Hurricane Stan

Hurricane Stan

Category 1 hurricane (SSHS)
Hurricane Stan after landfall
Formed	October 1, 2005
Dissipated	October 5, 2005
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 80 mph (130 km/h)
Lowest pressure	977 mbar (hPa; 28.85 inHg)
Fatalities	1,628 total
Damage	$3.9 billion (2005 USD)
Areas affected	Guatemala, El Salvador, southern and eastern Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica
Part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Stan was the eighteenth named tropical storm and eleventh hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the sixth of seven tropical cyclones (three hurricanes, two of them major, three tropical storms and one tropical depression) to make landfall in Mexico. Stan was a relatively weak storm that only briefly reached hurricane status. It was embedded in a larger non-tropical system of rainstorms that dropped torrential rains in the Central American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador and in southern Mexico, causing flooding and mudslides that led to 1,628 fatalities. Throughout the affected countries, the storm left roughly $3.9 billion in damage.

Meteorological history

Storm path

Hurricane Stan originated from a tropical wave that was first identified by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) off the west coast of Africa on September 17, 2005. Traveling westward, the wave remained weak, barely being notable. By September 22, before convection began to increase; however, wind shear in the region prevented this development from lasting. The system entered the Caribbean Sea several days later, a region with more favorable conditions for cyclonic development. Intermittent convection formed around the wave as it moved west-northwestward before the development maintained itself. On October 1, the system had become sufficiently organized for the NHC to classify it as Tropical Depression Twenty, with the center of circulation situated roughly 135 mi (215 km) souhteast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Located to the south of a low to mid-level tropospheric ridge, the depression tracked towards the west-northwest. Within a few hours of being warned upon, the system further intensified into Tropical Storm Stan. This followed the development of a strong convective banding feature to the southeast of the storm's center. Around 1000 UTC (5 a.m. CDT) on October 2, Stan made its first landfall near Punta Hualaxtoc, Mexico, roughly 35 mi (55 km) south of Tulum, with winds of 40 mph (65 km/h). Over the following 18 hours, the weak storm traversed the southern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula. Upon entering the Gulf of Mexico on October 3, Stan had weakened to a tropical depression; however, convection began to redevelop over the storm's center, allowing the system to re-attain tropical storm status.

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission estimate of rainfall from Hurricane Stan; September 29 – October 5

A strong area of high pressure over the western Gulf of Mexico forced the storm to turn southwestward, back to the Mexican coastline. Increasingly deep cloud cover formed over the storm in response to a favorable environment over the Bay of Campeche. Late on October 3, forecasters at National Hurricane Center noted a statistical rapid intensity index indicating a 49% chance of Stan undergoing rapid intensification before its final landfall. This intensification did take place within 12 hours before the hurricane moved onshore. Overnight, the structure of Stan rapidly improved, with a banding eye-feature developing within unusually deep convection with cloud-top temperatures measured at −90 °C (−130 °F) by infrared satellites. Following this development, National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. Around 1200 UTC on October 4, Stan made landfall near Punta Roca Partida, with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). The storm also attained its lowest barometric pressure of 977 mbar (hPa; 28.85 inHg)at this time. Not long after moving over the mountainous terrain of central Mexico, Stan rapidly weakened to a tropical depression and fully dissipated early on October 5 over the state of Oaxaca.

Preparations

Some 100,000 inhabitants of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas region on the Gulf Coast were evacuated from their homes, and incidents of mild flooding as well as wind damage (such as uprooted trees and roofs ripped off houses) were reported from coastal areas of Veracruz, including the port of Veracruz, Boca del Río, San Andrés Tuxtla, Santiago Tuxtla, Minatitlán and Coatzacoalcos, as well as state capital Xalapa further inland. The armed forces evacuated the inhabitants of a dozen or so towns on the coastal plain, between World Heritage Site Tlacotalpan in the west and the lakeside resort of Catemaco in the east.

Impact

Impact by country

Country	Fatalities	Damage (USD)
Costa Rica	1	$20 million
El Salvador	69	$355.7 million
Guatemala	1,513	$988.3 million
Honduras	6	$100 million
Mexico	36	$2.5 billion
Nicaragua	3	Unknown
Total	1,628	$3.964 billion

Around the time of Stan's existence, torrential rainstorms dropped upwards of 20 inches (500 mm) of rain, causing severe flash floods, mud slides, and crop damage (particularly to the coffee crop which was close to harvest) over portions of Mexico and Central America, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Most of the rainstorms were non-tropical in nature and impossible to relate to the hurricane; however, the impact of the larger weather system can be considered as a whole.

Hundreds more have been reported missing and are feared dead throughout the region. One estimate has the death toll above 2,000 in Guatemala alone. The final death toll will likely never be known due to the extensive decomposition of bodies in the mud. Note that only 80-100 of the deaths were estimated to have been as a result of Stan; the rest were not caused by Stan itself but were the result of the large system of non-tropical rains that had spawned the hurricane.

Most of the reported fatalities at this point have been as a result of the flooding and mudslides, although eight of the deaths in Nicaragua were as a result of a boat carrying migrants from Ecuador and Peru that ran ashore. A large portion of the figure comes from one village alone, as a mudslide completely destroyed the village of Panabaj in Guatemala's Sololá department.

Mexico

As a tropical storm, Stan brought torrential rainfall and gusty winds to parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. Flash flooding took place in several areas; however, no loss of life was reported.

Stan before making landfall in Mexico

As the system progressed inland towards the Sierra Madre del Sur to the west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas were affected with torrential rains. Areas of Chiapas near the Guatemalan border were hit hard, particularly the coastal border town of Tapachula. In Tapachula the river overflowed its banks and caused tremendous damage (including the destruction of all the bridges leading in and out of the town), meaning that it was only accessible through the air. The state government reports that 33 rivers have broken their banks and that an indeterminate number of homes, upwards of 20 bridges, and other infrastructure have been smashed in the storm's wake.

Some areas in the Sierra Norte, in the central state of Puebla, are also flooded. Three people died in a mudslide at Xochiapulco Hill.

In addition, Pemex had evacuated 270 employees from its oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, although no damage has been reported and the plants have been restarted.

The Ministry of the Interior has declared states of emergency in the worst hit municipalities of five states: Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Veracruz. According to Mexican president Vicente Fox, Hurricane Stan wrought roughly 20 billion pesos ($1.9 billion USD) in damage throughout the country.

Honduras

Throughout Honduras, heavy rains produced by Hurricane Stan resulted in six fatalities and roughly $100 million in losses.

Guatemala

Landslides affecting infrastructure, crops, and water sources in Guatemala

On October 11, 2005 at least 1,500 people were confirmed to have died, and up to 3000 were believed missing. Many communities were overwhelmed, and the worst single incident appears to have occurred in Panabaj, an impoverished Maya village in the highlands near Lake Atitlán in Sololá department. This volcanic lake was so overwhelmed by the torential rains that many of the small, mayan villages covering the shores experienced landslides from above. Some of the towns were so overwhelmed by the slides that the mayor has declared them graveyards, and all people who are missing are counted as dead. Piedra Grande, a hamlet in the municipality of San Pedro Sacatepéquez, was also destroyed. Floods and mudslides have obliterated the community of about 1,400 people, and it is feared that most or all of the population of the community lost their lives. The government has stated that they do not know what is going on in the southwest of the country, and particularly in the San Marcos department because a vital bridge was destroyed at El Palmar, Quetzaltenango, cutting the region off from the rest of the country. There were reported petrol shortages, including in Quetzaltenango.

El Salvador

The eruption of the Santa Ana volcano, located near the capital San Salvador, on October 1, 2005 compounded the problems, which led to even more destructive floods and mudslides from Stan.

A state of emergency was declared. According to the director of El Salvador's National Emergency Centre, 300 communities were affected by the floods, with over 54,000 people forced to flee their homes. A state of emergency has also been called for in Guatemala by President Óscar Berger where 36,559 people were reported in emergency shelters. Some looting has also been reported, a scene reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina five weeks previous. A spokesman for the Salvadoran Red Cross said that "the emergency is bigger than the rescue capacity, we have floods everywhere, bridges about to collapse, landslides and dozens of roads blocked by mudslides". The Pan-American Highway has been cut off by mudslides leading into the capital, San Salvador, as well as several other roads. 72 deaths have been confirmed in El Salvador.

Retirement

See also: List of retired Atlantic hurricane names

Following the severe damage and extensive loss of life in Stan's wake, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Stan from the circulating list of Atlantic hurricane names. For the 2011 season, Stan was replaced by Sean.

See also

• List of tropical cyclones
• List of Atlantic hurricanes
• List of 2005 Atlantic hurricane season storms
• Hurricane Mitch
• Timeline of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

External links

• NHC's archive of Hurricane Stan
• NHC's Tropical Weather Summary through November 2005
• NCDC's Atlantic hurricane season 2005 summary
• Cordinadora Para La Reduccion De Desastres En Guatemala (Conred) Guatemala's Disaster Reduction Institute(in Spanish).
• USAID (US government) information on hurricane/flood relief and recovery efforts
• Al Jazeera: Hundreds die in Guatemala mudslide
• BBC: Guatemala storm deaths increase

Tropical cyclones of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season
A B C D E F G H  I  10 J K L M N O P R 19 S Un T 22 V W Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ		Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale TD TS C1 C2 C3 C4 C5