What makes some hurricane seasons particularly cruel is when multiple storms hit the same area. For example, the pair of Category 4 hurricanes that hit Nicaragua within 13 days in November 2020, or Florida’s infamous four hurricanes of 2004.
On Sept. 19, 1955, 70 years ago today, Hurricane Ione made landfall in eastern North Carolina at Category 2 wind intensity. Storm surge of 3 to 5 feet inundated parts of Morehead City, Wrightsville Beach and New Bern.
Up to 16 inches of rain pushed many rivers into major flood levels that wouldn’t be seen again until Hurricane Floyd 44 years later.
Aggravating the flooding was the saturated ground from two previous hurricanes about a month before. Connie made landfall in almost precisely the same location on Aug. 12, followed five days later by Diane, making three storms in eastern North Carolina in five weeks.
All three of these were so destructive that their names were retired from future use.
Due to warnings well ahead of Ione, only seven deaths were blamed on the hurricane in North Carolina.
1955 North Carolina Ione, Diane, Connie
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
