On Saturday June 11, 1972, a collection of storms began to form up the Pacific Coast of South America. What began as a "small circulation detected over the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico on Thursday, 15 June, 1972" (Weatherwise, ) was eventually upgraded into tropical depression status with its expected storm development to occur in the northwestern portion of the Caribbean Sea. "The following day, this tropical depression matured into the first tropical storm of the season and was named Agnes" (Weatherwise). Little did anyone know, that up until that time, Hurricane Agnes would become known as the most costly hurricane to ever ravage the United States of America.
By Tuesday, June 14, 1972, a "polar front collided with the storms over Mexico's
At the same time, in the Keuka Lake area of the Finger Lakes region of New York, a low pressure system came in from Canada, bringing with it rain. While, this system of rain was in no way anything uncommon for June weather in upstate New York, what was unusual was that around the same time, Agnes was approximately 1300 miles away heading toward Florida. Water surrounds the Finger Lakes Region of New York and according to the
Hurricane Agnes 3 documentary film, Agnes: The Flood of '72, there had always been an underlying concern of future weather rage because of all the water surrounding that particular area. In 1935, a fairly large flood with high water hit this region, but only affected low lying areas. In the film, Agnes: The Flood of '72, the narrator Bill Gorman mentions that the townspeople were always conscious that the water there could be a little uncontrollable and they grew to respect
So in the mix of them fighting there two powers water and wind. They created a hurricane and that was the strongest hurricane ever made. With the hurricane there it completely destroyed
Nearly 45 years ago one of the most powerful and damaging weather phenomenon’s ever to be recorded slammed into the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, a storm that effected people far and wide. Camille formed on August 14th just west of the Cayman Islands and rapidly intensified overnight becoming a category 3 hurricane approaching the island of Cuba. The storm trekked north-northwestward across the Gulf and became a stage 5 hurricane and maintained its strength before making landfall on the Mississippi Coast on the eve of August 17th. The devastating aftermath in the weeks to follow induced by the winds, surges, and rainfall took the lives of 256 people, and caused an estimated damage of 1.421 billion dollars.
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore).
In 1992, hurricane Andrew was a category four hurricane and said to be one of the worst natural disasters to happen in the United States at the time. It’s winds surpassed 160 miles per hour and caused damage to over 125,000 homes within 400 square miles. Hurricane Andrew left approximately 175,000 families and children temporarily homeless.
As stated in the text there was a lot of flooding because 25 inches of rain fell in little than a day. The rain also collapsed hills that caused a sea of mud.
With the winds and waters sweeping away taking away people’s lives and property the storm made it to be one of the costliest in the history of America. According to FEMA:
This may be a common trend in every large city if more hurricanes strike. Urban development in almost all cities in America has made flooding worse than it should be. The creation of buildings, asphalt, concrete, and other things have eliminated much of the grass in the cities, which will cause less rainwater to be absorbed into the ground. Although most major cities have rain drainage channels, Houston may not have had enough of them, which caused them to fill up with water. The water had nowhere to go except on the streets. The city of Houston avoided floodplains. The floodplains that were present in Houston were often ignored by construction companies. These companies chose to build houses on the floodplains. This is discussed in this quote by Sean Breslin, “In the months following Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians face an important decision: respect the floodplain and stop building homes wherever, or continue to ignore the lessons taught by countless flood events and build more homes in the most vulnerable areas of town” (Breslin n. pag). I feel that if the civilians and building companies in Houston would have respected the floodplains years earlier, fewer lives would have been lost in this hurricane. Coral reefs provide excellent coastline protection which slows the hurricane just before landfall. The death of coral reefs also could have played a large role in why the hurricane was so
Imagine that a family is sitting at home watching a calm game of baseball, when suddenly they realize that a massive wall of water is approaching the neighborhood. Where did this flash flood come from, a reader might ask? The wall of 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.
Hurricane Harvey recently made its way through some of the southernmost states leaving a path of devastation in its wake. The large amount of rain in a short period of time caused massive flooding, putting some houses almost underwater. Much of Texas and Louisiana was affected by the hurricane over the course of several days. In the state of Texas alone: more than 300,000 people lost power, an estimated 30,000 people were displaced, and there is billions of dollars in property damage left behind. The city of Houston was hit particularly hard by this storm. Many people are banding together to help those impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Several famous people and prestigious companies have donated large sums of money to help the survivors. The total cost of rebuilding is still being determined. This event has had a lot of impact on the United States, it may have affected us in ways we can’t easily see.
As chart B illustrates, Hurricane Mitch had tied Hurricane Camille (1969) for the fourth lowest pressure ever recorded in an Atlantic hurricane. Hurricane Mitch was named a Category 5 hurricane for maintaining it’s low pressure for a duration of 33 hours compared to Hurricane Camille’s(1969) and Hurricane Allen’s(1980) 24 hour long duration. Mitch traveled alongside the northern coast of Honduras for two days. “Once onshore, Mitch meandered through the mountains of Honduras and continued to unload extreme amounts of rainfall,” states Mace Bentley
Planet Earth is under attack by the very entities charged with its protection. Human beings are systematically destroying the planet and are deaf to its, so far, relatively subtle warnings. When temperatures rise by just a fraction of a degree, or yearly precipitation amounts increase by just an inch or two, these changes can be imperceptible. However, when these small changes accumulate after a period of years they can result in natural disasters that are uncommon to certain geographic areas. Ocean temperatures have steadily been on the rise for years. These changing temperatures have the potential to irrevocably change weather patterns for the entire world. In August of 2011, Hurricane Irene gave much of the east coast of the United States a taste of what changes in global weather patterns can do. The hurricane showed many communities how vastly underprepared, and unequipped they are to deal with such a storm, and it served as a wake up call to the human race, to take better care of the planet. A case study of these realizations can be viewed through the prism of severe weather related events at the Humane Society of Ocean City.
Isaac Storm On Friday evening, September 7, 1900, many of the 37,000 residents of Galveston, Texas, were settling down to dinner, few if any of them concerned about the steady 15 mph northerly wind rattling their windows. Within 48 hours, at least 8,000 of the townspeople would be dead, victims of the single worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Relatively few people are aware that the deadliest natural disaster in the United States was the hurricane that struck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900. One of the best resources that can be found to help fully understand the significance of this storm is Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson.
The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the flooding that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially began forming over the Bahamas on August 23rd, as a tropical depression....
Hurricanes are one of the deadliest and most expensive natural disasters around. They are more common in areas of humid yet moist weather so they are very foreign to certain places. But to the places were hurricanes are the norm, the people take them extremely seriously because they kill people and ruin countless amounts of property. Hurricanes can attack and harm people in so many ways they can kill people, leave them homeless, it leaves children orphaned and disable them. On the west coast of the United States and other places hurricanes aren’t taken as seriously as other more common disasters, such as, earthquakes and volcanoes yet the hurricane can be a lot more damaging that both of those. Hurricanes are cyclones that develop over warm oceans and breed winds that blow yup to 74 miles per hour.