Basic Information about Hurricanes - Thesis Example

Members of the United States Congress began to question FEMA and the federal government involvement in disaster preparedness, suggesting that changes must be made or that the Federal assistance programs themselves be dissolved due to the costs. The media immediately reacted, mostly based on the timing of these statements, and eventually, a new dialogue emerged for the pundits to debate against costs versus necessity. The questions posed cannot be seen as political statements but as fundamental questions of emergency preparedness.

In this piece, the following questions will be examined: How do we become prepared? What are the contingency plans for preparedness? What are the costs of preparedness? Understanding these questions will help governments respond and prepare within the roles and tasks required of them, ensuring citizenry and personal property are protected and effectively planning and managing costs and allocations. A hurricane is technically a storm that has winds of 74 miles per hour or greater. According to Isaacs (2005), “A hurricane is a severe tropical cyclone that affects coastal areas, usually near or around tropical and subtropical regions where the water is warm” (pp. 23). Unlike a typhoon, which can be much more detrimental—hurricanes are put into classifications to classify them.

Hurricanes are much more likely to be deadly than just any other normal storm. They can cause significant damage and ruin peoples’ lives. They leave people with various problems to deal with in their aftermath, which will be discussed in the following sections. Typical hurricanes are usually up to at least 300 miles in diameter, although hurricanes vary in their sizes. The hurricane's eye varies but is usually about 20 to 40 miles in diameter in the midst of the hurricane. In this way, that is how hurricanes are exceptional.