moved into southwestern Georgia, Dora was downgraded to a tropical storm before moving back over Georgia and South Carolina. The system circulated into the Atlantic Ocean again, but by this time it was disorganized and dissipated completely soon after.

[edit] Impact

Power supply for Jacksonville and surrounding towns was lost; it was only restored after six days of outages. About $280 million ($2 billion in 2005 dollars) in damage was attributed to the hurricane, primarily due to extensive inland flooding. The highest rainfall amount recorded during the hurricane fell at Mayo, where 23.73 inches fell.^[1] Dora caused only one death.

[edit] Retirement

See also: List of retired Atlantic hurricane names

The name Dora, which had replaced Donna on the hurricane lists, was retired from the Atlantic hurricane lists and was replaced with Dolly for the 1968 season.

[edit] See also

• List of Atlantic hurricanes
• List of retired Atlantic hurricane names
• List of Florida hurricanes (1950-1974)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NHC 1964 Preliminary Report on Dora
• Historic Images of Florida Hurricanes (State Archives of Florida)