Hurricane Charley Makes Landfall in Florida as Category 4

13-Aug-04

On Friday, August 13, 2004 Hurricane Charley made landfall as a Category 4 storm with sustained wins of 145 mph. The strongest winds were concentrated in a 10-mile-wide band that extended from Punta Gorda to Daytona Beach. The storm path across the state was about 40 miles wide, with sustained winds of hurricane force covering an area about 20 miles wide. The storm moved across the state at about 22 mph.

According to local authorities, damage from storm surge was minimized, given that the hurricane came ashore directly over Charlotte Harbor. If the storm had struck north of the harbor, winds circling counterclockwise around the center would have pushed water into the estuary. Moreover, the tide was low when the storm made landfall. As a result, although Hurricane Charlie was a moderate Category 4 storm at landfall, the resulting surge along the outer coastline was reportedly only 13 feet, while along Charlotte Bay it was less than five feet.

Instructions: Add New Events

There are two sets of instructions. For desktop (USWIND) users, this event can be added in as a "User DefinedEvent." Two SQL scripts are attached, one for Hurricane Charley (August) and one for Hurricane Frances (September).These will add the events into the "User Defined" groups.

For WORLDCATenterprise users, the event is added to the "Scenario Event" portion of the Event Analysis. There are twoSQL scripts attached for this as well, one for Hurricane Charley, one for Hurricane Frances. These 'scenarios' will estimate damage for the entire track of these events as they traversed the Caribbean Islands. When including damages in the islandsex-US, these events lasted longer than 72 hours, which is a common reinstatement period. If you are interested in how to run this event on your portfolio to correctly estimate losses within reinstatement periods, please contact EQECAT client support.

Instructions: USWIND Users

Two approaches may be used to simulate this event:

  • Simulate Hurricane Charley as a User Defined Storm or
  • Use the Landfall Series to approximate the event

A. Simulate Hurricane Charley as a User Defined Storm

  1. If USWIND is running, exit the program.
  2. Go to the computer where the EQECAT Database is running.
  3. Click on the Start button.
  4. Select Programs\Sybase SQL Anywhere 7\Adaptive Server Anywhere 7\Interactive SQL.
    DBISQL will start.
  5. Click on the "ODBC DataSource Name" Radio Button. In the combo box, select Worldcat_Server and click on OK.
  6. Select all of the text below (everything between **sql start** and **sql end**) and copy it into the copy buffer.
  7. Go back to the Interactive SQL application and paste all of the data from Step 2.A.f into the SQL Statement pane. Hit the ">" button on the menu bar. A user defined storm with the name Charley has now been defined.
  8. Exit Interactive SQL.
  9. Restart USWIND.
  10. Open the portfolio of interest and select HAZARD\PORTFOLIO\SCENARIO STORMS\SCENARIO STORM SELECTOR. Click on the User Defined radio button and click OK. Select Charley from the list of user defined storms.
  11. Run the desired reports.

B. Landfall Series

  1. Start USWIND
  2. Open the portfolio of interest and select Landfall Series from the HAZARD\PORTFOLIO menu options.
  3. On the Landfall Series Types dialog, set the Storm Intensity as SSI 4 and the Storm Strength as "Medium" and click OK. See note regarding the Series Resolution setting below.
  4. Select Landfalls with mileposts of 1270 to 1290.

Note: The setting for the Series Resolution will alter the number of storms that will be available.

Approx 35 mile increments = 1 milepost
Approx 10 mile increments = 3 mileposts
Approx 1 mile increments = 21 mileposts.

Note: This information is based on the past track and observations of CHARLEY provided by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). It will be updated as new information becomes available. Run the desired reports.

Instructions: WORLDCATenterprise Users

The approach is to run a Probabilistic Event That Simulates Hurricane Charley.

  1. Go to the node in the WORLDCAT Enterprise treeview containing the portfolio you wish to analyze.
  2. Click on the Event by Event Tab.
  3. Click on New.
  4. In the lower left hand pane, expand the country/peril selection treeview until you can select United States\Hurricane-Typhoon-Cyclone.
  5. In the lower right hand pane:
    • Make sure that the probabilistic radio button is selected.
    • Set the Hurricane Intensity selection combo box to: SSI = 4
    • In the regions pane, check Florida.
  6. Now click on the Submit button. The job will now execute.
  7. Once the job has completed, download the Event by Event results as you normally would.
  8. The Event ID of the storm most closely simulating Hurricane Charley is 26684. Search the downloaded file for this Event ID to find your results.

Damage and Landfall Location

Hurricane Charley - August 13, 2004

Hurricane Charley - August 13, 2004

Subscribe to CatWatch email alerts to receive CatWatch Catastrophe Reports in your inbox.

Back to CatWatch Reports »