Hurricane Zeta (2020)

Zeta made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, at about 4 p.m. CDT on October 28, 2020, as a Category 3 hurricane with 100-knot (115 mph) winds and a central pressure of 970 mb, after crossing Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.¹ Its eye passed over New Orleans a couple of hours later, and it stayed a hurricane across southern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama until it weakened just south of Tuscaloosa early on October 29.¹

Measured gusts included 96 knots (110 mph) at Golden Meadow, Louisiana, 88 knots (101 mph) at Gulfport, Mississippi, and 79 knots (91 mph) at Mobile Regional Airport.¹ In Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, hundreds of homes had significant wind damage, many with roofs lost or badly damaged, and about 100 homes were destroyed.¹ Up to 10,000 homes were damaged by wind or debris in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, Mississippi.¹ In Alabama, many homes in Baldwin and Mobile counties had roof damage or were hit by trees, and hundreds more were damaged, mostly by falling trees, in Washington, Choctaw, Clarke, Wilcox and Monroe counties.¹

Storm surge reached 6 to 10 feet above ground along the Mississippi coast, mainly in the back bays, on the Alabama coast west of Mobile Bay, and in Plaquemines Parish west of the levee between Port Sulphur and Empire.¹ Surge flooded several homes and businesses in Leeville and Golden Meadow, Louisiana, covered part of Water Street in downtown Mobile and damaged businesses on the eastern US 90 Causeway in Baldwin County.¹ NHC counts five direct deaths, one from surge in Biloxi and four from trees falling on homes in Georgia and Alabama.¹ NOAA's NCEI puts US damage at $4.4 billion, including $1.25 billion in Louisiana, $1.1 billion in Georgia, $840 million in Alabama and $635 million in Mississippi.¹