Chapter 10: The Southern Coastlands: In the Subtropical Margin

This chapter delves into the Southern Coastlands, a region that starts at the mouth of the Rio Grande at Texas/Mexido Border and goes through Florida's peninsula all the way through to coastal North Carolina. This region derives its character from it's location at the continent's southern margin. The Southern Coastland's complex identity is made up of it's humid subtropical environment, its role in generating U.S. trade with the rest of the world, and the coastal region's singular resource pattern.

Although D.C. is not directly in the defined region of the Southern Coastland area, both find common ground in the fact that they both have and continue to experience pretty severe hurricanes.

The textbook states, "More sporadic, more dramatic, and locally more destructive in the Southern Coastlands than elsewhere in North America are hurricanes." Hurricanes are large cyclonic tropical storms that are generated by intense solar heating over large bodies of water. Areas facing the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea and the southern Atlantic, and the entire Gulf coastal lowland are extremely vulnerable to the hurricanes' fury.

As recently as 2003, Washington D.C. experienced a severly damaging hurricane. On September 19, 2003, Hurricane Isabel hit the Maryland--D.C. area. Gust winds reached as high as 71 mph, and hurricane force winds existed several hundred feet in the air, with wind sensors on tall buildings gathering readings of winds from 71 mph to 85 mph.

Hurricane Isabel makes its way towards Washington D.C.

Although rainfall was minimal (only about 2 inches throughout the district) a Wisconsin Avenue gage recorded an 11.3 foot storm surge and on a pier in the southwest part of D.C. the storm surge was recorded at 10.25 feet, breaking the record of the 1933 Chesapeake Potomac Hurricane. The storm surge caused the flooding of the Washington Navy Guard and the marina. Five people were rescued from their cars in flood waters and many streets were blocked due to the flooding.

The flooding of a parking lot near the marina in Washington D.C.

The forceful winds blew down about 1600 trees in the area, and 23 of the trees fell on top of houses. The winds also caused many power lines to go down and left about 129,000 people without power. The White House sustained no structural damage, but a tree did fall over in the garden.

Throughout the D.C. area, Isabel's storm system created over 30,000 pounds of debris and $125 million dollars in damage.

Information obtained from Hurricane Isabel Wikipedia page.