CHAPTER 1 THE MOST VIOLENT STORMS ON EARTH Hurricanes are the strongest and most dangerous storms on Earth These large swirling and fast-moving winds start over warm ocean waters far from land Some slow down and die out before they are anywhere near a coastline Others travel quickly across the sea crashing onto shores where people live When a large hurricane hits a coast the results can be disastrous Deadly Storms Hurricane winds can travel quicker than the fastest train on Earth These speeding violent winds can flatten everything in their path and wreak terrible destruction Deadly hurricane storms also bring sudden torrential rains from the skies The heavy rain can submerge land beneath large amounts of water in a short time causing floods Some hurricanes last for a only few hours while others last for days or even weeks They can impact injure and kill thousands of people 4
Name That Hurricane Hurricane winds can whip up high menacing waves as they blow across the ocean’s surface Hurricanes are given names because there may be more than one happening at the same time Having different names makes it easier to keep track of the different storms so that everyone can immediately recognize which storm is being talked about Each year the names are given out in alphabetical order as they occur although there are few names beginning with the letters Q U X Y and Z so these letters are not used Some names are used more than once but the worst hurricanes have their names retired so they are never used again For example Katrina the name of the 2005 hurricane will not be used again It was one of the costliest natural disasters and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States EARTH UNDER ATTACK The word hurricane comes from Hurican the Carib god of evil People in the Caribbean gave these giant storms this name because of their destructive power 5
Hurricane mayhem This is what a hurricane strike zone can look like Hurricane Sandy caused this destruction in New Jersey in 2012 A hurricane’s high winds are incredibly destructive They can also spawn tornadoes which wreak further havoc Spiraling speeding winds can uproot trees knock over buildings fling deadly debris around sink or ground boats and toss vehicles about as if they were nothing but toys However these deadly winds are not the only dangers Hurricane Horrors When the heavy rains that hurricanes drop cause floods water suddenly covers areas of land that are usually dry drowning people and washing away anything that is not fixed to the ground Heavy rains can also soak mud-covered hillsides making the dirt so heavy and loose that it slides downhill suddenly Landslides like this can bury anything in their way and can occur many miles inland When hurricanes cause high waves that hit the coast homes and businesses along the shore can be devastated Anyone inside the buildings can be killed In fact flooding kills more people than the strong winds do 6
Hurricane Scale There are five types or categories of hurricane based on their greatest wind speed The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale ranks hurricanes on a scale from 1 to 5 1 being the weakest and 5 being the strongest Category 1 74 to 95 mile-per-hour 129 153 km h winds that can damage roof tiles gutters power lines and poles snap large tree branches and topple some shallow-rooted trees Category 2 96 to 110 mile-per-hour 154 177 km h winds that can damage mobile homes and roofs and blow down trees These winds can cause power outages Category 3 111 to 129 mile-per-hour 178 208 km h winds that cause more serious damage to buildings destroy mobile homes and blow down larger trees Category 4 130 to 156 mile-per-hour 209 251 km h winds can cause so much damage that they can make an area impossible to live in for months Category 5 More than 157 mile per-hour 252 km h winds cause widespread catastrophic damage and damage or destroy almost all buildings and life in their path DEADLY DATA Category 5 hurricane winds blow as fast as some high-speed trains travel Wind-whipped waves during a hurricane can dump heavy boats from ports far inland 7
