Denis Major

[Toney Talbot]

On July 4th in 2005, Dennis formed as a tropical wave near the southern Windward Islands. Dennis strengthened into a tropical storm on the 5th of July as it moved west-northwest across the Caribbean Sea. Strengthening was persistent throughout the day on the 5th and Dennis intensified into a hurricane early on July 6th.

Over the next few days, Dennis steadily strengthened and intensified into a major hurricane on the 8th of July as it moved just south of Cuba. After Dennis moved across Cuba, it weakened to a Category 1 Hurricane for a short period of time before heading toward the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Coastal counties from Mobile to Destin were put under a Hurricane Watch at 3pm on July 8th.

For the second time in less than a week and third time in two months, the area was at risk of a tropical system. Dennis re-strengthened to a Category 4 Hurricane as it traversed across the Gulf of Mexico toward the northern Gulf Coast. A Hurricane Warning was issued for coastal counties from Mobile to Destin by 3am on the 9th. Slight weakening occurred as Dennis approached the region, just before it made landfall. However, Dennis still made landfall as a Category 3 Hurricane near Navarre Beach, FL at approximately 130pm on July 10th. Dennis moved north-northwest across Santa Rosa County and northeast Escambia County in Florida. The slowly weakening storm then moved into southern Alabama across western Escambia, southern Monroe, eastern Clarke and northeastern Choctaw Counties.

Even though Dennis made landfall as a major hurricane, it was a fast moving and rather small hurricane which limited the extent of the impacts closer to the path of the storm. The KMOB (Mobile, AL) radar loop above shows the progression of Hurricane Dennis as it approached the northwest Florida panhandle and moved inland across southwest Alabama. The full track of Hurricane Dennis can be seen in the map below.

It was estimated that most of the cotton crop in northwest Florida was from the heavy rains and high winds. The cotton crop also suffered damage across southern Alabama. A boat anchored in Cinco Bayou (Okaloosa County, FL) due to Hurricane Dennis was struck by lightning and caught on fire. Firefighters could not get to the boat since it was anchored in the bayou and they had to watch it burn. No one was onboard the boat at the time of the fire. The Air Force Bases at Eglin and Hurlburt reported over a half billion dollars in damage from Dennis.

There were zero direct deaths reported with Hurricane Dennis, however, there were 3 indirect deaths reported after the hurricane. 2 deaths were attributed to Carbon Monoxide poisoning in Escambia County, FL and 1 death was attributed to electrocution in Escambia County, AL. **All of the deaths were related to the improper use of emergency generators**

Significant tree and power line damage, as well as some structural damage, occurred across the entire northwest Florida panhandle. The worst of the damage occurred along the path of the eyewall as it moved inland across Santa Rosa County and the northeast part of Escambia County in Florida. Most of the structural damage to buildings was generally in the area from Navarre to Milton to Jay, FL. Nearly 200 homes in northwest Florida reported major damage.

Further west across the coastal counties of Alabama, the strongest wind gusts were generally 40-50mph, although there were a few hurricane force wind gusts along the immediate coastline. By far the worst damage occurred across Escambia and Monroe Counties in southern Alabama. High winds in the eyewall blew down numerous trees in the western part of Escambia and southern part of Monroe County, AL. As was the case in Florida, the cotton crop suffered damage from the heavy rains and high winds.

Since Hurricane Dennis was a relatively fast-moving and rather small hurricane, the total rainfall amounts were not as significant as some previous land falling tropical systems (e.g. 30+ inches of rain with both Hurricane Georges and Hurricane Danny in the late 1990s). In general, storm total rainfall was 3-5 inches across the region as seen in the WPC rainfall graphic on the right.

The highest rainfall amounts were observed along the path of the eyewall of Hurricane Dennis as it moved inland across the western Florida panhandle and into southwest Alabama. Totals along this rainfall swath were in the 5-8 inch range with isolated amounts of 8-10 inches (radar estimated) across the northern part of Escambia County, FL into Escambia, Monroe, Clarke and Wilcox Counties in Alabama. Further inland along the path of Dennis, 12.8 inches of rain was reported by an observer northwest of Camden, AL (just to the north of our county warning area).

Major flash flooding occurred along and east of the center of Dennis during the afternoon and evening of July 10th across portions of southwest Alabama and the western Florida panhandle. One of the biggest problems was along I-10 in the Pensacola area where a portion of the interstate flooded due to poor drainage (construction area at that time). Part of Highway 98 between Fort Walton Beach and Destin in Okaloosa County, FL were washed out from the high water. The westbound lanes on Highway 98 were damaged from the storm surge.

Storm surge caused severe beach erosion and coastal flooding across our counties in the northwest Florida panhandle (Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa) and coastal Alabama (Mobile, Baldwin). Major beach erosion occurred across the northwest Florida beaches from Pensacola Beach to points east of Destin. Minor beach erosion occurred along the Alabama coastline from Dauphin Island to Orange Beach.

A storm tide (storm surge + tide) of 7.10 feet was observed at Fort Morgan, AL during Hurricane Dennis. Our storm survey team estimated a storm tide height of nearly 6.5 feet in Navarre Beach, FL. Since the eye of Dennis was very small, the highest surge values were near and just to the right of the eye of the storm. Some higher surge values occurred well east of Destin before Dennis moved ashore. The extent of the storm tide can be seen in the image from the National Hurricane Center below. Storm tide flooding occurred along Dauphin Island and the beaches across Baldwin County, as well as around Bayou la Batre and along the Causeway over Mobile Bay.

Structural damage due to surge occurred along the coastal portion of all of our counties, however, the damage was most substantial along the Florida coast near Navarre Beach. The combination of wind and storm surge allowed for almost every structure on Navarre Beach to suffer some degree of damage with structures located directly on the beach suffering the most severe damage.

SOME STORM TIDE FLOODING OCCURRED ON DAUPHIN ISLAND AND THE
BEACHES OF BALDWIN COUNTY...AS WELL AS AROUND BAYOU LA BATRE
AND ALONG THE CAUSEWAY. MAJOR FLASH FLOODING OCCURRED IN
SOUTHWEST ALABAMA AND PARTS OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA.

SIGNIFICANT TREE AND POWER LINE DAMAGE...AS WELL AS SOME
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE...OCCURRED ALONG THE PATH OF THE EYEWALL.
ALMOST EVERY STRUCTURE ON NAVARRE BEACH SUFFERED SOME KIND OF
DAMAGE...WITH STRUCTURES LOCATED ON THE BEACH DAMAGED THE
MOST SEVERELY. AN ESTIMATED 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE EVACUATED FOR
DENNIS. AN ESTIMATED 400 THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE WITHOUT POWER. NO
DIRECT DEATHS REPORTED FROM DENNIS...BUT THERE WERE THREE
INDIRECT DEATHS AS OF JULY 14 (2 FROM CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING
AND 1 FROM ELECTROCUTION). PRELIMINARY DAMAGE ESTIMATES FROM
DENNIS COULD APPROACH A BILLION DOLLARS.

If you are CHASS Undeclared, Pre-Business, or a dismissed student seeking readmission to CHASS, you may email a quick question to one of the College Academic Advisors below. For more extensive questions, please see our appointment and walk-in advising information here.

If you are majoring (or want to major) in any other CHASS major from those listed above, please contact the appropriate Departmental Academic Advisor listed on the Advisors, Majors, & Minors page.

Suzy A. Sharweed has an undergraduate degree in English Literature and an M.A. in English Composition with an emphasis in TESL. A first-generation university student, she understands the struggles that are sometimes faced by this demographic of students and is therefore passionate about student success and strategies to improve their academic advising experiences. Having worked with students in an advisory role for over 20 years, she has had extensive experience with advising and student success initiatives. Suzy has been at UCR since June of 2016 and has supervisory oversight for the academic advising in the following CHASS majors: Chinese, Classical Studies, Comparative Ancient Civilizations, Comparative Literature, English, French, Germanic Studies, Hispanic Studies (Spanish), Japanese, Languages, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology.

Sarah serves as the Administrative Assistant for CHASS Student Academic Affairs and Performing Arts. She informs students of college policies, procedures, and appropriate forms and manages student traffic. Supervises student workers and works to coordinate their schedules.

Tiffany advises CHASS Undeclared students, Pre-Business students, and dismissed students seeking readmission to CHASS with last names that start with Ta to Z. College liaison for Departmental Academic Advisors in Economics and Philosophy. Tiffany graduated from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in 2007. She has been serving UCR since 2011.

Tony graduated from California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) as a first-generation student in 2000 with a B.A. in Business Administration. In 2003 he earned an MBA from CSUSB. Tony began at UCR in 2001 as a Career Center Counselor and in 2006 moved to Academic Advising. He currently advises students in the Arts and Performing Arts and also supervises the Academic Advisors in the Departments of Economics, Political Science, Art, Art History, Creative Writing, Dance, Music, and Theatre, Film and Digital Production. Tony enjoys being a part of our students' success here at UCR.

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