The most intense storm was Hurricane Gloria, which attained Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The season started with Tropical Storm Ana, which formed on June 15, and ended with Tropical Depression Fourteen, which dissipated on November 5. The season officialy lasted from Jto November 30, 1979, date which convention limit the period of each year when tropical cyclones tend to form in the Atlantic Ocean basin. Howell Heflin and Federal Emergency Management Agency Director John Macy.Įleven Alabama counties were declared disaster areas.The 1979 Atlantic hurricane season was an above-average Atlantic hurricane season that produced 14 tropical cyclones, 11 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes. President Jimmy Carter would fly to Mobile aboard Air Force One and from there take a helicopter tour of the storm-ravaged area with U.S. McCorquodale, House Speaker, as the council’s chairman. 27 to be briefed on the work of the state Forestry Disaster Recovery Council. In Grove Hill, citizens with campers that had onboard generators went to homes without electricity to give freezers a boost in hopes of saving the contents until power could be restored. Power was still out in the Grove Hill area midweek after the storm and it was “doubtful that power would be restored to all customers by Wednesday, Sept. Heavily damaged areas of Grove Hill included the Dickinson Subdivision, the Court Street area and the Wilson Hall Middle School community. It came over the western side of Cuba and straight up the Gulf to Dauphin Island and on inland along the Alabama- Mississippi line. That was greater than the annual timber cut of $225 million. Timber damages in Clarke County were estimated at $3.1 million with 31,000 acres impacted, some 3.7 million treesĭamages and losses to timber were even greater - $47.9 million in Clarke and Washington counties and a total of $333.4 million statewide. “We have no way of knowing how much damage is out there,” Josie Callaway of the ASCS office said. The Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) office in Clarke County estimated farm damages in the county at $4 million, the newspapers reported in their Sept. Huggins after the storm.Ĭlarke County Sheriff Ray Sheffield said there were no big accidents but a lot of trees were downed and roads were blocked. “Roy Tucker did a fantastic job” of providing and managing the shelters, said Clarke County Probate Judge Fred L. We have asked the street and water departments to be on standby.”Ĭlarke County provided shelter to as many as 3,000 people, many countians but also people from Mobile and other areas running from Frederic. 13, out the day before the storm hit, quoted Police Chief Bill Taylor. The Clarke County Democrat and The South Alabamian detailed the storm in their Sept. There were no deaths or major injuries in our area but there was a lot of property damage and destruction. The storm caused extensive damage in the city of Mobile and Mobile County. Clarke and Washington counties were on the right side, or the “bad” side of the storm and caught heck after midnight Sept. 12, 1979 and ran up the Alabama- Mississippi line. It was 40 years ago this week that Hurricane Frederic roared ashore at Dauphin Island with winds of 130 mph on Sept. We are at the height of hurricane season now through the end of November but September and October and the worst months. Hurricane Dorian has blown up the Eastern Seaboard and out to sea but other storms are forming and coming off the African Coast. No deaths or major injuries were reported locally as Hurricane Frederic blew through in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. Frederic dropped a big tree across the front of the Presbyterian Church in McIntosh. National Guardsmen helped with cleanup in Jackson Wayne Caylor tapes windows at Blossman Gas, a Jackson business, ahead of the storm a fallen tree cut a mobile home in half in the Grove Hill area.
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