THE SOUTHERN COASTLANDS

Aside from being one of the many tourist spots in the United States and the world, Hawaii is also famous (unfortunately) for having hurricanes, like the Southern Coastlands.

A Hawaiian hurricane is a tropical cyclone that forms in the Pacific Ocean and affects the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi lies in the central Pacific, where about four or five tropical cyclones appear each year, although as many as eleven have occurred, such as in the 1992 and 1994 seasons; rarely do these storms actually affect Hawaiʻi. Before the 1950s, when tropical cyclone records were not kept, many windstorms struck Hawaiʻi; if these storms were in fact hurricanes, they were not so identified.


The most significant hurricane in the island of Kauai is Iniki. It was the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi in recorded history. Forming on September 5 during the strong El Niño of 1991–1994, Iniki was one of eleven Central Pacific tropical cyclones during the 1992 season. It attained tropical storm status on September 8 and further intensified into a hurricane the next day. After turning to the north, Iniki struck the island of Kauaʻi on September 11 at peak intensity; it had winds of 145 mph (235 km/h), and was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It was the first hurricane to hit the state since Hurricane Iwa in the 1982 season, and the first major hurricane since Hurricane Dot in 1959. Iniki dissipated on September 13 about halfway between Hawaii and Alaska.

Iniki caused around $1.8 billion (1992 USD) of damage and six deaths. At the time, Iniki was among the costliest United States hurricanes, and it remains one of the costliest hurricanes on record in the eastern Pacific. The storm struck just weeks after Hurricane Andrew—the costliest tropical cyclone ever at the time—struck the U.S. state of Florida. It was also one of two Category 4 hurricanes to strike the United States that year, as Andrew made landfall in Florida as a Category 5 just a few weeks earlier.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) failed to issue tropical cyclone warnings and watches for the hurricane more than 24 hours in advance. Despite the lack of early warning, only six deaths were attributable to the storm. Damage was greatest on Kauaʻi, where the hurricane destroyed over 1,400 houses and severely damaged over 5,000. Though not directly in the path of the hurricane's core, Oʻahu still experienced moderate damage from wind and storm surge.

SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hawaii_hurricanes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki
http://www.pricip.org/ea-portal/web/guest/3?p_p_id=InikiImpactsTitle_WAR_pricip&p_p_action=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=4&_InikiImpactsTitle_WAR_pricip_photo=3
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/150/sesq5iniki