Hurricanes are destructive and dangerous forces of nature that exist because of a long process involving heat, wind, and vapor. When sea water heats, it creates vapor that rises in the atmosphere as time passes. These vapors become strong winds and are classified as a hurricane when they are greater than seventy-four miles per hour (Emily, Helen, and Mohamed). According to John Roach of National Geographic, these conditions have occurred very frequently since 1995 due to an increase in the temperature of the ocean, which created more vapor, heavy rainfall, and serious hurricanes. This increase in temperature caused the dangerous floods of Hurricane Irene in 2011 and the deaths of more than eleven thousand people in 1998 due to Hurricane Mitch (Cimons and Landsea). We plan to investigate the impact of floods and storm surges on coastal areas and cities caused by these high water temperatures and the currently proposed and partially effective solutions used to slow hurricane waves and prevent floods. (A) A proposed method of slowing hurricanes, diminishing waves and minimizing floods was created by Bill Gates and a dozen scientists/engineers from his company, Intellectual Ventures, who suggested to place as many as two hundred cylinder-shaped tubs via airplanes in general hurricane paths “which...would collect water through waves breaking over the walls of the tub. Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water” (Schleifstein). The mechanics of the tub send warm water from the waves deeper into the sea while colder water is pumped to the surface (Schleifstein). The single problem with Gates’ solution is that it has not been built. The co... ... middle of paper ... ...ject. Comp. Anu Mittal. Research rept. no. 4-30. Washington, D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, 2003. Print. Corps of Engineers. USA Today. Gannett, 28 Aug. 2007. Web. 5 Jan. 2014. . Walsh, Bryan. “Sandy: What a Coastal U.S. Can Learn from Other Threatened Cities.” Time 5 Nov. 2012: n. pag. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. . - - -. "A Silent Hurricane Season Adds Fuel to a Debate Over Global Warming" ["A Silent Hurricane Season Adds Fuel to a Debate Over Global Warming"]. Time. Time, Inc., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. a-silent-hurricane-season-ignites-a-debate-over-global-warming/>.
McCallum, B. E., Wicklein, S. M., Reiser, R. G., Busciolano, R., Morrison, J. L., Verdi, R. J., Painter, J. A., & Frantz, E. R. (2012). Monitoring storm tide and flooding from hurricane sandy along the atlantic coast of the united states. Geological Survey Open-File Report, (2013–1043), 42.
Authorities at LSU's Hurricane Center and Water Resources Research Institute, and US Army Corps of Engineers lead a discussion of how Louisiana's coastal region is doomed to storm surges. A case in point is the deterioration of the Mississippi Delta, a triangular-shaped deposition of sediment, which works to mitigate flooding and damage caused by storm surges. In fact, every four miles of the delta could knock down a storm surge by one foot. Unfortunately, some areas of the delta like Port Fouchon are losing 40 to 50 feet of land per year. By 2090, experts at LSU have postulated that the delta will be gone - vulnerably leaving New Orleans on the sea. Aside from the delta, barrier islands and marshes are the only other two natural entities which could mitigate a storm surge. The barrier islands' black mangrove trees and the marshes' tall grasses interfere with incoming gulf currents. However, just like the Mississippi Delta, these natural entities are also eroding (Fischetti, 2001).
Perks, Alan R. "The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why." Canadian Consulting Engineer, 48.6 (2007): 10.
Vernon Loeb has lived in Houston for less than four years and has been in two floods and believe that Houston is its own enemy for flood control. It is a flat place and no amount of preparation could have helped to minimize the impact of the rain from Hurricane Harvey. Loeb walked to work on Sunday in waist-deepwater. In other places, the water was chest-deep. The next day, he saw a very expensive, recently updated park completely covered in water. The National Weather Service describes Harvey with “all impacts … unknown & beyond anything experienced” and as “catastrophic, unprecedented, epic.” Loeb contributes Harvey to climate change, and hopes that acknowledging this will help Houston recover and reinvent itself to developing cleaner energies.
Leading up to the hurricane, many scientists expected the storm to dissipate over the ocean and cause little to no harm (Rappaport). The scientists were relying on faulty equipment that said that due to slow air speed and l...
Hurricanes are born over the warm waters of tropical oceans and are formed by a low-pressure system caused by the heating of water. The heat causes the air to rise and form lower pressures in a feedback loop, making the hurricane stronger. Heavy rain results from a condensation of water and strong winds develop from warm air rushing to the eye of the hurricane. Essentially, greater storms and winds occur when the hurricane feeds of the rising temperature of the water. In addition, researchers studied disturbances and intense thunderstorms in the atmosphere over Western Africa and believe they are partly to blame for extreme hurricanes affecting the United States and Canada. While these are all the main ingredients of a perfectly natural process, they were not the primary causes of the damage done by Hurricane
This paper gives us information about “Hurricane Sandy”. It is known as “Super storm Sandy”, off the record. It was the most disastrous hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season along with being the second hurricane that created financial crisis in United States history. In 1953, the National Weather Service started naming the storms after women. As a matter of fact, there are six lists of names for naming storms in the Atlantic. It was the eighteenth storm in the list, tenth hurricane and second large hurricane of the year 2012. It was a Category 3 storm according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, when it made landfall in Cuba. While it was a Category 2 storm off the coast of the Northeastern United States, the storm became the biggest Atlantic hurricane enlisted (according to diameter, with winds ranging 1,100 miles (1,800 km)).
When Hurricane Sandy hit shore in 2012 it left behind a path of debris and destruction that the coastal communities of New Jersey and New York were not adequately prepared for. Starting as a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean, Sandy made its way up the Atlantic coast before making a sharp turn for the densely populated northeast. Unlike other hurricanes in the region, Sandy maintained momentum as it moved north and met unusually warm waters that helped fuel the storm’s enormous power. It made landfall during a high tide that creating record storm surges, that resulted flooding and massive damage. On its journey, the the hurricane accumulated energy as it merged with a low-pressure system coming from the west. These conditions created the vicious weather system that dumped rain and snow across the region. The destruction costs were among the highest in history, and more than a year later, communities are still working to recover. To many, Sandy was a wake-up call, creating a new sense of urgency to make cities and neighborhoods resilient in the face of natural disasters. Storms are an inevitable part of living on the coast, but the need for long-term recovery and preparation for the future is growing due to the threat of climate change.
Did you know that Hurricane Harvey cleanup could cost about 180 billion dollars? Do you also know that Harvey was one of the worst hurricanes in history? Not only was it the worst in history but the death toll shot up like a bullet. This paper should teach you about the flooding,death toll, and, cleanup if Hurricane Harvey.
In conclusion, hurricane Sandy was unlike any other hurricane. Its large size, intensity and unusual path made it a force to be reckoned with. Although its rainfall measurements and wind speeds weren’t that high compared to some other hurricanes, the storm still managed to significantly disrupt the country’s infrastructure and the cost of rebuilding and repairing affected areas was billions. Understanding the causes, characteristics and impacts of such natural disasters is one way we learn to prepare for such events before and rebuild our communities
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, leaving its signature of destruction form Louisiana all the way to Florida. The hardest hit area and the greatest catastrophe was in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. For many years the people of New Orleans had feared that one day a hurricane would drown their city with its storm surge. Katrina brought that nightmare storm surge and flooded the city. Yet the New Orleans levees system and flood control was the major cause of flooding, due to the inadequate repair and maintenance failure, incompletion of the levee system, and engineering designs based on outdated scientific data.
The tropical storm began in the Atlantic on August 23, 2005 and was named Katrina on the 24th. Early weather predictions estimated the storm would cripple most of the Gulf Coast as possibly a Category 4 or 5 hurricane (Abbott, 2013). By August 25th Katrina had reached hurricane strength just before reaching the Florida coast, and although after moving over land Katrina weakened it nearly doubled in size once it moved over warmer waters in the Gulf (History.com, 2009). On August 26th it became evident that Hurricane Katrina would indeed strike the southern Gulf Coast States more narrowly New Orleans, so the officials of each state’s emergency management agencies were notified by the National Hurricane Center warning them of the likely landfall.
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...
These same tropical storms are known as cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and as typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season points from mid-August to late October and averages five to six hurricanes each year. Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances in warm ocean waters with temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit. These low pressure systems are served by energy from the warm seas. If a storm reaches wind speeds of 38 miles an hour, it is known as a tropical depression. A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm, and is given a name, when its sustained wind speeds top 39 miles an hour. When a storm’s sustained wind speeds reach 74 miles an hour it becomes a hurricane and earns a category rating of 1 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Hurricanes are enormous heat engines that generate energy on a staggering scale. They draw heat from warm, moist ocean air and release it through condensation of water vapor in thunderstorms. A current hurricane that occurred was Big Sandy. FEMA became involved with the issue when the hurricane hit Rockaway, New York. President Obama declared a major disaster on October 30, 2012. According to what President Obama said, “We're going to have a lot of work to do. I don't want anybody to feel that somehow this is all going to get cleaned up overnight. We want to make sure that people have realistic expectations. You know, we go through tough times, but we bounce back. And the reason we bounce back is because we look out for one another and we don't leave anybody behind. And so my commitment to the people on this block, the people in this community, and the people of this state is that that same spirit will carry over all the way through until our work is done. In this country, we look out for one another.
Katrina, Charley, Nina, Sandy and Yasi these are some names that will leave the hearts and minds of those devastated by Mother Nature’s sheer power of destruction. According to Lakshmi Kantha, “Hurricanes, more appropriately tropical cyclones, have the potential to be highly destructive to coastal structures, habitats and communities” [1].