ACC PREVIEW PAGE, A9 WHAT SOUTHERN YOUR HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1937 FOLKS EAT, B1 Thursday, September 5, 2019 For breaking news, visit starfl .com @PSJ_Star facebook.com/psjstar 50¢ HURRICANE DORIAN One for the record books Where does Dorian rank in wind speed? By Jim Coleman Gatehouse Media Florida While Hurricane Dorian spared Gulf County and the Gulf Coast and was no longer posing a danger here Wednesday, things weren't so clear Friday when the threat of the monster storm led to Gulf County schools deciding to close Tuesday out of an abundance of caution. The damage Dorian unleashed on the Bahamas will break records, experts say, and it remains to be seen what will happen up the east- ern U.S. coast. But it will be recorded, a practice that began in 1851 and since then, there have been 1,574 systems of tropical storm intensity and 912 hurricanes. In terms of wind speed, Hurri- cane Allen (1980) was the strongest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record, with maximum sustained winds of 190 mph. Allen was a powerful A photo provided by NASA shows the eye of Hurricane Dorian over the Bahamas on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. Dorian, now a Category 3 Cape Verde hurricane that struck storm, fi nally began to slowly move away from the Bahamas early Tuesday as the U.S. waits to see what destructive path it would take. the Caribbean, Mexico and south- [CHRISTINA KOCH/NASA VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES] ern Texas in August that year. (These maximum wind speeds are not the wind speeds of the storms when they made landfall; only four The atmosphere stoked a killer, then swatted it down storms have hit the U.S. as Cat- egory 5's at the time of landfall, including Hurricane Michael last By Kimberly Miller Oct. 10). Gatehouse Media Florida For many years, it was thought that Hurricane Camille also A muted sun rose on attained this intensity, but that Grand Bahama Island on was changed in 2014. The origi- Tuesday as Dorian scoured nal measurements of Camille the tropical savanna, a sta- are suspect because wind speed tionary system waiting for a instrumentation used at the time dimple in the jet stream – a was likely damaged. Camille ended hiccup in upper-level winds up with maximum sustained winds - to nudge it from its deadly of 175 mph. complacency. So where does Hurricane Dorian A low-pressure trough rank in terms of all-time Atlantic came as if in slow motion, hurricanes by wind speed? moving east to bully the 190 mph - Allen (1980): Reached tropical cyclone out of the Category 5 status on three separate way like a bouncer tossing a occasions. Gained steam through drunk from a bar. tropical waters in the Atlantic But that was after a more- Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of than-30-hour razing of the A catamaran thrown onshore by the hurricane lays stranded near a highway close to Freeport, Grand Mexico. Battered Haiti, Mexico Northern Bahamas by an Bahama, Bahamas, Tuesday Sept. 3, 2019. Relief offi cials reported scenes of utter ruin in parts of the and southern Texas. Killed 269. Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, See RECORD, A2 the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands. [AP PHOTO/RAMON ESPINOSA] See RANK, A2 Franklin delays blessing shell mine By David Adlerstein opposed, commissioners onb Chris Langston. Deborah Clifford, a prop- Gatehouse Media Florida Aug. 20 approved a motion by Before Langston and his erty owner on Pine Log Creek, Commissioner Smokey Par- consultant, Joe Shields, a not far from the mine site, APALACHICOLA — rish to wait until the governor former staffer in the aqua- and a certified green guide County commissioners have and cabinet have acted on a culture division of the Florida who leads kayak trips into put off deciding whether to soon-to-completed rewrite Department of Agriculture Tate’s Hell swamp, disputed bless a businessman’s plan of the 2007 management and Consumer Services, the company’s claim it would to mine fossilized shell in plan. presented to commissioners have “zero negative impacts Tate’s Hell State Forest until The commissioners’ deci- the proposal from Coastal on any adjacent wetlands or after state officials complete sion means that it will likely Environmental Management tributaries.” a rewrite of the 10-year man- be December at the earliest to mine about 600 acres on She said Langwood Indus- Chris Langston, a Crawfordville agement plan governing the when they decide whether to the northeast corner of the tries, a company run by businessman, spoke to county forest. write a letter of support for a county, on the eastern edge Langston and his brother commissioners on the issue By a 4-1 vote, with Com- proposed mining project by of the forest, it was met with at a recent meeting. [DAVID missioner Noah Lockley Crawfordville businessman public opposition. See FRANKLIN, A3 ADLERSTEIN | THE TIMES ] Volume 81 Number 48 Opinion ................. A4-5 School News .............. B3 B3 A8 Subscribe to The Star Outdoors ...................A8 Obituaries ................. B4 Phone: 800-345-8688 Sports....................... A9 Classifieds, legals ..B7-B8 S.O.A.R. Student Catch memory Community ................ B1 * ** A2 Thursday, September 5, 2019 | The Star graphic from 2 p.m. showed by the 10,000-foot moun- RECORD Dorian-charged winds spill- tains on Hispaniola. Instead it ing as far inland as Lion went over St. Lucia, knocking From Page A1 Country Safari. it off track and sending it east At its closest, the western of Puerto Rico, where it sailed edge of Dorian’s hurricane into hurricane heaven – an up-to-185 mph Category 5 winds came as near as 60 environment with low wind hurricane gorging on deeply miles to West Palm Beach, shear and warm water. warm waters, with no shear and within 100 miles of Weak steering currents and no mountains to break it Miami, as calculated by Brian deep in the atmosphere are apart. McNoldy, senior research to blame for Dorian’s aim- “It was just perfect timing associate at the Rosenstiel lessness over the northern for the storm to grow,” said School of Marine and Atmo- Bahamas. Jeff Weber, an atmospheric spheric Science. It had been riding under the scientist for the University Palm Beach County was Bermuda High, forging west Corporation for Atmospheric forecast to experience its at the behest of the perma- Research. “It blew up right speediest gusts Tuesday and nent clockwise churn in the Hurricane Dorian as seen by satellite Tuesday as it began between a trough and a ridge was kept under a tropical Atlantic. veering to the north, avoiding a South Florida landfall. and just sat in the doldrums, storm warning until it was But then it reached the literally.” lifted at 5 p.m. Records from western edge and stalled, the National Weather Service where it waited for a consti- 180 - Irma (2017): Devel- RELATED CONTENT between Monday afternoon pated atmosphere to fire up RANK oped from a tropical wave Hurricane Dorian: Palm and 3 p.m. Tuesday showed again. near Cape Verde on Aug. Beachers with homes in the Juno Beach Pier topping Typically a stationary hur- From Page A1 30 and rapidly intensified northern Bahamas try the wind-speed list with a 4 ricane will start churning up to a Cat 3 storm the next to assess damage, vow a.m. gale of 61 mph. Florida cooler water from below, and 185 - Dorian (2019): day. Peaked at 180 mph to help islands Atlantic University’s stadium that helps tame wind speeds. Became hurricane Aug. 28, Sept. 6 before slamming recorded a 41 mph gust, West “But in the Bahamas, it’s intensified to a Cat 4 storm into Cuba. Re-intensified September 3, 2019 Palm Beach reached 40 mph warm deeper and the Gulf on Aug. 31 and a Cat 5 on and made landfall again on By the 5 p.m. advisory and the Lake Worth Pier hit Stream runs near there, so Sept. 1. Made landfall in Cudjoe Key on Sept. 10. Tuesday from the National 39 mph. it’s constantly getting resup- Elbow City, Bahamas and Killed 134. Hurricane Center, the same The waves and swollen plied,” Klotzbach said. again in Grand Bahama. 180 - Rita (2005): atmosphere that stoked a high tides may end up being Florida was out of the 185 - Wilma (2005): Most Most intense hurricane killer had swatted it down the more damaging natu- forecast track cone Tuesday, intense storm recorded in in the Gulf of Mexico to a Category 2 hurricane, ral hazard from Hurricane but Dorian’s high winds are Atlantic basin (882 mbar hit Cat 5 status Sept. 21. urging it northwest at 6 mph Dorian. expected to hug the coast pressure) and became Made landfall in John- – a relatively swift pace from NWS meteorologist Paxton with hurricane-force gusts hurricane Oct. 18. In only son’s Bayou, Louisiana. its overnight stall and a day at Fell said seas were forecast to getting cozy with the Cape 24 hours, it became a Cat Saturated low-lying com- just 1 mph. be as high as 21 feet in the Gulf Canaveral bump. 5. Made landfall in Cape munities, worsening areas In the previous 24 hours, Stream with more inland seas Dorian is expected to Romano, Fla. and raced devastated by Katrina a Dorian had only traveled rising to 15 feet. remain a Category 2 storm across the state to Palm month earlier. Killed 120. about 40 miles, according High tides swollen by into Thursday as it follows Beach County.