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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:24
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quote:
Posted on Tue, Sep. 07, 2004
Four killed when two motorcycles hit tree downed by Frances
Associated Press
DELAND, Fla. - Four people on two motorcycles were killed when they roared along a storm-darkened street and hit a tree that had been knocked across their path by Hurricane Frances.
The deaths were categorized as hurricane-related.
The drivers of the motorcycles were identified as Ryan Cayford, 21, of DeBary, and Matthew Teston, 21, of Orange City. Their passengers were Andrea Wagner, 21, of Deltona, and Rebecca Smith, 20, of DeLand.
Their bodies were found by a carrier for The Daytona Beach News-Journal early Tuesday, entangled in the tree, but investigators weren't sure when they died. Police said the engines of the bikes were cold when police arrived on the scene.
The motorcycles left 147 feet of skid marks before hitting the tree and were believed to be traveling about 70 miles per hour, said Trooper Kim Miller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiheral...ate/9603122.htm
What kind of lunatics ride motorcyles in a hurricane? 
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Space05us
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quote:
What kind of lunatics ride motorcyles in a hurricane? |
dead ones?
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mrmitchell
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quote:
It's only been done since the 1950s. It just makes it easier to keep track of storms. |
I thought the practice started with a guy in ~1900, who named hurricanes after politicians he didn't like.
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:24
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Ivan apparently destroyed concrete houses on Grenada.
quote:
Hurricane Ivan Kills 20 in Grenada, Heads West
MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Ivan killed at least 20 people as it laid waste to the tiny spice island of Grenada, where looting hampered relief efforts on Wednesday as the storm swept through the Caribbean heading northwest.
Ivan, a dangerous Category 4 storm on a five-step scale of hurricane intensity, slammed into Grenada, a volcanic island of 90,000 people in the southeastern Caribbean on Tuesday, flattening or badly damaging homes and cutting power.
"Our diplomats are reporting that there are 20 confirmed deaths," said a State Department official in Washington.
The airport in the former British colony was closed and phone service was interrupted, so the extent of the damage began to emerge only on Wednesday.
A videotape shot from a British naval helicopter showed widespread destruction with buildings flattened, roofs ripped off houses and major flooding.
Grenada's capital, St. George's, was devastated. The storm destroyed the island's emergency operations center, the prime minister's residence, the prison, many schools, and damaged the main hospital.
"I can estimate about 85 percent devastation," Kenrick Fullerton, a member of parliament in Grenada, told a radio station in Trinidad.
Crews cleared the airport runway so emergency flights could land, but looting broke out and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency urged aid groups to send only essential personnel until police could guarantee their safe passage.
Police, troops and ham radio operators were en route from neighboring islands to help relieve what CDERA called a serious security situation. "There is some looting in the capital city, so I think that is causing some concern," said a CDERA manager Donovan Gentles.
The latest in a busy Atlantic hurricane season, Ivan prompted storm alerts for the Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, the north coast of Venezuela, Colombia's Guajira peninsula, Jamaica and parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Its winds hit 145 mph (232 kph) and it was expected to strengthen.
Britain's Royal Navy sent in medical teams from the HMS Richmond and an auxiliary vessel to help relief efforts, said a Navy spokesman, Cmdr. Richard Buckland, in London. Continued ...
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....storyID=6186623
...meanwhile, Frances is now busily drowning New Jersey. 
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smacksim
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Deputy Chairman of the Council of Lords of Gaia
Feb 2004
time: 00:24
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quote:
Originally posted by The Mad Monk
The good news is, it dosen't appear that Ivan will hit Florida's east coast.
The bad news is, it appears that it won't hit Florida's west coast either -- it will just shred it as it runs alongside it, with the eye over water the entire time. |
That's just what I was thinking.
Here's where I get my hurricane info: NOAA They've really improved the website in the last year or two. You can click right down to county level.
Did you all read about the double eye-wall in Ivan? Apparently it keeps reforming an inner and outer eye, but both very tight as it vascillates between cat 4 and 5. It is as strong as a weather system can be without tearing itself apart and disintigrating. Jamaica is in for a very very rough time.
As to hurricane-proofing, the US is really resistant to zoning laws and building codes. Even where we have them, they mainly are only effective in big cities with big money. Rural areas pretty much build things as they want to, which in the tropics means a roof and some siding, otherwise known to Ben Franklin as a kite. Grenada had a lot of concrete buildings for some reason or other (last war, or one previously?), but the chance that they were actually designed with high-winds in mind is pretty small. They went squish.
If these mega-storms re-focus on the mid-atlantic in the coming years, as they used to in the 50's, there will be Trillions of dollars damage. Not that it's any consolation, but Florida is just about used to these. The east coast is not.
Personal note: My grandma was evacuated for Frances from Jacksonville to Atlanta. She's 94! Apparently she's living it up at the Atlanta Hilton. Go grandma.
-S
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The Mad Monk
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of Ice Cream
Mar 2000
time: 23:24
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quote:
Posted on Tue, Sep. 07, 2004
New weather patterns turn Florida into a hurricane magnet
BY MARTIN MERZER
Knight Ridder Newspapers
MIAMI - (KRT) - Charley, Frances and Ivan. Three major hurricanes. Two assaults on Florida already and possibly a third by next week. Get used to it. This is the new normal.
Scientists say we are in a period of enhanced hurricane activity that could last for decades, ending a 24-year period of below average activity. They also say the law of averages has caught up with Florida, with a change in atmospheric steering currents turning the state into a hurricane magnet.
``People are suddenly alert, suddenly paying attention,'' said Stanley Goldenberg, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's hurricane research division on Virginia Key. ``They can see now that we are in an active era. ... - People should realize that it is very unlikely that Frances is the last storm the U.S. will see this year.''
Which brings us to Hurricane Ivan.
Though subject to considerable error, long-range forecasts are consistently suggesting that Ivan will strike Jamaica on Friday and Cuba on Sunday as a vicious Category 4 hurricane. The outlook improved slightly for South Florida, but the southern half of the state remained in the five-day cone of probability.
When asked if Florida can endure another hurricane, Gov. Jeb Bush pointed Tuesday to a button he wore on his shirt. It said: ``I survived damn near everything.''
``We will survive whatever comes at us,'' he said. ``We're an incredibly resilient state. I'm not being defiant; I'm only suggesting we can meet this challenge.''
If Ivan hits the state, it will be the first time since 1964 that three hurricanes smacked Florida in the same year. And September and October tend to be among the most active months of the six-month hurricane season that ends Nov. 30.
``The season is still young,'' said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County. ``It certainly seems from my perspective that we're in the active period that has been predicted. The only surprise is that Florida hasn't been hit more often in the last few years.''
A sobering thought: Between 1941 and 1950, seven major hurricanes - with winds higher than 110 mph - attacked Florida. ``And that doesn't include the other less powerful hurricanes,'' Goldenberg said. That 10-year period fell in the middle of a cycle of heightened activity that began in 1926 and persisted until 1970.
Now, the combination of complacency bred during a long lull between 1971 and 1994, the new hyperactivity since 1995 and the ongoing mega-development of Florida's coasts frightens emergency managers and scientists.
``The implications are much-increased damage when storms make landfall,'' Goldenberg said, ``and the potential for major loss of life in the event of an evacuation foul-up during a rapidly intensifying storm.''
He has more than academic interest in this. Goldenberg and his family were nearly killed when Hurricane Andrew crushed their South Miami-Dade home in 1992.
Research he later conducted with NOAA scientist Chris Landsea, private expert William Gray and others found distinct patterns of low-activity hurricane periods and high-activity periods, each of which endured for decades. These patterns, unrelated to the current concern over global warming, are caused by regular cycles of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena, such as unusually warm water in hurricane breeding grounds.
One period of ``hyperactivity'' ended in 1970 and was followed by a 24-year lull. The new period of heightened activity began in 1995 and could last for another 10 to 30 years, according to their report, which was peer-reviewed and published in 2001 in the prestigious journal Science.
In the last few years, and particularly this year, the depressing statistics related to the number, power and duration of storms appear to verify the report's depressing conclusions, especially when major hurricanes are considered.
This is significant because, though relatively few in number, major hurricanes - Category 3 or higher - cause 80 percent of all damage from tropical weather.
``We're not talking about stronger hurricanes than in the past,'' Goldenberg said. ``We're talking about more of the stronger hurricanes.''
The long-term average, including relatively quiet periods and busy periods, is 2.6 major hurricanes a year.
Between 1971 and 1994, only four years had more than two major hurricanes and none had more than three. Between 1995 and 2003, a much shorter period, seven years had three or more major hurricanes.
And we've already had four major storms this year - Alex, Charley, Frances and Ivan.
All the other numbers tell the same tale: total storms, total strength, total duration, Caribbean hurricanes, October and November hurricanes, each at least 100 percent - in some cases 500 or 1,000 percent - higher since the lull.
``That's a humongous increase,'' Goldenberg said. ``This is striking. This is not a little signal. It would be like saying the average temperature is 15 degrees warmer than last summer. It's huge. It's huge.''
Worse, atmospheric steering currents have changed to our disadvantage.
During the beginning of this active period, a persistent and beneficial bend in the jetstream carried hurricanes away from Florida. Now, that phenomenon had disappeared, replaced by a persistent ridge of high pressure over the Atlantic that is pushing them toward Florida.
What can you do?
Only one thing: Prepare.
``People should realize that, active year or slow year, we can still get hit,'' Goldenberg said. ``Remember, Andrew hit during a below-average year. The higher activity is just all the more reason to remind people that they can't let their guard down.''
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http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/abe...ion/9603303.htm
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08-09-2004 10:21
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