As far as hurricane seasons go, the first that I truly remember is the 1971 season, when a late season September hurricane made landfall in Texas and turned back to the east, the remnant depression bringing a day of wonderful rain and wind to Central Alabama. 1972 of course featured Agnes, and my old World Book atlas still bears the scars of me tracking the storm by calling the Weather Service every six hours for advisory positions. Sometimes they would put them on the forecast line, probably just to avoid having me call. 1973 was a very non-memorable season.
1974 featured Carmen, which looked for a time like it was going to be the next Camille. On September 5th, Carmen regained hurricane strength after a strength-sapping encounter with the Yucatan, and it was moving straight north. It was 500 miles south of New Orleans and intensifying. It quickly became a Cat 2 and then a Cat 3 storm. New Orleans or perhaps Mobile was in its sights. I bugged the radio stations and Weather Service for data, and WWL in New Orleans was a critical source of info. On Saturday, September 6th, there was great concern that this could be New Orleans’ next Betsy.
1975 of course featured Eloise, which made landfall just west of Panama City early on September 23rd, after threatening to hit Mobile. The most memorable storm of 1976 was Hurricane Belle, which made landfall just east of New York City. The best source for information was hourly news reports from CBS Radio News and WCBS out of the Big Apple. I remember news reports talking about people having dinner even as 60 mph winds whipped the city. 1977 featured Hurricane Anita, which was a powerful storm in the Gulf that made landfall in Mexico and Babe, a tropical storm that hit southeastern Louisiana. 1978’s headline storm was Amelia, which brought flooding rains to the Texas Hill country. I can still remember J.B.’s dramatic reports on Weatheradio as the flooding was occurring. 1979 was the year of Bob, David and Frederic. I spent the night of September 12, 1979 with my ear glued to the radio for reports from WWL and information from the Weatheradio.
In 1980, I was a frequent visitor to the National Weather Service at 11 West Oxmoor Road. The teletype room was my favorite place. Hurricane Allen is a memorable hurricane to me. I can remember just about every step in its life history. Like a great song, or familiar smell, it evokes memories about what I was doing then. As it became one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the eastern Caribbean, I had a Weatheradio under a pillow at my freshman orientation at Samford. As the central pressure dropped to a dizzying 899 mb on Thursday afternoon, I was recording each advisory from the Weatheradio.
On the evening of August 9, 1980, I finished my little job at Cinema City 8 in Roebuck and headed for 11 West Oxmoor Road to follow along as Allen went ashore in Texas. When I got there, someone had taken up residence in the teletype room. Someone was on my turf. I introduced myself. It was a fellow named Keith Blackwell. He was the air pollution meteorologist for the County and an even bigger tropical weather nut than me. Keith would go on to work with Dr. Aaron Williams at the University of South Alabama. He became a meteorologist in the Air Force, forecasting typhoons in the Pacific. Now Dr. Blackwell is one of the most respected tropical experts in the world and a professor at the University of South Alabama.
