One month before the end of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists have deemed Hurricane Gustav the worst storm to hit Baton Rouge in at least 50 years, with the University suffering between $12 million and $16 million in damage. Gustav made landfall Sept. 1 and brought sustained winds of 61 mph and peak wind gusts of 91 mph, according to observations taken by the National Weather Service at the Baton Rouge Metro Airport.Brian Blanchard, Coastal Studies Institute research associate, said Gustav’s intensity was similar to Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Betsy had sustained winds of 58 mph and maximum wind gusts of 92 mph.A wind gust is a short rush of wind, and a maximum sustained wind is the maximum wind over a period of one minute.Gustav brought 10 hours of wind gusts, and reports show Betsy brought between four and six hours of wind gusts, Blanchard said. He said no other hurricanes to hit Baton Rouge in recent years compared to Gustav or Betsy. Barry Keim, Louisiana state climatologist, said the fourth hurricane of the 1947 hurricane season passed almost directly over Baton Rouge. It brought wind gusts of 96 mph, he said.The National Hurricane Center did not begin naming hurricanes until 1950, he said.”The economic and the human and the social impact was worse during Gustav because more people were here to be impacted,” said Jay Grymes, WAFB meteorologist, of Baton Rouge’s population density.Paul Favaloro, Facility Services director, said about 18,000 cubic yards of debris were removed from campus.The amount of debris is equivalent to about 150 large trees and 150 smaller “ornamental” trees. Favaloro said the University didn’t lose any endowed oak trees because of Gustav.Grymes said Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 were also some of the strongest storms to affect Baton Rouge in the last 50 years. The University sustained about $3 million in damage because of Andrew, said Gary Durham, executive director of public safety and risk management and interim chief of LSU Police Department.Favaloro said the University suffered only minor damages from Andrew, including the roof coming off the Music Building.The University paid about $2.2 million to clean the campus and run emergency shelters during Katrina, Durham said.”For Katrina, we were in more of a role to assist in aid. The physical damage to our campus was minimal,” Favaloro said. “We became more of a shelter — a triage center. We helped our sister universities in New Orleans relocate.”The University bore no monetary damages from Rita, Durham said.”Rita was not much of an issue for LSU in that we were still geared up and working in the capacity we were for Katrina at the time,” Favaloro said. – – – – Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]