Hurricane Claudette

Landfall | Summary
Posting Date: July 15, 2003, 1:00:00 PM

Hurricane Claudette made landfall as a category 1 hurricane along the Texas coastline at Matagorda Bay around noon today, July 15, 2003. Landfall location was about 15 miles (24 km) west of Port O'Connor and about 25 miles (40 km) south southeast of Victoria. Claudette is moving toward the west-northwest at about 12 mph (19 kph), and should continue to do so for the next 24 hours, as the hurricane dissipates over land. Current maximum sustained winds remain near 80 mph (129 kph) with higher gusts. Minimum central pressure was estimated at 982 mb just before landfall. There are unofficial reports of wind gusts of 84 mph (135 kph) at Port Lavaca and 88 mph (142 kph) at a power plant in Matagorda County. Reports of damage include trees uprooted, roofs blown off, and traffic lights toppled in 80mph to 90 mph winds. At Galveston, waves crashed over a 17-foot seawall, and a portion of a fishing pier collapsed. Heavy rain closed many roads in the area. Using the most recent information about the meteorological parameters of this storm, the AIR tropical cyclone modeling team has run several scenarios representing a variety of assumptions about the storm's future track and intensity. Because the storm was relatively weak and made landfall along a relatively undeveloped section of the coast, most scenarios show losses of under $100 million. All clients can now view wind speed and loss maps on the Scenarios page of this web site. In addition, event sets representing the full range of simulated scenarios are available for download.

Landfall | Downloads
Posting Date: July 15, 2003, 1:00:00 PM