HURRICANES                                                                       HURRICANES                 

 

There can be THREE hurricanes at the same time. Most hurricanes never do curly loops. But one hurricane in 2004 did a curly loop and that is Hurricane Jeanne that killed 2,000 people. Hurricanes can be HUGE, such as Frances in 2004 or Isabel in 2003. A hurricane is very dangerous.

 

Story of Hurricane Floyd over Bahamas:

Hurricane Floyd was a huge hurricane as you can see from the picture.

On Friday, September 10th, Floyd became the fourth hurricane of the season, on the same day friends of ours arrived from Edinburgh. On September 11th, Hurricane Floyd continued to strengthen. By the middle of the day, forecasters advised residents in the Bahamas and the Southeastern United States to monitor the progress of this dangerous and developing storm. Its winds had picked up to 110 mph, on the threshold of Category Three Hurricane strength. We had already seen two major hurricanes this season. About 24 hours later its winds went up to 145 mph. Not only was it the third major hurricane of the 1999 Atlantic Hurricane Season, but it was also the third Category Four Hurricane of the season.

We remained glued to the weather channel as we were told Floyd was going to make a turn to the north - but when? Would it be too late for us? Forecasters weren't willing to take the risk, and declared Hurricane Watches for the Florida East Coast from Flagler Beach, FL to Hallandale, FL.On Sunday night we decided to evacuate on the Monday, we spent most of Monday getting all our papers together, finding all the photos to take with us and getting the house as ready as we could. It's funny what becomes important when you think everything might get destroyed.

Floyd continued to strengthen and progress. Not only did it possess winds of almost Category Five strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, but it also was becoming a very massive storm. The diameter of the system ranged 500 to 600 miles in length, Florida is only about 150 miles wide. Hurricane force winds extended 105 miles from the center while Tropical Storm winds extended 290 miles from the center.

Floyd destroyed almost 12,000 homes and damaged another 30,000. In total approximately 4 million people were evacuated, making it the biggest hurricane evacuation ever. Fortunately it weakened before it made landfall in the wee hours of Sept 16th, and did not do nearly as much damage as it could have. Even so, it was blamed for over 40 deaths and perhaps $1 billion in losses, much due to flooding.