Hurricane Alicia

**Hurricane Alicia** was the first named storm and first hurricane of the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season. Alicia was the season's strongest and deadliest storm. It killed a total of 21 people and caused $2.6 billion (1983 dollars) in damage. It was the most destructive Texan hurricane since Hurricane Carla in 1961.

Hurricane Alicia formed from Tropical Depression Three on August 15 in the Gulf of Mexico and slowly moved west towards Texas, where it made landfall on August 18 at its strongest point with 115 mph (185 km/h) winds. Alicia quickly weakened into a tropical depression before dissipating overland on August 21.

## Storm history
A mesoscale low formed off the Alabama and Mississippi coasts on August 14 with a weak frontal trough that had formed off of New England. Pressures were high in the Gulf of Mexico, but the low strengthened into Tropical Depression Three on August 15. A ship located within 60&nbsp;miles of the depression reported a pressure of 1015.5 millibars and the storm was upgraded to Tropical Storm Alicia late on August 15. With the high Gulf pressures, Alicia was unable to gain size, so it stayed very small, but created faster winds, and became a Category 1 hurricane on August 16. Steering currents were weak during Alicia's lifetime over water. A new frontal ridge had formed on August 17 which caused the storm to slowly move in a westerly direction.

Alicia then began to take a more northern direction on August 18 to Port Arthur, Texas. During that time, the hurricane began to gain strength at about 1 mbar an hour, peaking at 963 mbar with winds of 115&nbsp;mph (185&nbsp;km/h) on the morning of the 18th. Just before landfall, Alicia showed a rare "double eye" feature for a few hours. The storm made landfall in Texas as a category 3 hurricane at about 1:45&nbsp;a.m. CDT on Thursday, August 18.  Residents did not take the warnings seriously. Galveston Mayor E. Gus Manuel, against the advice of Texas Governor Mark White, ordered the evacuation of only low-lying areas.

30% of Galveston's population evacuated the island when Hurricane Allen threatened the eastern Texas coastline in 1980; only 10% of the population living behind the seawall chose to leave when Alicia made landfall. Throughout the day, however, as increasing winds began to cause damage in Galveston, people grew more worried. The mayor finally ordered a widespread evacuation of the island after midnight on August 18, but by then the bridges to the mainland were broken. Maximum rainfall in the Houston area in Harris County was about 10-11&nbsp;inches. 8&nbsp;inches of rain was reported in Leon County and 9&nbsp;inches in the Sabine River area. High gusts were also reported throughout Texas with a maximum gust of 125&nbsp;mph reported on the Coast Guard cutter Buttonwood  stationed at the northeastern part of Galveston Island. An oil spill occurred around Texas City and an ocean-going tugboat capsized 50&nbsp;miles of the Sabine Pass coast. The Coast Guard Air Station Houston (AIRSTA) weathered Alicia with minimal damage, and afterwards AIRSTA's helicopters helped residents with evacuation, supply, and survey flights.

The Galveston NWS office (temporarily) lost its radar. Houston suffered billions of dollars in damage. Thousands of glass panes in downtown skyscrapers were shattered by gravel blown off rooftops. Houston Lighting and Power reported that about 750,000 homes were without electricity after Alicia hit. Many stores had to stay closed for days afterward due to risks of falling glass in the area. In Galveston, the western beach had its public beach boundary shifted back about 150&nbsp;feet. Alicia also did damage to chemical and petrochemical plants in Houston.

Hurricane Carla in the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season hit a less populated area. Alicia hit a more populated area. Had Alicia been the size or strength of Carla, damage could have easily doubled or tripled.

### Other states
Rains reached up to 5&nbsp;inches in the southern-central part of Texas.  Kansas only got 1-3&nbsp;inches which were recorded in the eastern to central parts of the state. The southeast part of Nebraska received one inch of rain from Alicia's remnants. Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Louisiana and Wisconsin all received one inch of rainfall.

Hurricane Alicia brought useful rains to the southern Great Plains, which had been suffering from a drought for much of the summer of 1983. In the end, Hurricane Alicia killed 21 people and caused $2 billion in damage ($5.27 billion in 2006 dollars).

## Aftermath and retirement
### Aftermath
The Red Cross had to provide food and shelter to 63,000 people in the hurricane's wake, costing to about 166 million dollars.

### Retirement
The name Alicia was retired in the spring of 1984, becoming the 30th storm name to be retired. It will never again be used for an Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced with Allison in the 1989 season. The name Allison was  retired after doing major damage to the same area in 2001.

## Trivia
* Hurricane Alicia became the last major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) to strike Texas until Hurricane Bret made landfall in 1999.
* Alicia was the first storm for which the National Hurricane Center began to predict landfall probabilities.
* It hit southeast Texas, becoming the first hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Allen in September 1980. The time between the two storms totaled out to three years and eight days (998 days). The streak was the longest since a period of almost three years occurred from September 1929 to August 1932.

## Related pages
* 1983 Atlantic hurricane season

## References
## Other websites
* [ftp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/pub/storm_archives/atlantic/prelimat/atl1983/alicia/ NHC Alicia Report]