On November 17, 1999, Hurricane Lenny became the first hurricane ever to strike the islands of the Lesser Antilles from the west, packing winds of 140 mph as it moved just south of the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.
A fifteen foot storm surge battered the island washing away homes, boats and roads. The storm’s winds later increased to 145 mph as it moved near St. Maarten. The menacing hurricane was dubbed “left-handed Lenny†because of its unusual motion. Only two other tropical storms in history have moved west to east across the open waters of the Caribbean like Lenny.
The central pressure in the hurricane was down to an amazing 933 mb, making it as strong as 1979’s Hurricane David in the Caribbean. Rated as a Category 4 storm, Lenny was the fifth major hurricane of the 1999 North Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Lenny was the first November Category 4 hurricane since Greta in 1956. A spokesman for the National Weather Service in Puerto Rico said that Lenny was a “once in a lifetime event†because of its appearance so late in the season and its unusual course across the Caribbean.
