Just a few weeks after Hurricane Andrew struck south Florida as a category-5 hurricane, the US suffered another devastating blow by a major hurricane, this time Hurricane Iniki in the Central Pacific Ocean. The 1992 central Pacific season was especially active, with 11 storms in the basin, probably due to the concurrent El Niño event. Iniki formed into a tropical depression on 5 September, and slowly intensified to a tropical storm three days later while moving mainly westward. As it intensified into a major hurricane, a large trough caused Iniki to turn northward and accelerate toward the island of Kauai where it made landfall on 11 September as a category-4 hurricane, the strongest on record to ever impact Hawaii. Iniki caused $1.8 billion dollars in damage to the impacted islands, and six deaths were recorded. This also makes Iniki the most damaging hurricane to hit the islands.
A few days after landfall, Professor Emeritus Ted Fujita and a team from the University of Chicago surveyed the island of Kaua’i and produced a comprehensive damage survey. They documented a number of microbursts and mini-swirls that accompanied Iniki as it traversed the island. The full document can be found at http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/flyers/1992Iniki_Fujita.jpg.