15th Anniversary of Hawaii's Hurricane Iniki Remembered

September 11 is an infamous date in United States history. Six years ago on that day, terrorists commandeered four commercial airliners, two of which slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City. The dead numbered 2,974.

Fewer people remember that September 11 is the 15th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Iniki on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Energized with winds of 140 miles per hour, Iniki's eye wall passed directly over Kauai, marking it as the most powerful hurricane ever to slam into the Hawaiian Islands and just the second ever to make landfall. Hurricane Dot, in 1959, was the other.

The vital stats on Iniki: six people dead, over a hundred injured, and three of every four homes on Kauai destroyed. Damages amounted to over $2 billion, according to NBC Weather Plus Network.

Nearly 20 tropical storms form off of South America and Mexico each year, according to USA Today Half reach hurricane strength (over 74 mph sustained winds). Pushed west toward Hawaii by the typical oceanic wind pattern, few of these storms sustain themselves to threaten the Islands because of the distance they have to travel and because the cooler water surrounding the Hawaiian chain denies the storm the energy it needs to maintain itself. The late summer months of August and September, when the ocean temperatures are warmest, are the windows when the hurricane threat to Hawaii are the greatest.

According to the University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology, storms traveling toward Hawaii directly from the east typically weaken east of the Islands due to cooling waters in that locale and high level wind conditions that shear off the top of approaching weather systems.

Unfortunately, wind direction and ocean temperatures vary, leaving loopholes of a sort that allow potentially destructive depressions and tropical storms to reach Hawaii from the east at least during the past 60 years of recorded weather patterns. According to the University of Hawaii, evidence exists of an 1871 hurricane that approached the islands from the east and struck Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii.

Hurricanes Dot and Iniki approached from the south and then struck Kauai.

Three weeks ago, Hurricane Flossie passed south of the island chain and then weakened and dissipated as it continued its westward track across the Pacific.
As the 15th anniversary of Iniki approaches, two storms are presently brewing in the Eastern Pacific. Tropical Storm Henriette, located presently in the waters south of the Baja Peninsula, is forecast to build to hurricane strength in the next day or so but appears not to be a threat to Hawaii. Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Gil is fizzling out to nothingness.

Are more storms likely to form in the weeks ahead? Perhaps. It is the hope of Hawaii residents, particularly residents of Kauai who survived Iniki, that 9/11/07 passes uneventfully.