In the six years that I live in the United States, I have never seen a hurricane. In my country, Peru, hurricanes are not known. Although I have heard a lot of them, I do not have really an idea of how it is a hurricane. All I know about the hurricanes is what I have seen on TV or have read in books. According to historians, Christopher Columbus wrote the first known report of a hurricane, after he sailed into the storm in 1495 on the second of his voyages to the Americas. Probably the most frequently mentioned hurricanes are the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and Katrina of 2005, but Andrew of 1992 is much known too, because they say, was in its time the most tragic and costly of all the storms that had affected the United States till then. Andrew left 250,000 homeless people and losses of more than $ 26 million but the worst were the human lives lost. According to the St. Petersburg Times: 44 people died, 15 directly killed by the hurricane, 29 indirect deaths. (*) It is known that the southeastern region of the United States has a long history of strong hurricanes. Many of them affected this area up to the mid-60s, but not major tropical storms had struck South Florida coasts since then, until the morning of August 24 of 1992. In the summer of 1992 I was only five year old, so that I did not even know what was going on with the weather. Now I know that in those days, the meteorologists of the National Hurricane Center in Miami remained vigilant of a storm that had its origin in the west coast of Africa, just a few days before. When the winds of the storm reached 29 miles per hour, the experts classified it as a tropical depression and named it “Andrew”. However, the weather conditions made that Andrew almost dissipated on Augus... ... middle of paper ... ...round the hurricane Andrews’s eye “was 5 000 times the combined heat and electrical power generation” of nuclear power plant. He also said that “the kinetic energy of the wind at any instant was equivalent to that released by a nuclear warhead”. (**) Because all the damage caused by the hurricane, in the spring of 1993 the World Meteorological Organization decided to retire the name of Andrew and replace it by the Alex so no other tropical storm may be named as one that is still remembered for the damage it caused. Retiring that name was not only for reducing confusion in the scientific literature but also for respect to its victims. More than twenty years have passed since Hurricane Andrew, but still people remember those sad days. No one can ensure that similar storms will no longer occur, but it will depend on us that we know how to defend ourselves better.
water was made by the raging winds and immense power of Hurricane Andrew. Hurricane Andrew was the second most expensive storm in history that destroyed over 250,000 homes in the states of Florida and Louisiana alone. Hurricane Andrew was not predicted to make landfall, so when it did many civilians did not have any ideas that the Hurricane was coming until it was almost too late. Hurricane Andrew also caused many short and long term effects in the ecosystem and local economies. Leading up to this
create Hurricane Andrew? On August 14th a tropical wave moved westward towards the Cariban and the south eastern portion of the United States from Africa influenced by a high pressure storm to its north. On August 15th the storm became more concentrated and developed a center of circulation and spiral bands. By August 18th the winds increased in speed to 50 mph. Wind speed continued to rise to 80mph on August 18th. On August 22nd the storm reached hurricane status and was called Hurricane Andrew
one ever expected a monster like Hurricane Andrew to plow through the southern half of the united States, leaving everything in it’s trail destroyed and the people devastated. Andrew was officially recognized as a tropical storm on August 17, 1992 and continued to whirl through the Atlantic, gaining speed and a great deal of power. On August 22, 1992 Andrew finally mustered enough strength to evolve into a terrifying category four hurricane. On August 23, 1992 Andrew began claimed three lives of innocent
Hurricanes' Effects on Society Hurricanes are one of nature’s most natural occurrences and intense phenomenal storms. Yet, as phenomenal as they are, they are still one of the deadliest and disastrous natural occurrences that continue to plague costal residents with fears of their homes being destroyed, their towns wiped out, and loved ones either disappearing or dying. Roger A. Pielke Jr. and Roger A. Pielke Sr. in their book Hurricanes: Their Nature and Impacts on Society, state that the
most interesting were Hurricanes. The thought of those storms with their power gives me the chills. Ever since I was in the middle of Hurricane Bob when I was vacationing with my family off the coast of Virginia and we were asked by the state police to evacuate our house, I wanted to learn more about hurricanes. Since that I have been able to take classes that enabled me to learn more about hurricanes. That is why I have decided to take the focus of my paper towards hurricanes. Furthermore, I am going
Hurricane Charley was a hurricane that occurred during the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. In the United States Hurricane Charley first impacted the state of Florida. “Hurricane Charley made landfall on the southwest coast of Florida new Cayo Costa, just west of Ft. Myers around 3:45 p.m. EDT on August 13, with maximum sustained surface winds near 150 mph.” (Johnson) Hurricane Charley continued to travel across the Florida peninsula. Hurricane Charley traveled into the Atlantic Ocean and turned
world economy have increased significantly in the first decade of the new century. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, mankind has been exposed to numerous natural disasters and catastrophes, like earthquakes, floods, forest fires and hurricanes. The impact of natural disasters is increasing and its impact on the socio- economic sphere is amplifying, so humanity is becoming more vulnerable to them. In doing so, the disaster become sources of new dangers, often leading to disturbances in
noticed that the animals started to scatter as well. Janie asked one of the Indians why they were leaving and he said that there was a hurricane approaching. The park ranger that guided us on the slough slog informed the class that this is a fact. The animals as well as the sawgrass know when hurricanes are approaching. The Indians these days know when a hurricane is approaching as well. Yet, these days they most likely find out from the weather channel reports on their big-screen TV's in their casinos
Galveston hurricane in 1900. This hurricane had an estimated 12,000 victims and was a very tragic time for the nation and specifically Galveston, Texas. Another disastrous event happened only six years later in San Francisco, California (Hanner). San Francisco first experienced an earthquake that leveled eighty percent of the city; then, a fire destroyed the rest of the city. In more recent years, Hurricane Katrina also was an awful natural disaster. Yes, the Galveston hurricane and the earthquake
whole world is taken away from them. For example, the current hurricane, Hurricane Irma, is catastrophic. Hurricane Irma is now becoming known as the most destructive hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Irma is an extremely strong hurricane. The winds are measured at 185 miles per hour, and is about 400 miles wide making it strong than both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Andrew. For several of the Caribbean island, the hurricane is more catastrophic than they ever imagined. 95% of Saint-Martin
events are expected to occur in the future, such as hurricanes and flooding. Currently, 11 percent of the city’ s area is currently included in the 100-year flood plain, affecting over 400,000 residents, and that number could increase to 20% by 2100 (Gerken, 2015). The mayor of the city, Bill de Blaiso, had announced a sweeping plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050, allegedly make neighborhoods safer from disaster.
Hurricane Ivan hit the North Atlantic Ocean in 2004. It killed more than 100 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and had a negative impact on the government at all levels. The Storm washed out 5 major regions including: The Caribbean, The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Grenada, and much of the Eastern United States. From an economic standpoint, Hurricane Ivan is one of the costliest Hurricanes on the record ranking 4th behind Hurricane Katrina, Andrew and Ike. Ivan’s winds registered at more than 125
serious problems that are happening in today’s society. “The earth covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface and contains 97 percent of the planet’s water, yet more than 95 percent of the underwater world remains unexplored.”2 I want to show the effects of coastal erosion, the problems that contribute to this event, and what we can do to help prevent further erosion. We will look at the Florida coastal shoreline by looking at the marginalization of lands, the loss of property, and water supply and
According to (Gutro, 2005) “Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effect upon life and human activities.” Climate is different from weather it consists of the short term changes in the atmosphere, while climate is the weather over a long period of time. Weather is made up of sunshine, rain, cloud cover, winds, hail, snow, sleet, freezing rain, flood, blizzards, ice storms, and thunderstorms, steady rains from a cold front, excessive heat, heat wave and
Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents