Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Hurricane Elena

Hurricane Elena

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/September 2, 2015 by Brianboulton (talk) 11:14, 16 August 2015 (UTC)



Hurricane Elena was an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone that affected the United States Gulf Coast in late August and early September 1985. Threatening popular tourist destinations during Labor Day weekend, Elena repeatedly defied forecasts, triggering evacuations of unprecedented volume; many residents and tourists were forced to leave twice in a matter of days. The hurricane wrought havoc on property and environment between southwestern Florida and eastern Louisiana, though lesser effects stretched well beyond those states. Initially projected to strike the central Gulf Coast, the hurricane suddenly veered toward the east on August 30, stalling just west of Cedar Key, Florida. Unexpectedly, the cyclone then retrograded westward, ultimately making landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi. Elena's slow movement off western Florida resulted in severe beach erosion and damage to coastal buildings, roads, and seawalls. The hurricane devastated the Apalachicola Bay shellfish industry, killing off vast swaths of oysters and leaving thousands of workers unemployed. Farther west, Dauphin Island in Alabama endured wind gusts as high as 130 mph and a significant storm surge. In Mississippi, over 13,000 homes were damaged and 200 were entirely destroyed. Overall, nine people died as a result of the hurricane: two in Texas due to drownings in rip currents, three in Florida, two in Louisiana, one in Arkansas, and one in a maritime accident. Damage totaled about $1.3 billion, and power outages from the storm affected 550,000 electricity customers.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Hurricane Diane (August 7)
 * Main editors: Juliancolton
 * Promoted: August 3, 2013
 * Reasons for nomination: 30th anniversary of one of the most erratic and confounding hurricanes ever to strike land. The storm played a mighty game of cat-and-mouse with millions of people along the US Gulf Coast, and by the time it had finally come ashore, tens of thousands of residences had been damaged. I'm not going to claim that tropical storms (or myself) are particularly underrepresented at TFA, but I worked on this—my flagship article—for a solid six months with the goal of getting it on the main page for its 30th anniversary, and even tried reserving a spot a year ago. Any date between August 28 and September 2 would be acceptable, since the storm affected land for its entire existence.
 * Support as nominator. –  Juliancolton  &#124; Talk 20:47, 6 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Support - interesting article, important anniversary. sovereign°sentinel (contribs) 02:36, 10 August 2015 (UTC)