Hurricane Darby

The 1992 Pacific hurricane season was the most active Pacific season on record.

The most notable storm was Hurricane Iniki, which caused billions of dollars in damage to the Hawaiian Islands.

Hurricanes Lester, Virgil, Winifred, and Orlene also made landfall and killed several people, but were significantly less destructive.

Hurricane Darby and Tropical Storm Agatha brought rains and more destruction to Mexico, without making landfall.

In this episode of Storm Stories, we will focus on Hurricane Darby, where in July of 1992, seven men on a yacht struggle for survival in a category three hurricane.

Hurricane Darby was the fourth named storm of the 1992 Pacific hurricane season. Darby began as just a tropical wave, which moved off the coast of Africa on June 19th. It eventually moved over the Atlantic, then moved across Mexico, where it re-emerged in the Pacific on June 29th and became a tropical depression on July 2nd.

Obviously, this storm had a great deal of will power. Not only did it move over land and back out to sea, it managed to get even stronger.

On July 5th, it became a tropical storm and then a hurricane on July 6th.

Although Darby remained well offshore, it managed to kill three people.

During Darby’s formation, flooding from the cyclone’s rainbands killed three people in Acapulco, Guerrero and 180 shops were damaged. Four fishermen were reported missing, fate unknown. Manzanillo, Colima, reported sustained winds just above tropical-storm force.

The hurricane’s remnants brought mainly light rain to the U.S. state of California. Cloud cover delayed the landing of the space shuttle Columbia for one day. South-facing beaches of California were pounded with waves up to 7 feet in height. A monetary value for damage is not available.

Darby also caused a few shipping accidents. A pleasure craft, the Oasis, had an engine failure and was abandoned. The seven people aboard were rescued, but the boat sunk. A smaller sailboat, the Hosanna, had difficulties but was towed to a safe location by a cutter from the United States Coast Guard. A fishing boat at an unspecified location also experienced difficulties.

On Storm Stories, severe weather—and sharks—are a dangerous combination, especially for pleasure boaters. You’ll see how four fishermen battled sharks and Hurricane Darby for survival.