Tropical Storm Alpha (2005)

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This article is about the 2005 tropical storm. For other storms named Alpha, see Tropical Storm Alpha (disambiguation).

Tropical Storm Alpha

Tropical storm (SSHS)

Tropical Storm Alpha making landfall near Barahona in the Dominican Republic

Formed

October 22, 2005

Dissipated

October 24, 2005

Highest
winds

50 mph (85 km/h) (1-minute sustained)

Lowest pressure

998 mbar (hPa; 29.48 inHg)

Fatalities

26 direct, 17 indirect

Damage

Unknown

Areas
affected

Haiti, Dominican Republic

Part of the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season

Tropical Storm Alpha was the twenty-third storm in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and it made landfall on Hispaniola in October. It caused some damage and forty-three confirmed deaths in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, becoming the sixth deadliest storm of the season.

1 Storm history
2 Impact
3 Naming and records
4 See also
5 External links
6 Notes

[edit] Storm history

Storm path

A tropical wave, which had started out from Africa about October 15, then reached the Windward Islands on October 19 and organized into a tropical depression about 180 miles southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 22. Later that day, despite shear from powerful Hurricane Wilma nearby, it strengthened into a tropical storm as it moved west-northwestward. On the morning of October 23, it made landfall near the city of Barahona in the Dominican Republic with 50 mph (85 km/h) winds, then moved over Haiti.

As it crossed Hispaniola, Alpha was weakened to a tropical depression by the island's steep mountains. A front pulled Alpha northward where it emerged into the Atlantic Ocean and began to accelerate alongside Hurricane Wilma to the southwest.

On the afternoon of October 24 Alpha degenerated into a trough, after which no further tropical reports were issued. Soon after the storm was absorbed by Hurricane Wilma. When Wilma became extratropical on October 25, the remnants of Alpha were still distinct from the core of Wilma on satellite images.

[edit] Impact

[edit] Death toll

Country	Total	Direct deaths
Dominican Republic	9	9
Haïti	33	17
Bahamas	1
Totals	43	26
Because of differing sources, totals may not match.

A total of 43 people have been reported dead because of Tropical Storm Alpha ^[1], 26 of them through the direct effects of the storm. ^[2]

[edit] Haiti

A river overflowed its banks and flooded a neighborhood in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour, killing seventeen ^[3]: two were electrocuted, one drowned, and five were swept to their deaths by the water. ^[4] Additionally, twenty three people were reported missing, including nineteen from the town of Leogane, sixteen of whom were later confirmed dead, bringing the death toll in Haiti to 33. This is a much lower death toll than initially feared; tropical systems which affect Haiti such as Hurricane Jeanne of 2004 are usually among the deadliest as the badly-deforested Haiti is extremely prone to mudslides and lacks virtually any form of tropical alert system.

At least 400 homes were damaged by the storm, including twenty three homes that were washed away.

[edit] Dominican Republic

Authorities in the Dominican Republic ordered the evacuation of at least 30,000 people living in areas where flooding was possible. About 1,000 people remain in shelters. Nine deaths have occurred there ^[5], including two fishermen who went missing at sea during the storm and a fourteen year old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in the town of Guaricanos ^[6]

[edit] Bahamas

One child was swept out to sea by Tropical Depression Alpha.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Naming and records

Since all the twenty one predetermined hurricane names were exhausted after Hurricane Wilma, the Greek alphabet was used and the storm was designated Alpha once it reached tropical storm status. The name Alpha has been used before in the Atlantic for a subtropical storm (see Tropical Storm Alpha (disambiguation)), but 2005 was the first season to have a tropical storm Alpha.

At the time it was thought that Alpha was the twenty-second storm of the season, and so was the storm which broke the 1933 season's record for most storms in a single season. However post-season analysis revealed that there was also an earlier subtropical storm, which made Alpha the twenty-third storm of the season. Alpha was the first tropical storm to be assigned a Greek-alphabet name after the list of hurricane names was exhausted. This was just one of many records set by the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.