Hurricane Gert was a large and deadly tropical cyclone that caused extensive flooding and mudslides throughout Central America and Mexico in September 1993. The seventh named storm and third hurricane of the annual hurricane season, Gert originated as a tropical depression from a tropical wave over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on September 14. The next day, the cyclone briefly attained tropical storm strength before moving ashore in Nicaragua and proceeding through Honduras. It reorganized into a tropical storm over the Gulf of Honduras on September 17, but weakened back to a depression upon crossing the Yucatán Peninsula. Once over the warm waters of the Bay of Campeche, Gert quickly strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane by September 20. The hurricane made a final landfall on the Gulf Coast of Mexico near Tuxpan, Veracruz, with peak winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). The rugged terrain disrupted the cyclone's structure; Gert entered the Pacific Ocean as a depression near the state of Nayarit on September 21, where it briefly redeveloped a few strong thunderstorms before dissipating at sea five days later.
Gert's broad wind circulation produced widespread and heavy rainfall across Central America through September 15–17. Combined with saturated soil following Tropical Storm Bret's passage a month earlier, the rain triggered widespread floods and mudslides that isolated thousands of people across numerous communities. In Costa Rica, blustery weather destroyed a national park and led to significant losses in the agricultural and tourism sectors. Much of the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras endured overflowing rivers, engulfing cities, villages, and crops with mud and water. Gert's winds were at their strongest upon landfall in Mexico, yet the worst effects in the country were also due to freshwater flooding after an extreme rainfall event in the Huasteca region resulted in water accumulations as high as 31.41 inches (798 mm). An increasing number of major rivers burst their banks over a period of several days, fully submerging extensive areas of land around the Pánuco basin. Tens of thousands of residents were forced to evacuate as raging floodwaters demolished scores of structures in what was described as the region's worst disaster in 40 years.
In Gert's wake, the road networks across the affected countries remained severely disrupted for extended periods of time, hampering rescue missions and relief efforts in badly flooded regions. National governments and emergency workers opened shelters and distributed food for the thousands that had lost their homes and sources of income in the storm. Throughout Central America and Mexico, Gert claimed the lives of 116 people and left 16 others missing. The disaster left swaths of private property, infrastructure, and farmland in complete ruins, amounting to damage costs of more than $170 million (1993 USD). Despite the excessive damage and catastrophic loss of life caused by the storm, the name Gert was not retired following the season, and was used again in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season.
Meteorological history
Hurricane Gert had a complex lifespan as a large and slow-moving tropical cyclone, repeatedly interacting with nearby landmasses and other atmospheric systems. Its genesis was traced to a tropical wave—an area of low pressure oriented north to south—that moved off the African coast to the south of Dakar on September 5, 1993. The wave tracked westward across the tropical Atlantic at a rapid pace and relatively low latitudes, where its interaction with the Intertropical Convergence Zone fostered the formation of convection. On its approach to the Caribbean, the system developed a weak low-pressure center at sea level, which crossed Trinidad on September 11. Although most of the cloud field brushed over the northern coast of South America, the system survived its contact with land and emerged over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on September 13. There, owing to favorable tropospheric conditions aloft, the wave showed signs of cyclonic development, as its convection thickened into curved, well-defined bands. Given these structural changes alongside a defined surface circulation, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) classified the system as a tropical depression at 1800 UTC on September 14, when it was located 105 miles (169 km) north of the Atlantic coast of Panama.
From its inception onwards, the depression exhibited a rather large wind field on satellite images and radiosonde data. Its broad cloud pattern gradually coalesced, and by 0900 UTC on September 15, the NHC had determined it sufficiently strong to be upgraded to Tropical Storm Gert. The center of the storm proceeded west-northwestward, moving ashore near Bluefields, Nicaragua, with winds of 40 mph (64 km/h) at 1800 UTC. Gert's interaction with land impeded additional strengthening; the storm weakened back to a tropical depression just six hours after its landfall. While the storm's center remained land-bound for nearly two days, parts of its large circulation abutted the adjacent Caribbean and Pacific waters to draw in moisture and heat. As such, Gert retained its status as a tropical cyclone on its journey northwestward across the terrains of Nicaragua and Honduras. In doing so, the storm consistently defied the NHC's forecasts for its imminent dissipation.
On September 17, Gert finally exited the coast, accessed the waters of the Gulf of Honduras and restrengthened to a tropical storm. Its duration over water—and with that any opportunity for additional strengthening—was curtailed by a mid- to upper-level trough over the eastern Gulf of Mexico; it turned the storm to the north-northwest and brought it over the coast of Belize the next day. Inland, Gert began to interact with a high-pressure ridge to its northwest, which nudged the storm slightly more to the west. After crossing the Yucatán Peninsula and winding down over land, Gert entered the Bay of Campeche offshore Champotón as a tropical depression late on September 18. The open tropical waters, combined with light wind shear aloft, allowed the storm's convection to deepen and reconsolidate. At 0600 UTC the next day, Gert once more restrengthened into a tropical storm. The storm veered toward the west and slowed slightly in response to a shortwave trough to its north, granting it more time to mature over water. On September 20, data from a United States Air Force aircraft indicated that Gert had become a hurricane with maximum winds of 75 mph (121 km/h). Within hours, it attained its peak intensity as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 970 mbar (hPa; 28.64 inHg).
At about 2100 UTC on September 20, Gert made its final landfall at peak intensity on the coast of Mexico, just north of Tuxpan, Veracruz. The hurricane accelerated and weakened quickly over the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental, deteriorating into a tropical depression by September 21. Despite its declining strength, the large circulation again remained intact as it crossed the country. Gert entered the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Nayarit later that day, where the NHC reclassified it as Tropical Depression Fourteen-E. What remained of the deep convection waxed and waned in intensity; satellite estimates show the depression may have briefly regained tropical storm strength on September 22. It proceeded on a west to west-northwestward track with sparse thunderstorms for two days. Once the last of this convection diminished, the shallow cyclone was swept up by low-level flow. Steered farther and farther southwest, the depression encountered increasingly cool ocean temperatures. With any chance at redevelopment thwarted, the system dissipated at sea on September 26.
Preparations
After confirming the development of a tropical depression, authorities in Costa Rica issued a green alert for coastal regions on September 14. The following day, a tropical storm warning was issued for the Atlantic coast of the country. National television and radio stations broadcast warning messages to the public, and emergency crews were dispatched in case conditions were to warrant intervention. This helped with the effective and timely clearing of hospitals, as well as the evacuation of residents in high-risk zones. A tropical storm warning was posted for the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua on September 15, extending south from Puerto Cabezas to the adjacent islands. In Honduras, early storm warnings allowed several hundred residents to evacuate well ahead of Gert's arrival. Once it became evident that the storm would strike the Yucatán Peninsula, coastal areas from Belize northward to Cozumel, Mexico, were placed under a tropical storm warning on September 17 until Gert's landfall the next day.
While Gert was still located over the peninsula, the government of Mexico issued a tropical storm watch for the Gulf Coast from the city of Veracruz northward to Soto la Marina, Tamaulipas. By September 18, it was upgraded to a tropical storm warning and extended southward to Minatitlán, although the initial watch area was placed under a hurricane watch after Gert showed signs of strengthening. The next day, the tropical storm watch from Soto La Marina to Nautla was upgraded to a hurricane warning as it became clearer where Gert would make landfall. Prior to impact, several ports along the Gulf Coast halted their operations, and people living in risk zones were evacuated. All warnings and watches were discontinued after the hurricane moved inland.
Impact
Gert was a large tropical cyclone for most of its lifespan; it always remained close enough to the coast to restrengthen and redevelop strong thunderstorms. In consequence, the storm produced heavy rainfall over a large area, causing extensive flooding and mudslides from Central America to Mexico. The disaster resulted in at least 116 deaths and 16 missing persons; damage to roads, property, crops and vegetation surmounted $170 million.
Costa Rica
Although Gert's center remained off the coast of Costa Rica, its large circulation produced brisk winds and heavy rainfall across the country. A local weather station recorded 13.1 inches (330 mm) of rain during the storm. Geologically, the hardest-hit regions consisted of sedimentary layers with poor hydraulic conductivity and were therefore prone to soil saturation. The initial rainfall raised the levels of many rivers, exacerbating the flood threat. The imminent overflow of the Tempisque River prompted wide-scale evacuations, though the river crested gradually without major consequences. After hours of prolonged rainfall, many Pacific regions such as Quepos, Pérez Zeledón, and Osa experienced flooding and landslides, which inflicted moderate damage to roads and bridges.
The floods ruined about 500 acres (2.0 km2) of banana crop and damaged oil palm plantations. Small-scale farmers of reed, maize, beans, and rice were also affected. The storm disrupted local fishing and wrecked several small boats in Quepos. High winds brought great destruction to about 65 percent of the vegetation in the Manuel Antonio National Park, vastly impacting the tourism-driven economy of Quepos. Gert left moderate property damage in its wake; it destroyed 27 homes and otherwise damaged 659, mostly because of flooding. Overall costs totaled $3.1 million, of which $1.7 million was due to the impaired infrastructure. Roughly 1,000 people sought shelter during the storm. Owing to the timely preparations in the country, only one cardiac arrest fatality was attributable to Gert when a landslide buried a home.
Nicaragua
Moving ashore in Nicaragua a month after Tropical Storm Bret's passage, Gert caused excessive rainfall over already saturated regions. Despite striking the Atlantic coast, the storm produced the largest amounts of precipitation over northern and Pacific coastal areas. A maximum of 17.8 in (450 mm) fell at Corinto; other significant totals include 17.6 in (450 mm) at Chinandega and 17.5 in (440 mm) at León. The capital of Managua recorded 9.8 in (250 mm) of rain during the event. Sustained winds from the storm reached no more than 40 mph (64 km/h) upon landfall near Bluefields, though they downed trees and power lines and generated high waves of up to 12 feet (3.7 m) offshore. After weakening to a depression inland, Gert continued to produce moderate gales along its path through the country.
Off the coast near Big Corn Island, rough surf and winds destroyed nine fishing boats. Two canoes with an unknown number of occupants disappeared at sea. Gert produced significant coastal flooding on moving ashore near Bluefields and Tasbapauni, prompting about 1,000 residents and hundreds of indigenous Miskito villagers to evacuate. Farther inland, prolonged heavy rain caused numerous rivers to overflow, which led to disastrous freshwater flooding, especially in departments around Lake Nicaragua. Three tributaries of the Escondido River, one of which rose 32 ft (9.8 m) above normal, overflowed near the city of Rama. Reaching heights of up to 40 ft (12 m), flood waters submerged 95 percent of the residential space, entering houses and vehicles and displacing 17,000 citizens. All crops in and around the city were lost in the deluge. In the Rivas Department, the discharge from the Ochomogo River near the city of Rivas inundated several communities, while Cárdenas, a coastal community along the border with Costa Rica, endured several days of flooding rains. Damage in the departments of Chontales and Boaco was considerable; floods in Boaco killed five people and affected 6,000 others. The affected regions endured widespread disruptions in transportation as landslides moved onto bridges and roads; in Granada city, the isolation caused sanitation issues and led to the death of a pregnant woman who could not be transported to the hospital.
In total, Gert destroyed 252 houses and damaged another 293 across 14 of Nicaragua's departments; the storm was also responsible for considerable infrastructural damage and economic losses. As many as 123,000 people were affected throughout the country, and there were 37 confirmed fatalities. The impact on the ecology was profound: rivers, estuaries, and mangroves in and around lakes Nicaragua and Managua, as well as the inhabiting fauna, suffered from severe erosion and siltation. Since flooding from Tropical Storm Bret had occurred just one month earlier, an exclusive damage estimate for Gert is unavailable. The two storms inflicted a combined $10.7 million in damage, primarily to private property.