Hurricane Marilyn

**Hurricane Marilyn** was the fifteenth tropical depression and thirteenth named storm of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season.  Hurricane Marilyn was the strongest storm to hit the Virgin Islands since Hurricane Hugo of 1989, and caused thirteen deaths and more than $2 billion in damage. The system continued west for a few days at about .  On September 12, what was to be Hurricane Marilyn was named Tropical Depression Fifteen after convection increased.  TD-15 strengthened quickly, and became Tropical Storm Marilyn six hours later.  Four hours later Tropical Storm Marilyn became Hurricane Marilyn.

For the next few days, Marilyn went towards the northwest. Marilyn was a Category 1-hurricane when the center of the storm passed  north of Barbados.
Marilyn started weakening fast, falling from its highest winds of  down to 102&nbsp;mph. At 2100 UTC, a Hurricane Warning was issued for Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenadines, St. Lucia and a hurricane watch for Dominica. A hurricane watch as released for Martinique on the 14th. The 2100 UTC September 13 was extended for the Grenadines through St. Martin, except Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy and French portion of St. Martin. At 1500 UTC, Puerto Rico was put under a Hurricane Watch. At 1700 UTC, Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy, and the French part of St. Martin were put under a hurricane watch.  Four hours later, Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and Guadeloupe were put under a hurricane warning. This warning was removed within 48&nbsp;hours.  At 1500 UTC September 18, Bermuda went under a Tropical Storm Watch, which was upgraded to a warning in six hours. The warning was removed  on September 19.

The 250,000 people living in the Barbados spent the night of September 13 in shelters.

## Impact
Marilyn caused a lot of damage and 13 deaths in the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

### Guadeloupe
Rainfalls over 12-hours in Guadeloupe were up to  in Saint-Claude, 19.09&nbsp;inches in Guillard-Basse-Terre and 17.63 in Gaba. The highest wind gust reported in Guadeloupe was 84 mph in Marie-Galante. The next ones were  in Raizet and  in Desirade. The highest sustained winds reported in Guadeloupe was  in Marie-Galante. Elsewhere in the territory, there was severe damage on St. Croix and St. John.

### Puerto Rico
The highest rainfalls in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Marilyn were , and the greatest gusts reported were  in Culebra.  Marilyn passed over the islands of Vieques and Culebra, where it caused much damage.

There were reports of broad flash flooding across northern and eastern Puerto Rico.  One person was killed in Culebra.

### Antigua
The highest reported wind gust in Antigua was . The Antigua Meteorological Service reported that the island had broad flooding and damage to banana trees.  The other damage reported was from the wind.

### Other areas
Bermuda reported sustained winds of 45 mph and a highest gust of . Antigua reported sustained winds of .  In St. Maarten, sustained winds were 42½ mph and the peak gust was .  Rainfalls in St. Maarten peaked at 3.35&nbsp;inches in an unknown location.

### U.S. Virgin Islands
80% of the homes on St. Thomas were destroyed or damaged.  Also, 20 to 30% of businesses were destroyed.  More than 2,100 federal agency personnel had been sent out to help out with the cleanup from Hurricane Marilyn.  Four contracts were quickly accepted for immediate building repairs.  Diving teams were sent to check for harbor damage and United States Navy Seabees started working on fixing  public buildings.  The airport in St. Thomas was open for flight using a mobile control tower. The St. Thomas hospital was open, but was running on generators.

The first FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers opened on 23 September on St. Thomas.  A report indicated that by 11 October 1500 loans were granted for home repair, mostly for under $2500. Over 19,000 disaster housing applications were filed with over 2800 being accepted. About 5000 of 15,000 assigned inspections were completed. Over 7800 applications for Individual and Family Grants had been received and, of the 4,000 SBA loan applications filed, 43 had been approved for a total of $744,100 - an average loan of $17,300.

In all, Marilyn caused $1.5&nbsp;billion (1995&nbsp;USD) in damage, killing 13&nbsp;people in its path.

## Related pages
* List of Atlantic hurricanes
* Timeline of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season

## References
## Other websites
* NOAA storm data on Hurricane Marilyn
* HPC page on Hurricane Marilyn 
* NWS Service Assessment
* Marilyn path by UNISYS