Other storms have caused significant damage along the coast while bringing little wind inland. Apalachee Bay's shallow waters and the gradual slope of the Continental Shelf make it one of the most susceptible areas in the country to storm surge. A major hurricane could sweep a storm surge inland for many miles in Wakulla County. Tallahassee itself is on high ground, especially for Florida. Much of the city is at 200+ elevation, heavily forested--and highly vulnerable to wind damage.
Tallahassee's worst ever hurricane is probably an August 1851 storm, which lashed the city with extreme winds. The account of the storm makes clear from its description of the wind directions (east shifting to south) that Tallahassee was hit by the right side--the worst case scenario.
This event is referred to as "the storm of all storms--the great hurricane remembered by all of Tallahassee's pioneers and a conversation piece for many years after the [Civil] war."
Here is a newspaper account published a week following the hurricane in Tallahassee's Floridian and Journal:
"It lasted from an early hour of the morning on Saturday [August 23], till near dawn on Sunday--at first the wind blowing in squalls more or less frequent from the East, then about noon, Saturday, going around Southward, and increasing in violence and long-continued blasts till it rose to a furious gale, which was about its worst at two o'clock next morning, and after that gradually abating, till daylight. It was raining nearly all the while in great torrents.
Trees of all sorts and sizes were broken down or torn from their roots, and those that remained were rudely stripped of many of their limbs and much of their foilage. Houses were unroofed, some blown down, and others greatly injured, and fences generally, in whole or in part, were thrown to the earth. Altogether, the scene as it presented itself here on Sunday morning was a vast chaos of destruction and of entangled streets and yards.
The tin roofing of the Capitol was torn off, a window blown in, much of the glass broken, and several of the rooms drenched with water--but the books and archives were very little injured. Captain Bonds's Warehouse was left a complete wreck. The "Exchange" buildings unroofed. The Hoc building, formerly occupied for the Floridian office, partly unroofed and much injured. The Market House prostrated. Many other houses sustained damage....we cannon undertake to estimate the loss the storm has caused...there will be immense loss in consequence."
This hurricane also destroyed the Baptist Church, the Masonic Hall and a number of homes and buildings in nearby Quincy.
It's apparent to me that Ivan, now forecast to make a direct strike on Tallahassee--with Cat 3 or 4 winds--could exceed the 1851 event to become the worst-ever hurricane to hit this area. I don't know the words to express the dread I am now feeling at this prospect.
(Source: Ante-Bellum Tallahassee, Bertram H. Groene, 1971)
