Hurricane Charley was one of the many hurricanes which devastated the Atlantic in 2004. The Category 4 hurricane began as a tropical wave off the coast of Africa then moved to around Barbados, where it strengthened to a tropical depression. When the hurricane hit the Caribbean coast, it then became a tropical storm and finally became a hurricane around Jamaica. A notable feature about the hurricane is how quickly it strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 4. (Took a couple of hours.)
The hurricane hit the Florida Gulf coastline on August 9, and was the strongest hurricane since Hurricane Andrew 12 years prior. The hurricane was expected to hit Tampa, but suddenly changed direction and places such as Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, Fort Myer and Orlando were hit hard. Punta Gorda, being one of the worst hit towns, ended up being reduced to rubble.
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People experienced winds up to 145 mph in Charlotte County, highest winds hitting 150 mph. A curfew was established throughout the county (9pm-6am) in order to avoid any looting or other destructive behaviours. A Chicago Times article from August 16th, 2004, reported that 25 counties were federal disaster zones and estimated the damage cost to be over $15 billion only a week later. In Lee County, the barrier islands such as Gasparilla, Cayo and Captiva island were hit hard.
The hurricane caused the beaches to erode severely, lost roughly 48% of sea turtle nests and cost the county $14 million in tourism.
Whilst the storm had died down, Orlando was mainly affected by the large amount of fallen trees. Trees has blocked dozens of roads, brought down power lines and destroyed roofs. Many tourists were still there though, and many took shelter in Disney World. One tourist’s children had recounted the hurricane as “better than most of the rides”.
The aftermath and damage of the hurricane was massive. The damage cost was an estimated $16.3 billion, Florida chalking up $14.6 billion by itself. Jamaica lost about $4.1 million and Cuba lost $923 million (most of the costs were from agricultural loss). The LA Times reported a death toll of 23 people as of August 20th, 2004 and that number has most likely increased. People were left without power for 2 weeks, and faced massive debris clean up. Tourism and economy halted, and many businesses were left ruined and/or without available
employees. Hurricane Charley also had a large agricultural impact. As aforementioned, Jamaica and Cuba faced large agriculture damage, strong winds mixed with heavy rain damaged Jamaica’s agriculture, while Cuba lost 57,000 acres of fruit trees and 15,000 grapefruits. In Florida, the hurricane swept through land which was rich in citrus farms, ripping up trees and destroying barns, costing millions of dollars at least. In the wake of the disaster, many counties banded together and got back on their feet diligently. Hurricane Charley has also opened the door for communities to really focus on becoming more prepared in the future. Leaders from Charlotte and Lee County have talked about working on being more prepared in the future as well as improving communication between government officials. Punta Gorda has done an incredible job in improving their procedures. In fact, in the 2014 National Climate Assessment, Punta Gorda was chosen as one of the most progressive cities in the world. They disclose how it didn’t even cost any money, the equipment needed had already existed, it was just a matter of implementing much more information and using that to come up with a stable and reliable plan. Hurricane Charley is ranked as one of the worst U.S hurricanes in history, and while the storm cost the nation a lot, a lesson can be learned and procedures improved based on the experience.
In James S. Hirsch’s book about Rubin "Hurricane" Cater, Hurricane, the author describes how Carter was wrongfully imprisoned and how he managed to become free. Hirsch tells about the nearly impossible battle for Carter and his friend John Artis for freedom and justice. Both, Carter and Artis, were convicted of a triple homicide, and both were innocent.
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.
There were a lot of items lost in the flood. Even trucks, cars, and even airplanes. This hurricane has been up to 50 inches of rain. The resulting floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people, and caused more than 17,000 deaths. Losses are estimated between 70 and 190 billion dollars.
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.
On August 24th, 1992 in the state of Florida, complete destruction was the end result of Hurricane Andrew. A Hurricane that began in the Atlantic ocean at 20mph. That is almost twice the strength that normal hurricanes begin at. The peak strength of Hurricane Andrew was so strong that devices were not able to measure the winds. An approximation of the force of the winds was said to be up to 200mph. Andrew destroyed about 28,000 homes, damaged 100,000 homes and left 250,000 people homeless along with 30 billion dollars in damage and almost 30 deaths. Hurricane Andrew did not end its devastation in Florida, soon it went to Louisiana causing more damage. (Fig.1)
As my family and I were enjoying watching our family-friends continue to win in the Little League World Series, we were hearing news of a possible historical storm preparing to hit the gulf coast. The Ewa Beach team, with my Uncle Clint as a coach and his son Ty, continued to win and the Louisiana team stuck around. Even though they were out of the tournament, it was decided that it was not safe for them to go back yet. Ewa Beach went back to Hawaii as World Champions, while Louisiana eventually boarded the flight home unsure of what they would see. Damages and Description:
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
Leading up to this storm, many prominent scientists believed that the hurricane would never make landfall, or if it did hit, would not cause any major damage. Due to this foolhardy belief held by the scientists, many civilians did not have any time to evacuate their homes and barely escaped with their loved ones and whatever small valuables or keepsakes they could grab. Regretfully, many families had to leave everything they had behind. Hurricane Andrew also damaged the livelihood of many small shop owners or farms and caused long term problems as well. Due to the large flooding and high wind speeds, much of southern Florida was left in ruin and many years were spent trying to clean the rubble and restore buildings. Hurricane Andrew also destroyed many precious ecosystems on top of all of that.
New Orleans by far felt the biggest effect of Hurricane Katrina. Many people were rescued but had nowhere to go and the government was not prepared for the disaster. There was no plan for recovery. Communication failures were one of the major problems which included power failures and broken telephone lines. Homes were destroyed and many were left stuck on the roof of their broken homes. Most of the city’s major roads and buildings suffered extensive damage. Countless people were left unemployed and homeless. Above all, the worst effect caused by Hurricane Katrina was the final death toll of 1,836 people with 705 still reported
...e affected a total of 24 states. [3] These states were mainly within the eastern seaboard, ranging from down in Florida to all the way up to Maine. The storm’s path also stretched west across the Appalachian Mountains to states like Ohio to Wisconsin. The two states that encountered much more severe damage than others were New Jersey and New York. The famous Jersey Shore Boardwalk located in Seaside Heights, NJ, is a popular tourist attraction that was completely ripped apart. Amusement park rides such as roller coasters could be found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane’s storm surge hit New York City and flooded hundreds of streets, tunnels and subway lines. The power was cut off in and around the city for up to two weeks in some homes. The reported costly damage was more than $65 billion, making it the second most expensive hurricane in US history. [4]
Hurricane Katrina killed up to 2,000 people and injured thousands of people. Katrina was known as one of the costliest storms ever. The U.S government had to pay 108 billion dollars to fix New Orleans. About 80 percent of the Housing Units in New Orleans were destroyed. Thousands of people were desperate for food, shelter, and aid which caused many people to riot and caused a lot of chaos. There was a curfew which was mandatory for the people in New Orleans. The economy in New Orleans was devastating because many people lost their jobs and the payroll has dimensioned due to Hurricane Katrina. People were stealing money from hospitals and banks so that they can have food and shelter and not be
Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida Keys on sunday morning. Breaking down tons of houses and buildings. I interviewed a vicom and they said “i lost everything during hurricane Irma.” everything is underwater. After this the storm headed up the east coast, heading for Carolina and Alabama. There has never been a tropical cyclone quite like hurricane Irma. This has been the longest hurricane since Ican in 2004. “This is very deadly,
Many believe for this very mighty superstorm to be engineered storm by the United States government. This hurricane was called “Hurricane Sandy”. The president of the United States is to believed to man make this storm because he wanted to become President of the United States. This certainly did help him because he did end up winning. The hurricane damaged millions of people’s lives all along the U.S. border, they claim that the storm was man made, and it happened because a person, a person, wanted to win presidency.
Hurricane Sandy brought devastation to the Atlantic coast in late October 2012. The storm claimed lives and caused major destruction, ranging in billions of dollars’ worth of damages. Throughout this paper, topics covering the storm will be discussed such as conditions leading to its formation, the path of the storm, landfall and its destruction, and ending with rebuilding efforts and future readiness.
Hurricanes are powerful and destructive storms that involve great rain and wind. 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 floodings that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially beg...