Hurricane history: Tallahassee's hits and near misses since the 1800s

Tallahassee has a mostly charmed history with hurricanes, though that's changed a bit over recent years. Hurricanes either seem to lose their wind strength by the time they hit us (Eloise, 1975; Alma, 1966). Or they veer around Tallahassee, while dumping tons of rain (numerous times).

Here are a few of the most notable storms to pass through the area:

Unnamed hurricane of 1843

Sept. 13, 1843: A hurricane wiped out the six-year-old town of Port Leon, a community of several hundred people on the St. Marks River, about 25 miles south of Tallahassee. According to a 2003 survey of pre-20th century hurricanes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Big Bend also was hit by at least five more hurricanes in the 19th century (1871, 1873, 1877, 1886 and 1894), though few did significant damage in the then-lightly populated area.

Unnamed tropical storm of 1939

Aug. 13, 1939: Before storms were named (1953), a tropical storm crossed the peninsula in north-central Florida, then strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, before striking Carrabelle. Property damage was generally minor in the Panhandle, but Tallahassee suffered a loss: The winds uprooted many of the palm trees planted in 1921 along North Adams Street in an effort to create a promenade to the Governor's Mansion.

Hurricane Kate

Nov. 21, 1985: Hurricane Kate, a Category 2 hurricane, applied the most renowned hit to Tallahassee. Officially, Kate had fallen well below hurricane force winds by the time it passed through Tallahassee (46 mph winds sustained, 68 mph gusts), though forecasters say parts of Leon County in fact saw hurricane-force winds. Kate spawned a series of wind downbursts that wreaked havoc on the city.

Thousands of trees fell on roads, homes and power lines. About 90 percent of Tallahassee lost power for several days, schools were closed for a week and it took months to clean up 250,000 cubic yards of downed trees.

Tropical Storm Allison

June 11-12, 2001: Tropical Storm Allison did so much damage in Texas it became the only tropical storm to have its name retired without having reached hurricane status. Though it skirted Tallahassee, it left a historical calling card: 10.13 inches of rain, the all-time Tallahassee record for rainfall in a 24-hour period. A Florida State University freshman was killed after rushing flood waters swept his car into a downtown culvert.

Hurricane Dennis

July 10-12, 2005: Hurricane Dennis made landfall relatively far from the Big Bend, hitting Navarre Beach with Category 3 winds. But it approached the coastline at just the right angle to send 9-plus feet of catastrophic storm surge into Franklin and Wakulla counties, wrecking seafood houses and other small businesses and tearing up parts of Highway 98.

Dennis severely damaged or destroyed a number of popular restaurants, including Angelo's Restaurant in Panacea and Posey's Oyster Bar in St. Marks.

Hurricane Hermine

Sept. 2, 2016: Hurricane Hermine, one of the worst storms to ever hit Tallahassee and a particularly harrowing one that struck overnight, left 100,000 city and Talquin Electric customers without power after making landfall near the Wakulla/Jefferson county line.

The Category 1 hurricane toppled 800 trees and damaged more than 700 homes in the area, leaving behind 35,000 tons of debris. The pace of repairs and power restoration prompted criticism from the public and quarrels between then-Gov. Rick Scott and then-Mayor Andrew Gillum, making Hermine one of the first politicized storms to hit the capital city.

Hurricane Irma

Sept. 10-11, 2017: Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the Atlantic Ocean, hit the Florida Keys with 130 mph winds before making a second landfall at Marco Island. By the time Irma reached the Big Bend, it had lost much of its oomph.

But even as a downgraded tropical storm, it cut power to thousands in the Tallahassee area, knocked trees onto houses and prompted numerous businesses to shut down ahead of its arrival. Thousands of evacuees from elsewhere in Florida took shelter in Tallahassee. Three area residents were killed in the storm, one in a car crash and two from carbon monoxide from a generator.

Hurricane Michael

Oct. 10, 2018: Hurricane Michael, the first Category 5 storm to hit the Florida Panhandle, leveled Mexico Beach after making landfall near there and caused catastrophic damage from Bay County into the western Big Bend. It pushed an estimated 10-12 feet of storm surge into Franklin and Wakulla counties, reduced buildings to rubble in Marianna and wiped out numerous crops in Panhandle counties, from cotton to timber.

In Leon County, Michael left 97% of customers in the dark and blocked more than 1,000 road segments with nearly a million cubic yards of debris.

Hurricane Idalia

Aug 30, 2023: The night before Idalia made landfall, forecasters and officials in Tallahassee warned that the storm, the first major hurricane to hit the Apalachee Bay, could prove historic in its scope of damage to the capital city. A fateful turn to the east sent Idalia crashing into the coast near Keaton Beach, instead.

It caused major damage to Steinhatchee, Cedar Key and other coastal communities and brought prolonged power outages throughout the eastern Big Bend and Nature Coast. In Tallahassee, some 35% of city electric customers lost power, though most were up and running within about 48 hours.

This story was updated by Jeff Burlew from a 2015 story by the late Tallahassee Democrat columnist Gerald Ensley. Ensley died in 2018.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Hurricane history: Tallahassee's hits and near misses since the 1800s