|name=. Remove this parameter; the article title is used as the name by default. Tropical Storm Naomi while undergoing rapid intensification on September 11, 1968 while off the coast of Mexico. This picture was taken shortly after the system was given a name. | |
| Meteorological history | |
|---|---|
| Formed | September 9, 1968 |
| Dissipated | September 13, 1968 |
| Category 1 hurricane | |
| 1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS) | |
| Highest winds | 85 mph (140 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 979 mbar (hPa); 28.91 inHg |
| Overall effects | |
| Fatalities | 4 direct |
| Damage | ≥$16 million (1968 USD) |
| Areas affected | Mexico, Texas |
| IBTrACS | |
Part of the 1968 Pacific hurricane season | |
Hurricane Naomi was a short-lived and damaging Category 1 hurricane that made landfall in Mexico's Pacific coast during the 1968 Pacific hurricane season. After rapidly intensifying before its landfall in Sinaloa, Naomi caused rainfall throughout northern Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas in association with a frontal system, with the highest measurement occurring in Corpus Christi. Four people perished in Mexico due to Naomi's effects with ten more missing, all in Sinaloa. The only reported injury in Texas due to the remnants was a factory worker who was injured when the roof of the plant they were working in collapsed due to rainfall.
Naomi was the seventeenth tropical depression, fourteenth tropical storm and the fourth hurricane of the 1968 Pacific hurricane season. Its precipitation on the Mexican Altiplano briefly threatened the unfinished Lázaro Cárdenas dam on the Nazas River. If the dam failed, the twin cities of Gómez Palacio, Durango, and Torreón, Coahuila, would have been inundated. On the other hand, releasing water from the dam would have saved Torreón by submerging Gómez Palacio with the dam's runoff. From help with satellite imagery, the authorities decided to keep the dam closed—risking its possible failure—saving both towns.