Hurricane Hazel (1954)

Hazel made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near Calabash, North Carolina, close to the South Carolina line, on the morning of October 15, 1954, after crossing western Haiti.^1,2 NHC's best track puts landfall at 1530 UTC (10:30 a.m. EST) with sustained winds of 115 knots (132 mph) and a central pressure of 938 mb.³

Storm surge topped 12 feet along a long stretch of coast and reached 18 feet at Calabash, arriving with the year's highest lunar tide.² In Long Beach, North Carolina, only 5 of 357 buildings were left standing, and most coastal homes in Brunswick County were destroyed or badly damaged.² A December 1954 report on that year's hurricanes said every pier along 170 miles of coastline was demolished.² In Myrtle Beach, 80 percent or more of the first row of beachfront structures were destroyed.⁴ The Cape Fear River at downtown Wilmington rose to 8.15 feet above mean lower low water, its highest recorded stage, and NWS Wilmington estimates Water Street flooded nearly 3 feet deep.⁴ North Carolina had 15,000 homes destroyed and 39,000 more damaged.²

Measured gusts reached 106 mph at Myrtle Beach, 98 mph at Wilmington, 110 mph at Fayetteville and 90 mph at Raleigh-Durham Airport.^1,2,4 Farther north, Washington, D.C., recorded sustained winds of 78 mph, and the Battery in Manhattan recorded a 113 mph gust.^1,2 NHC counts 95 deaths and $281 million in damage in the United States from Hazel.¹