Hurricane Luis

Hurricane Luis was one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h). The storm was the twelfth tropical storm, sixth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season. Luis was also the strongest hurricane to make landfall, and the second most intense tropical cyclone recorded during the extremely active season. At one point, the storm was one of four simultaneous tropical systems in the Atlantic basin, along with Humberto, Iris, and Karen. The storm lasted for 15 days between late August and nearly middle September.

The system initially formed from a tropical wave on August 27, and subsequently attained tropical storm status on August 29. Later that day, the storm reached hurricane status; shortly thereafter, it rapidly strengthening into a 140 mph (220 km/h) category 4 hurricane. At this strength, it affected much of the Leeward Islands on September 4 to September 6. Throughout the following days, Luis entered a state of gradual weakening as it accelerated safely to the west of Bermuda. As a category 1 hurricane, Luis made landfall on Newfoundland before it ultimately became extratropical on September 11.

It caused catastrophic damage, especially in Antigua, Barbuda, St. Barthelemy, St Martin and Anguilla as a Category 4 with winds of 135 mph (215 km/h). The storm accounted for 19 deaths, left nearly 20,000 homeless (mostly in Antigua, Barbuda and Saint Martin) and wrought roughly $3 billion in damage across the affected areas. It was also held responsible for an intense rogue wave which struck RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 on Monday, September 11, though the ship pulled through with hardly any damage. Additionally, Luis was the second of three tropical cyclones to affect Guadeloupe in a short period of time, the first being Hurricane Iris a week before and the last being Hurricane Marilyn only ten days afterward.

The next year, the Leeward Islands would be struck by Hurricane Bertha, while still repairing from Luis and Marilyn, then successively hit by Hortense, Erika, Georges, José, Lenny and Debby.