Hurricane Barry took place July 11th-19th, 2019 primarily in Marsh Island, Louisiana and in Intracoastal City, Louisiana. These cities lie near a Latitude of 29.3 North and Longitude of 91.9 West (AccuWeather 2019). Although Hurricane Barry is mostly known for its large impact on the central coast of Louisiana, other states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Mississippi, also suffered many minor damages due to the strong winds and rain of Hurricane Barry. Before Barry was officially considered a hurricane, a hurricane had not developed in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Cindy in 2017 (AccuWeather 2019). Barry has been traced back to having began as a mesovortices over the midwestern United States, specifically Kansas, on July 4th, 2019 (Nhc.noaa.gov 2019). The system gradually was able to make its way over to the Gulf of Mexico on July 10th by passing through Tennessee, Georgia, and the eastern Florida Panhandle. When the system finally reached the Gulf of Mexico, it was almost immediately classified as a tropical cyclone, named Tropical Cyclone Barry. (Nhc.noaa.gov 2019).
Some of the beginning signs of Hurricane Barry consisted of tropical storms, and a widespread abundance of rainfall and thunderstorms along the southeastern coast of the United States. As Barry was forming a large ridge, or elongated area of high atmospheric pressure, was over the central and western United States (Wpc.ncep.noaa.gov 2019). Because of this large ridge, it caused Tropical Cyclone Barry to be pushed out more towards the southern portion of the United States, which is why Hurricane Barry took place primarily off the coast of Louisiana.
Barry became the second named storm of the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season, and when it reached its maximum wind speed of 75mph and low pressure of 991mbar on July 13th, it became the first official hurricane of the season (AccuWeather 2019). When it had reached its hurricane status, Barry touched land both in Marsh Island and Intracoastal City, Louisiana, and proceeded to progress further on land for about a 24 hour period. In preparation for Hurricane Barry to hit, Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, declared a state of emergency on July 12th, 2019, and on the same day, he requested a federal disaster declaration for the entire state, which was approved later that evening. When the storm weakened on July 15th, Barry was classified back down to a tropical storm status and degenerated over Arkansas. As Hurricane Barry was nearing its end, it slowly weakened and simultaneously moved eastward. Finally on the morning of July 19th, 2019, the remains of Barry were drawn up by another frontal system, or low pressure area off the coast of New Jersey, and the atmospheric pressure along the southeastern coast was able to return back to normal (The Weather Channel 2019).
Although Hurricane Barry only ever reached a category 1 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the scale in which classifies hurricanes, there were still multiple minor damages and a few major damages that can be attributed to Hurricane Barry. Among the many rescue calls by distressed swimmers in Panama City Beach, Florida, there was one older man who was unable to make it out of the waters in which unfortunately resulted in his passing. This is the only death that is attributed to Hurricane Barry (Rocha 2019). However, there were many people in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi who were rescued because of fast moving waters. Because of Hurricane Barry’s strong winds, a tornado blew through New Orleans, Louisiana in which causing the complete damage of two homes. Fortunately, not many homes were damaged, but many people in Louisiana did experience multiple day power outages and on the banks of the Atchafalaya River in Morgan City, Louisiana, there was heavy flooding in which caused some damage to the homes, streets, roads, and other features of the city making it difficult to get places (The Weather Channel 2019).
Although hurricane Barry was only responsible for one death, there were many different places along the coast of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and even in southern Ontario that were significantly impacted by Hurricane Barry, and had to bare the expenses of fixing their state’s damages. For example, in Mobile, Alabama, there were over 80,000 gallons of water flooding into the streets resulting in the closing of highly attended beaches such as Gulf Shores and Orange Beach (AccuWeather 2019). Hurricane Barry made state history in Arkansas by being the state’s wettest tropical cyclone. The state of Arkansas experienced a total of 16.59 inches of rainfall near the city of Dierks (AccuWeather 2019). Louisiana was even experiencing damages before Hurricane Barry was even declared a true hurricane. Flooding occurred in New Orleans on July 10th due to the amount of rain in Barry’s developing stages. Barry also caused damages in southern Ontario on July 17th in which flash flooding occurred on the highway leading to multiple cars immersed in water. Toronto had not seen this much rainfall in the month of July since 2013 (AccuWeather 2019). Since Hurricane Barry was not as dramatic as other hurricanes we have seen in the last five years, not many people think of it as having impacted the United States very much, but even for a lesser hurricane we still see expenses quickly add up. Ultimately, the damages caused by Hurricane Barry added up quickly amongst all the areas it impacted, and to repair all of the destruction ended up costing $600-650 million (Nhc.noaa.gov 2019).
Fortunately for the people living on the southeastern coast of the United States, Hurricane Barry was short lived. It was a quick forming hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that meteorologists were able to quickly predict because of its early forming mesoscale convective vortex in the midwestern United States about a week and a half before it was declared a category 1 hurricane. It fluctuated from tropical storm to cyclone to hurricane and then back to tropical storm, but it is still an interesting natural disaster to study because of its mild severity compared to what is normally thought of when one hears the term hurricane. Hurricanes do not always have to be massive, destructive, and long-lasting to be classified as one, rather, they come in all different types of intensities to be measured.
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Hurricane Barry Essay.
(2022, September 15). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/hurricane-barry-essay/
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