King of Hurricanes: Remembering Gilbert's Five Days of Fury Posted on Mon, 02 Nov 1998 13:38:20 GMT Written by Michele Turk, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org As the remnants of Hurricane Mitch dissipate across Central America, its destructive legacy conjures up images of a powerful predecessor that rewrote the record books as the single most powerful hurricane ever recorded during the Atlantic hurricane season. Known at the time as the "storm of the century," Hurricane Gilbert pursued a path similar to Mitch, but with one major difference: unlike Mitch, Gilbert actually intensified as it made its way toward landfall. Gilbert first struck land on Sept. 12, 1988, when it hammered the island of Jamaica, unleashing torrential rains and 115 mph winds. The hurricane ripped the roofs off of buildings, including a local hospital, pounded the beachfront resorts of Ocho Rios with 20-foot waves, and knocked out power, cutting off the island's 2.3 million residents from the outside world. The captain of this ship said his massive anchors held until Gilbert's winds reached 125 mph. The brunt of the storm hit the capital of Kingston, where wind gusts up to 140 mph were recorded, seriously damaging the Kingston airport and tossing airplanes across the tarmac. All tolled, 26 people were killed and 500,000 were left homeless on the island nation. Jamaica hadn't taken a direct hit so devastating since 1951, when a tropical storm killed 150 people. The Jamaican Prime Minister, Edward Seaga, called Gilbert "the worst natural disaster Jamaica has experienced in its modern history." But Gilbert was only getting started. As it churned toward its next target, the Cayman Islands, it gained strength, increasing to a Category 4 storm. On Sept. 13, Gilbert set upon the tiny archipelago with 140 mph winds, again causing widespread devastation. At its height, Gilbert packed winds of 184 mph gusts of 218 mph, and was the size of Texas. Shortly after ravaging the Caymans, Gilbert intensified to a monstrous Category 5 storm with 175 mph winds. As it roared toward the tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Gilbert reached the lowest barometric sea level pressure ever measured in the Western Hemisphere at 26.22 inches (888 millibars) of mercury. Barometric pressure is the most accurate gauge of a storm's strength, determining how much fuel the hurricane will be capable of harnessing from warm ocean waters; the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm. Gilbert broke the previous record of 26.35 inches during an infamous 1935 hurricane that devastated the Florida Keys (hurricanes still weren't named in 1935). Gilbert was enormous in both its intensity and its size, encompassing an area roughly the size of Texas. On Sept. 14, the eye of the storm swirled over the Mexican resort areas of Cozumel and Cancun with 160 mph winds -- the first time a Category 5 storm had struck land in the Western Hemisphere since 1969, when Hurricane Camille battered the U.S. Gulf Coast. Gilbert ravaged the Yucatan Peninsula with 23-foot waves and 218 mph wind gusts, devastating the beachfront resorts and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate the area. Miraculously, the storm only killed 29 people, but it destroyed buildings, tossed boats ashore and triggered widespread flooding. The hurricane caused more than $880 million in damage and left nearly 200,000 homeless. Again, however, Gilbert wasn't done. For two days, Gilbert churned across the Gulf of Mexico, its winds slowing to 125 mph. Unfortunately, the storm again targeted Mexico for landfall, this time near the Texas border. Torrential rains unleashed a flashflood in the industrial city of Monterrey that killed at least 200 when four buses and dozens of cars were washed away and buried under mud, rocks and debris. Finally, mercifully, Gilbert started to dissipate, but not before pummeling Texas with torrential rains and spawning 29 tornadoes that killed three people in the Lone Star State and Oklahoma. Remnants of the hurricane dumped rain as far north as Illinois and caused flooding in the Midwest.   Category 1: Central pressure of 28.94 inches or more and sustained wind of 74 to 95 mph, is accompanied by a 4- to 5-foot storm surge and causes minimal damage. Category 2: Pressure 28.50 to 28.93 inches, sustained wind of 96 to 110 mph, storm surge 6 to 8 feet, moderate damage. Category 3: Pressure 27.91 to 28.49 inches, sustained wind of 111 to 130 mph, storm surge 9 to 12 feet, extensive damage. Category 4: Pressure 27.17 to 27.90 inches, sustained wind 131 to 155 mph, storm surge 13 to 18 feet, extreme damage. Category 5: Pressure less than 27.17 inches, sustained wind of 155 mph, storm surge higher than 18 feet, catastrophic damage.