Hurricane path, why live there?

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Bicnarok

botankus
One thing about "Hurricane Alley," as it's called.

Oh, first things first. "Hurricane Alley" moves from year to year. It usually depends on who got the roughest hurricanes in recent time. "Hurricane Alley" is now the stretch of land extending across the southern portion of Alabama and all the way to Destin, Florida, in my opinion. There's nothing official about it.

Interesting factor in houses being damaged or demolished is INSURANCE. In 2004 with all the storms, people would wait until Hurricane Season was over in November before turning in their claims for fear of the next storm wasting their efforts. And homeowner's insurance is high in those area.

One thing about it, though: You absolutely cannot buy homeowner's insurance if a Hurricane has been named and you are in its projected path, no matter how many days away it is.

Also, there are many wealthy houses built on the shoreline. Guess what? They are eligible for the Federal Relief Fund just as much as Joe Shmoe living in a one-bedroom ranch house. My dad told me that last part; he says it kind of pissed him off that that happens. He said, "If you've got enough money to build those mansions by the shoreline, you should have enough money to bail yourself out. Don't rely on Uncle Sam to save you."

PadmeSkywalker
because no matter where you go or what you do natural disasters happen. Tornado Alley, Earthquake Fault Lines, Volcanoes, Ring of Fire, Mt. St. Helena. All of these places people live, and its not because they are like, "oh let's live somewhere where there is tons of natural disasters" but because they fall in love with an area and most accept the fact that no matter where you go there will always be natural disasters.

I'd rather live in a place I love then live somewhere just because its "safe". No where is fully safe, so enjoy life and live where you want if you can.

botankus
...Not sure if insurance would cover the events happening in my sig!

Bicnarok

botankus
Now the poor countries like Haiti (as you may recall, had 1,500 deaths as a result of TROPICAL STORM Jeanne in 2004) is simply unequipped to handle that amount of rainfall. Remember, it's not necessarily the winds that do the most damage, but the rain. In my sig, however, it's both.

For countries like Haiti, their landscape, economics, construction, dirt roads, and overpopulation are literally timebombs waiting to happen when a Hurricane comes through.

Royal Knight
Originally posted by botankus
Now the poor countries like Haiti (as you may recall, had 1,500 deaths as a result of TROPICAL STORM Jeanne in 2004) is simply unequipped to handle that amount of rainfall. Remember, it's not necessarily the winds that do the most damage, but the rain. In my sig, however, it's both.

For countries like Haiti, their landscape, economics, construction, dirt roads, and overpopulation are literally timebombs waiting to happen when a Hurricane comes through.

storm surge does the most damagestick out tongue

botankus
Okay, how about we go with water?

Royal Knight
Originally posted by botankus
Okay, how about we go with water?

sounds fair enough

botankus
Major Hurricanes (Category 3 or higher - 136 mph or higher sustained winds) by State:

Florida: 28 (including Cat 5 Andrew in '92)
Texas: 16
Lousiana: 12 (including Cat 5 Camille in '69)
North Carolina (my state): 11
Alabama: 7
Mississippi: 6
New York: 5
South Carolina: 4
Connecticut: 3
Rhode Island: 3
Massachusetts: 2
Virginia: 1
Georgia: 0

Royal Knight
oh yes hurricane hugo hitting south carolina

one of the costliest hurricanes in US history

PadmeSkywalker
I was living in Delaware when that happened and we get so many Nor'easters up here. That's really where our damage is from. And low level areas all over the state

cking
I would love to live in Florida or somewhere close to the coast. I like all year round weather that stays the same all the time. I hate the weather where I live, it is too humid during the summer and too cold in the winter. I don't know about hurricanes, but still that wouldn't keep me from moving there.

WindDancer
Originally posted by Bicnarok
I was wondering why people live, build houses or move to these areas?

Practically for the same reasons people live in California (land of the Earthquakes) there is no better place to move. There is some natural disaster happening in other places. Might as well get used to them.

Royal Knight
Yeah like here in the desert southwest...Arizona, Nevada, California

We have droughts....a natural disaster

Imperial_Samura
One could also ask why people live near active volcanoes (actually aside from the danger this is a good place to live if one is a farmer) or along earthquake fault lines. It might be because there is nowhere else to live. It might be because there are benefits to such a place (such as climate, or the afore mentioned volcano thing.) It might just be because they are silly.

manny321
including Cat 5 Camille in '69)

She is imo the strongest hurricane to hit the US in modren time. I head camille was so bad because it was big like ivan. I heard its one the biggest storms ever. Its the grandaddy of the south.

botankus
Originally posted by botankus
Major Hurricanes (Category 3 or higher - 136 mph or higher sustained winds)

Error, sorry. The number's 116.


_______________________________________

Most people think of Hurricane Andrew as the big monster. Andrew wasn't even a Category 5 storm until 2002! A true monster is Hurricane Camille, as Manny put it. The following is a news article.

_______________________________________

"by Philip D. Hearn author of Hurricane Camille: Monster Storm of the Gulf Coast "

Here's why Hurricane Camille may be considered by many to be the most powerful storm ever to strike the U.S. mainland:

Camille is one of only three hurricanes of Category 5 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale ever to hit land in the United States. The other Category 5 storms - which must have winds of 155 miles per hour or greater - were the Florida Keys Labor Day hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which also struck south Florida.

Camille's barometric pressure of 26.84 inches is second only to the 1935 hurricane's 26.35 inches as the lowest reading in U.S. history, but Camille's wind gusts of more than 200 miles per hour and nearly 35-foot wall of water take a backseat to no other American storm.

Camille's toll in human lives in Mississippi alone reached 172, including 131 dead and 41 missing. Nearly 9,000 more were injured. But that was just half the story.

Camille's national toll of dead and missing reached 347 as the storm moved through portions of Tennessee, Kentucky, then sparked landslides and flash flooding in West Virginia and Virginia before finally exiting into the Atlantic and dying off the coast of Newfoundland some five days after it slammed into Mississippi.

Camille's refusal to die quietly turned into Virginia's worst-ever natural disaster. In the wake of the flooding and landslides, the storm left 106 dead, 67 missing and 102 injured in that state. Two people lost their lives in neighboring West Virginia. The property damage exceeded $100 million.

Although Hurricane Andrew, which hit heavily populated south Florida in 1992, was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history in terms of property damage -- $30 billion compared to Camille's $11 billion in today's dollars-Andrew's winds reached only 165 miles per hour. Because 700,000 out of a million people in Andrew's path were safely evacuated, the death toll was under 50.

If hurricanes were rated by size rather than by intensity, Camille would rank among the smaller severe storms on record. Its hurricane-force winds extended out only about 45 miles in all directions from the eye as it hit landfall. But its tightly wound eye channeled a killer punch into Mississippi's narrow coastline. Antebellum homes, restaurants, motels, apartments, schools, churches, virtually everything in its path, were swept off their foundations and deposited in mountains of rubble with trees, piers, boats and automobiles.

botankus
I was thinking about something as I noticed Hurricane Emily making landfall near the US/Mexican border as a Category 3 storm.

Will illegal immigration there be higher or lower than average as a result of this storm?

My first instinct says lower, but when you think about it, officials might be less likely to fully check vehicles thoroughly when confronted with 100 mile-an-hour winds.

manny321
Ivan was imo the worse storm since floyd in 1996 to hit the US. Ivan was weaker then charley but it was a massive giant.

manny321
I though Camille was a big monster. Maybe i got confused but the worse thing that can happen is to have cat 4,5 hurricane that is as large as Ivan. Size does matter because then the strong winds last much much longer.

botankus
Andrew was medium-sized as well. Follow the progression of Andrew below, it resembles a buzzsaw slicing at a tip of Florida.

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