Hurricane Allen

Eastern Caribbean–Southern United States, August 4–10, 1980 

One of the most intense Category 3 hurricanes on record, Allen spent August 4 through August 10, 1980, beating a trail of destruction through the eastern Caribbean Sea, Hispaniola, Cuba, Mexico, and the gulf coast of Texas. Allen intensified to Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale three times during its 1,200- mile (1,920-km) trek from the Cape Verde Islands. Its lowest central pressure, 26.55 inches (899 mb), was recorded off the northeast tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula on the evening of August 7. Before dissipating into a string of tornadoes over south-central Texas on August 10, Allen caused close to $1 billion damage to six countries and left 272 people dead.

A classic Cape Verde Storm, Allen was born as a low-pressure tropical disturbance off the northwest coast of Africa on August 1. Carried westward by the equatorial trade winds, Allen rapidly intensified over the mid-Atlantic’s warm tropical waters. By August 3, as the hurricane bore down on the islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, and Dominica, weather reconnaissance flights through its eye indicated barometric pressures as low as 27.23 inches (922 mb) and intermittent winds upward of 200 MPH (320 km/h). Touted as one of the twentieth century’s most potentially dangerous hurricanes, Allen whisked across Barbados and St. Lucia on August 4. Winds of 130 MPH (209 km/h) tore into St. Lucia’s vital banana plantations, uprooting trees, leveling houses, and killing 16 people. On the resort island of Barbados, Allen’s 11-foot (4-m) storm surge pounded empty beachfront hotels, smashing windows, flooding swimming pools with seawater, and washing away yacht piers.

On August 5, Allen careened across southern Haiti. Sustained winds of 120 MPH (193 km/h) devastated a large portion of the country’s coffee crop, while torrential rains spawned flash floods that killed an estimated 220 people. Brushing past the island of Jamaica on the morning of August 6, Allen’s slightly diminished 100-MPH (161-km/h) winds battered northern cities Port Maria and Port Antonio and unleashed deadly rains that knocked out power lines and bridges in the exclusive Montego Bay enclave. In the resort city of Port Maria, Allen’s enormous storm surge completely demolished two beachside hotels by undermining their concrete pilings. Witnesses claimed the five-story buildings simply toppled forward into the raging surf and disappeared.

After grazing the west coast of Cuba—where 110-MPH (177-km/h) winds forced the evacuation of 210,000 people from low-lying areas on August 7— Allen took aim at Mexico’s vast Yucatán Peninsula. Luxury resorts on the shallow islands of Mujeres and Cozumel were hurriedly evacuated as Allen’s eye swept inexorably up the Yucatán Channel. Although the picturesque islands did suffer some wind and water damage, they were largely spared the full fury of Allen’s passage into the Gulf of Mexico. On the peninsula’s northern face, the hurricane’s strengthening winds stripped foliage from trees and drove large waves onto the beachheads but caused no fatalities.

By the morning of August 8, Hurricane Allen’s eye was centered 52 miles (84 km) due north of the Yucatán Peninsula and headed on a course that would take it across the Gulf of Mexico to a stormy landfall somewhere along the Texas lower coast. During the previous night, the storm’s central pressure had seesawed between a vigorous 27.91 inches (944 mb) and an alarming 26.55 inches (899 mb), one of the lowest barometric readings ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane. As National Hurricane Center (NHC) officials pored over computer-generated forecasts, trying to determine just where Allen would come ashore, civil defense authorities in Texas began to evacuate a quarter of a million people from the 450-mile (724-km) stretch of coastline between Brownsville and Corpus Christi. Over the agitated waters of the gulf, a squadron of chartered helicopters set to work airlifting hundreds of oil company personnel from deep-sea drilling rigs. 

In one tragic instance, Allen’s extended gale-force winds caused a helicopter to crash into the sea off Louisiana, killing 13 workers. Allen blasted ashore near Corpus Christi, Texas, on August 9, 1980, with a central barometric pressure of 27.91 inches (945 mb). Gusts of 160 MPH (258 km/h) drove before a 10-foot (3-m) storm surge, the highest seen on the coast in a half-century. Allen’s whirring winds and pelting rains stripped buildings of their roofs and siding, crumpled billboards, toppled trees and telephone poles, and caused massive localized flooding. Mountainous waves drove a disabled Liberian tanker, loaded with 280,000 barrels of crude oil, onto a sandbar off Corpus Christi, raising fears of a dangerous oil spill. Coast Guard personnel bravely fought 40-foot (13-m) seas to rescue the tanker’s crew of 37 and to secure the heavily laden ship against the relentless hammering of the ocean. Steadily moving inland across the lower Rio Grande Valley, Hurricane Allen’s downgraded winds spawned numerous tornadoes and caused nearly $1 billion damage to the region’s citrus harvest. Conversely, the storm’s 20-inch rains brought beneficial precipitation to countless farms, ending a prolonged drought that had threatened the valley’s largely agrarian economy.

Allen’s dramatic disintegration would herald the start of an unprecedented three-year hiatus in hurricane activity along the U.S. mainland coasts. Between August 10, 1980, when Allen blew itself out over Texas, and August 13, 1983, when Hurricane Alicia surged ashore at Galveston, no hurricanes threatened U.S. coastal tranquility. The name Allen has been retired from the list of future hurricane names.