Hurricane Fifi
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- This article is about the 1974 hurricane; there was also a Hurricane Fifi during the 1958 Atlantic hurricane season.
| Duration | Sept. 14 - Oct. 10, 1974 |
| Highest winds | 110 mph (175 km/h) as Fifi, 90 mph (140 km/h) as Orlene sustained |
| Damages | $20 billion (2005 dollars) (mostly as Fifi) |
| Fatalities | 6,000 - 10,000 direct (mostly as Fifi) |
| Areas affected | Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico (as Fifi), southwestern Mexico (as Orlene) |
| Part of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season and the 1974 Pacific hurricane season | |
Hurricane Fifi-Orlene, usually known as just Hurricane Fifi was a catastrophic storm the 1974 Atlantic and was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin.
Contents |
Storm History
Hurricane Fifi
A tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa on September 8 became a tropical depression in the eastern Caribbean Sea on September 14th. It moved westward, slowly strengthening to a tropical storm on the 16th. Conditions became favorable for further developent, and Fifi became a hurricane on the 17th.
Fifi reached a peak of 110 mph winds, just before skimming the northern coast of Honduras on the 18th and 19th. The hurricane made landfall as a category 2 storm in Belize on the 19th, and continued through Guatemala and Mexico as a tropical system. After weakening to a depression, Fifi emerged into the Pacific, the first crossover storm since Hurricane Irene-Olivia in 1971.
Fifi, only a Category 2 hurricane at its strongest, skirted the north coast of Honduras, causing massive flooding from the inflow of southerly winds. The rains collected in rivers, which caused enormous amounts of physical and economic damage to poor villages, small towns, and commercial banana plantations when it made landfall in Honduras. Although estimates of the number killed range from 3000 to 10,000, a figure of 8,000 dead is generally accepted. Most deaths may have been caused by the flooding due to the rainfall that accompanied the hurricane.
Hurricane Orlene
The depression quickly restrengthened into Tropical Storm Orlene on the 22nd. Orlene hugged the coast steadily strengthened into a 90 mph hurricane on the 21st. Orlene, having recurved to the northeast, made landfall late on the 21st, and dissipated shortly thereafter.
Death Toll and Cost
| Costliest Atlantic hurricanes, 1851-2004 Cost refers to total estimated property damage. |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Hurricane | Year | Cost (2004 USD) | ||||
| 1 | Andrew | 1992 | $43.672 billion | ||||
| 2 | Fifi | 1974 | $20 billion (2005 USD) | ||||
| 3 | Charley | 2004 | $15 billion | ||||
| 4 | Ivan | 2004 | $14.2 billion | ||||
| 5 | Hugo | 1989 | $12.25 billion | ||||
| Source: NOAA | |||||||
Hurricane Fifi is usually considered the fourth deadliest hurricane in history, though uncertainty about the number of deaths caused by Fifi and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 could place it as the third deadliest ever.
Fifi is the second costliest storm in history, with a total damage cost of $5 billion (1974 dollars).
The name "Fifi" was retired following this storm.
