Hurricane Hortense made landfall on the southwest corner of the island of Puerto Rico on september 10, 1996 at around 0530 utc. Hurricane Hortense drenched eastern Puerto Rico with up to 23 inches of rain as it battered the south coast of the island from ponce to cabo rojo with category one hurricane force winds. This paper will present a chronology of events based on surface observations, WSR-88D and satellite observations of Hurricane Hortense as it moved slowly through the northeastern caribbean causing a 100-year flood in Puerto Rico. Several photographs taken for the official damage survey are presented to illustrate the devastation wrought by the effects of the flood.

Composite Reflectivity Image from the Puerto Rico WSR-88D located at Cayey, 2.2 NM pixel and 248 NM range resolution, on 8 Sep 96 at 1941 UTC.

The intensification of Hurricane Hortense is apparent when comparing figure 3 to figure 2. an increase in the core reflectivity (note: largest reflectivity signature seen SE of Puerto Rico) from 30 dbz (ref. fig. 2) to 45 dbz (ref. fig. 3) has occurred, as well as the formation of what appears to be an eye wall (note: arc shape to core reflectivity) on the north side of the center of circulation. a little over 24 hours later at 2246 UTC 9 sep 96 NWSFO San Juan made its first hurricane eye fix based on observations made by the WSR-88D. Figure 4 shows Hurricane Hortense just after landfall in Puerto Rico with the eye of the hurricane over the municipality of Guanica.

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The initial depression formed offshore the coast of southern Cuba on September 28. The cyclone moved west and west-northwest, strengthening into a tropical storm soon after entering the Gulf of Mexico, and a hurricane during the night of the 29th. On October 1st, the hurricane slowly turned north and weakened as it interacted with a nearby frontal zone and cooler waters across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Hilda made landfall on St. Mary parish on the 3rd as a category 3 hurricane. Turning eastward after landfall,the cyclone continued weakening and became an extratropical cyclone on the 4th which ultimately moved eastward into the subtropical Atlantic. Below is the track of this cyclone provided by the National Hurricane Center. The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for Hilda. The maximum across the Lower Mississippi Valley fell just to the left of its track. The precipitation through the East fell along a frontal boundary draping over the northeast side of Hilda.

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