Newspapers across South Carolina, particularly Charleston, chastised Hodges for not making traffic along South Carolina's I-26 one-way, to avoid the severe traffic jams that occurred as residents tried to flee the storm's path.

Less severe property damage was recorded west of the storm's track into St. Margarets Bay and Mahone Bay.

Torrential rain fell in Alabama as a result of the storm's slow forward movement, leading to severe flooding.

Although damage was severe along coastal southeast Florida, relatively few deaths were reported in those areas ; the storm's deadliest blow was on Lake Okeechobee as the eyewall crossed.

By Saturday, the storm's status had been upgraded to " severe ".

The storm's winds further weakened the damaged levees in New Orleans and caused renewed flooding in parts of the city.

Evidence of a supercell comes from the storm's shape and structure, and cloud tower features such as a hard and vigorous updraft tower, a persistent, large overshooting top, a hard anvil ( especially when backsheared against strong upper level winds ), and a corkscrew look or striations.

This was immediately followed by an abrupt weakening, and the storm's maximum sustained winds dropped to later that day.

Most of the houses, businesses, and other buildings suffered roof damage from the storm's ferocious winds.

Throughout its duration, it was a small tropical cyclone, although with a radius of gale force winds spreading 100 miles ( 160 km ) to the north, the storm's thunderstorm area quickly spread over Cuba.

Although Noreasters can produce winds that are similar to those in hurricanes, they do not produce the storm surge that proved to be the 1938 storm's greatest killer.

The storm's power was made apparent by its sustained hurricane-force winds of approximately with gusts to and the formation of an eye-like structure in the middle of the storm.

The fierce northeast winds from the storm — with the low pressure area stalled off of Martha's Vineyard — combined with astronomically high tides and storm surge resulting from the storm's low pressure to send water over low-lying land along the shores of Long Island Sound, Cape Cod Bay, and other bodies of water, resulting in some of the worst coastal flooding ever recorded.

It brought 70 mph ( 110 km / h ) winds to Turks and Caicos Islands and South Andros, as well as precipitation in the storm's outer bands.

During thunderstorm formation, winds move in a direction opposite to the storm's travel, and they move from all directions into the thunderstorm.

At time of Irene's arrival, red tides were ongoing in western Florida ; winds from the storm's precursor blew thousands of dead fish ashore.

The storm's persistent strong currents and easterly winds caused moderate beach erosion on the East Coast of the United States, mostly along the Florida coast.

Diamond Shoal Light reported sustained winds of 100 mph ( 160 km / h ), and Cape Hatteras, where the storm's eye came ashore, experienced 75 mph ( 120 km / h ) winds.

Usually, such low readings near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico are observed only in hurricanes of Category 2 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, Overall, the storm's surge, winds, and tornadoes damaged or destroyed 18, 000 homes.

Further inland, the combination of strong winds and rains left heavy crop damage, destroying 3 million bushels of corn and another million bushels of soybeans ; losses to the corn crop were mitigated due to about half of the crop having been harvested before the storm's arrival.

Upon coming ashore, the storm's eye was about 20 km ( 12 mi ) wide, with gale-force winds within 95 km ( 60 mi ) of the center.

The storm's winds peaked at as it curved northeast out to sea, dissipating a couple days later.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the storm's moderately powerful winds downed telephone and telegraph wires and uproofed several buildings.

Along the Florida Panhandle, the storm's winds impacted power, telephone, and telegraph lines, and inflicted $ 2, 000 worth of damage to a dock warehouse.

The 160 mph ( 260 km / h ) wind measurement from Puerto Rico was taken by a cup anemometer in San Juan, 30 miles ( 50 km ) north of the storm's center, which measured 160 mph ( 260 km / h ) sustained winds three hours before the peak wind speed was reached ; however, the instrument was destroyed soon after and could not be calibrated.

Hurricane-force winds were measured in Guayama for 18 hours ; since the storm is estimated to have been moving at 13 mph ( 21 km / h ), the diameter of the storm's hurricane winds was estimated very roughly to be 234 miles ( 376 km ).< ref name =" mwr-pr "> After leaving the Caribbean, the hurricane moved across the Bahamas as a strong Category 4 hurricane.

Tides at Norfolk, Virginia were only slightly above normal during the storm's passage to the east, and winds were moderate in strength.

The effect of waves, while directly powered by the wind, is distinct from a storm's wind-powered currents.

* Single, giant storm waves, building up to fourfold the storm's waves height and collapsing after some seconds

Along the coastline, storm surge and strong waves washed away several fishing piers, and some roadways were underwater during the storm's passage.

As the first mesocyclone and associated tornado dissipate, the storm's inflow may be concentrated into a new area closer to the center of the storm.

Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau counties, located on the western end of Long Island, were hammered with wind gusts in excess of 100 m. p. h., but escaped the worst of the wind and storm surge due to being on the storm's weaker west side.

No deaths were reported from storm surge, which is unusual due to the storm's strength and the location of landfall.

When the storm collapses and begins to release precipitation, wind directions reverse, gusting outward from the storm and generally gusting the strongest in the direction of the storm's travel.

Likewise, in the left front quadrant of the storm the observed wind is the difference between the storm's wind velocity and its forward speed.

Contrary to predictions, by late on September 22, the storm had turned northeast, and some residents of Florida were still unaware of the storm's threat despite the issuance of hurricane warnings 24 hours in advance.

However, the 1991 storm was significantly more destructive, causing 1. 5 billion dollars in damage ( 2 billion inflation-adjusted ) compared to the 1970 storm's 86. 4 million dollars in damage ( inflation-adjusted: 480 million ).

Becoming a Category 2 storm while southeast of Cozumel, Storm Two nicked the northern tip of the Yucatan peninsula, but caused little effect, perhaps because of the storm's small size.

Deceptive lulls in the storm and the slow pace of weather reports contributed to the storm's destructiveness.

Three main classes of tropical cyclone guidance models exist: Statistical models are based on an analysis of storm behavior using climatology, and correlate a storm's position and date to produce a forecast that is not based on the physics of the atmosphere at the time.

At 2100 UTC on August 21, tropical storm warnings issued from Zihuatanejo to Cabo Corrientes, Mexico in anticipation of the storm's arrival.

During the day, the storm's strength fluctuated greatly, dropping to a Category 2 storm and then rebuilding to Category 4.

In many cases, the only evidence that a hurricane existed was reports from ships in its path, and judging by the direction of winds experienced by ships, and their location in relation to the storm, it is possible to roughly pinpoint the storm's center of circulation for a given point in time.

In addition, the entire town of Brazos Santiago was destroyed from the storm's heavy winds and storm surge.

The computer models initially predicted two distinct possibilities for the storm's future with some models indicating the storm would cross over Florida and enter the Gulf of Mexico while others indicated that it would stay offshore and move to the northeast.

On July 13 a cluster of thunderclouds grouped together to form a low pressure area. On July 14 it started to organize and slowly became a tropical depression on July 19, and quickly intensified into a tropical storm. On July 22 convection was displaced to south of the storm's center due to high wind shears, and case it to dissipate.