The 74 to 160 mile per hour winds of a hurricane can extend inland for hundreds of miles. Hurricanes can spawn tornadoes, which add to the destructiveness of the storm. Floods and flash floods generated by torrential rains also cause damage and loss of life. Following a hurricane, inland streams and rivers can flood and trigger landslides.
When a hurricane watch is issued, the best response is to protect your property by boarding up windows, bringing in outside items, and being prepared to evacuate the areas as soon as officials so advise.
Even more dangerous than the high winds of a hurricane is the storm surge - a dome of ocean water that can be 20 feet at its peak and 50 to 100 miles wide. The surge can devastate coastal communities as it sweeps ashore. Nine out of 10 hurricane fatalities are attributable to the storm surge.
Hurricane Mitch 1998
Danger Zones
Areas in the United States vulnerable to hurricanes include the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Texas to Maine, the territories in the Caribbean, and tropical areas of the western Pacific, including Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and Saipan.
What Is A Hurricane?
A hurricane is a tropical storm with winds that have reached a constant speed of 74 miles per hour or more. Hurricane winds blow in a large spiral around a relative calm center known as the "eye." The "eye" is generally 20 to 30 miles wide, and the storm may extend outward 400 miles.
As a hurricane approaches, the skies will begin to darken and winds will grow in strength. As a hurricane nears land, it can bring torrential rains, high winds, and storm surges.
A single hurricane can last for more than 2 weeks over open waters and can run a path across the entire length of the eastern seaboard. August and September are peak months during the hurricane season, that lasts from June 1 through November 30.
Help Your Community Get Ready
The media can raise awareness about hurricanes by providing important information to the community. Here are some suggestions:
Publish a special section of your local newspaper with emergency information on hurricanes. Localize the information by printing the phone numbers of local emergency services offices, the American Red Cross, and hospitals.
Provide hurricane tracking charts to local schools.
Work with local emergency services and American Red Cross officials to prepare special reports for people with mobility impairments on what to do if an evacuation is ordered.
Stage a simulated evacuation to show your community what can happen.
Periodically inform your community of local public warning systems.
Did you know?
In less than a 4 week period in 1992, two major hurricanes hit the United States leaving an unprecedented array of devastation. First Hurricane Andrew pounded Florida and Louisiana to become the most expensive natural disaster in US history with damage estimates in the range of $15 billion to $30 billion. Then 3 weeks later, Hurricane Iniki affected three Hawaiian islands resulting in over $1 billion in damage, particularly in Kauai.
Eighteen of the 54 direct deaths attributed to Hurricane Andrew occurred during the recovery phase. Of those identified, eight were stress-induced heart attacks, three were either people falling in damaged buildings or hit by debris while cleaning up, and two were children who died in fires in damaged homes.
On the average, 10 tropical cyclones develop in the North Atlantic each year. Of these, six may strengthen to hurricane proportion, of which two are likely to strike the coast of the United States.
Hurricane winds in the northern hemisphere circulate in a counterclockwise motion around the hurricane's center or "eye," while hurricane winds in the southern hemisphere circulate clockwise.
The Galveston, Texas, hurricane in 1900 was the natural disaster that resulted in the most deaths in United States history. This hurricane took 6,000 lives.
