Hurricane Hermine (2016)

Hermine, which formed in the Straits of Florida on August 28, 2016, made landfall on Florida's Big Bend coast just east of St. Marks at 0530 UTC (1:30 a.m. EDT) on September 2.¹ It came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane with 70-knot (81 mph) winds and a central pressure of 981 mb, then crossed Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina as a tropical storm.¹

Surge and tide flooded the immediate coast of Jefferson, Taylor, Dixie and Levy counties 4 to 7 feet above ground, and USGS surveyed a high water mark of 6.5 feet above ground in Taylor County.¹ The Cedar Key tide gauge measured 7.50 feet of surge and its highest water level in records going back to 1914.¹ Water rose 2 to 4 feet above ground from south of Cedar Key to Fort Myers, including Tampa Bay, and from St. Marks west to Cape San Blas.¹ The only hurricane-force gust measured on land while Hermine was a tropical cyclone was 68 knots (78 mph), at Bald Point State Park.¹ Rain totaled 22.36 inches near Tarpon Springs and flooded streets and low-lying areas along Florida's west coast, especially in Pinellas County.¹ Hermine produced 10 tornadoes, including an EF1 on Skidaway Island near Savannah that damaged numerous homes.¹

In Florida, 1,600 homes and businesses were destroyed or left uninhabitable, many in Franklin, Wakulla, Taylor, Dixie and Levy counties, mainly from surge and wind.¹ After Hermine became post-tropical, sound-side surge flooded parts of the Outer Banks 2 to 4 feet deep, and Dare County put its damage at $5.4 million, mostly in Hatteras village and Frisco.¹ NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information estimates about $550 million in wind and water damage.¹ NHC counts one direct death while Hermine was a tropical cyclone, in Ocala, Florida.¹