Remembering Hurricane Dennis

On Saturday, July 9, 2005, I was on the Alabama Gulf Coast with Brian Peters and the team from ABC3340. I had volunteered to go along as Brian’s gopher, monitoring data and maintaining our web presence from the coast. We left Birmingham on Friday night and got into Foley about midnight. Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful

Dennis had formed over the Caribbean and quickly grew into a Category Four monster before it ran into Cuba on Friday. A weakened Hurricane Dennis had entered the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and turned north northwestward Saturday morning. The storm underwent a period of rapid intensification during the day, with the central pressure dropping 37 mb in 24 hours and a whopping 11 mb in 1 hour and 35 minutes. By 4 p.m., it was evident that Dennis would again become a major hurricane overnight. It was expected to make landfall near Pensacola on Sunday. The first squalls began arriving during the afternoon.

When we got back to the hotel late Saturday night, the silence was deafening. The night before, the frogs had been so incredibly loud, but by late Saturday, they were gone. We slept a few hours and were back out at 5 a.m. ready to go. Dennis had become a category four monster with a central pressure of 930 mb and top winds of 145 mph. Frightening.

It was my first experience being directly in the path of a landfalling hurricane. It felt exactly as I had expected, with very strong, mournful winds and humidity that you could cut with a knife. I had always known what tornado weather felt like. Now I knew what hurricane weather was.

Dennis would make landfall between Gulf Breeze and Navarre Beach, Florida Sunday morning. The hurricane weakened slightly before landfall with the central pressure rising to 946 mb, but still had top winds of 120 mph. The storm surge was 6-7 feet. Damage totaled just over $2 billion. 3 U.S. deaths were reported.

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