The Nature of the Hurricane Floyd - Case Study Example

The Nature of the Hurricane Floyd Hurricanes are tropical cyclones that cause torrential rain and bring about heavy winds within the area that they strike; the impact is such that it is enough to even blow buildings to pieces. In the 1999 Atlantic season, Hurricane Floyd hit the Bahamas and the U.S East Coast, from Florida to Maine, Atlantic Canada, and caused approximately 2.6 million coastal residents to evacuate their homes in order to mitigate the effects of this natural disaster. This hurricane has been marked as the third major hurricane in US history behind hurricane Gustav and hurricane Rita respectively. The strength of this hurricane however has been recorded as the largest and strongest hurricanes to have ever hit the Atlantic. The reason for opting for hurricane Floyd for this particular case study is the intensity with which it pounded the Bahama Islands and moved into New England subsequently while damaging North Carolina and Florida on the way. Furthermore, it was also the cause for heavy floods and devastating storms which have led to several lives being lost. What originated as a mere tropical wave, turned into something so sinister that even the level of preparedness that had been taken care of in order to mitigate the effects of the hurricane, was not enough. While it crossed the Bahamas it remained under a category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale, giving the meteorology department not much to alert the citizens about. Furthermore, it even weakened to a category 3 status with the winds ranging between 120 mph. thus the forecast that was broadcast regarding the tropical wave when it was out at sea was merely average as compared to the forecasts in the last decade. Only a fraction of the islands of the Bahamas received heavy winds for a small period of time and thus people were not aware that something bad could have struck, due to lack of common warning because of the varying wind pressure. Mitigation is the process of lessening the impact of an impending disaster in order to minimize its effects and cause the least amount of trouble and trauma to the people, possible. Not much could have been done in order to mitigate or lessen the impact of this hurricane except for keeping an eye on its movement and the meteorology department keeping a check on the wind speeds and directions of movement of the hurricane. People were informed well in time in order to leave their homes and as the President had declared emergency, it was the maximum that could have been done. Preparedness on the other hand refers to the measures that are taken in order to prepare for the impact that the potential hazard might cause when it turns into a disaster; for example, in order to survive hurricanes, the best possible measure is to evacuate areas that are predicted to be hit hard by the rain and winds. Furthermore, people should take precautions in order to keep their important documents and objects in airtight plastic bags in order to avail of them even if the disaster brings their homes down. (Herring, D) In order to prepare for the effects of this hurricane however, subsequently, as the winds began to pick up more and more speed, citizens of Florida, mainly the Miami-Dade County were asked to evacuate as the then President Bill Clinton, declared federal emergency in Florida and Georgia in the wake of the storm. This storm caused almost 2.6 million people to flee from their homes and almost 12,500 workers from the Kennedy Space Centre were also evacuated because of the prediction of the storm to hit Cape Canaveral. Not just people, but billions of dollars of damage could have also been done to space equipments and scientific tools and machines in these 80 Centres which would have resulted on an even deeper strain on the financial status of the government. Since the main damaging property would have been water, its entry into these facilities would also have caused damage to electronic and hardware material. However, when the storm actually passed by the Space Centre, the damage fortunately was only reported to be minor. In other states and cities like Asheville, Raleigh and even New York City, schools, colleges and businesses were completely shut down for the period that the storm had hit, from 15th to 17th of September in 1999. In New York City especially, this was seen to be a complete rarity because the city hardly ever shuts down due to minor natural potential hazards, and this is what warned the people that the coming storm would be quite a hefty one, causing a major impact. Despite having prepared for hurricane Floyd, so much damage was done mainly due to lack of preparedness for Flood Floyd, which was the flood that struck during the aftermath of the hurricane. Whole towns were full of water as the water seeped in through buildings, and broke down roads and bridges. The director of FEMA, James Lee Writ responded on CNN saying, “We're starting to move the camper trailers in. It's been so wet it's been difficult to get things in there, but now it's going to be moving very quickly. And I think you're going to see a—I think the people there will see a big difference [within] this next weekend!” Such responses all around news channels helped to encourage people that the disaster was ultimately nothing but a mere experience that they would eventually come out of. The impact of the hurricane Floyd was extremely nasty is it ended up killing around 57 people and caused financial damage of around $4.5 billion to the government. Most of the people that died belonged to North Carolina. The waves caused in the water near the Bahamas because of the hurricane were so large that they ended up damaging a number of resorts and hotels on the shores. They also destroyed a number of restaurants, houses, as well as businesses. All lines of communication were also barred as telephone wires and network towers suffered serious damage; this lead to a number of people including tourists, being stranded on the islands for a few days. “Hydrologists labelled this a 500-year flood event, meaning that a flood this severe is likely to occur only once every 500 years; or that it has only a 0.2 percent chance of happening in any given year. Initially, assessment experts estimated damages state wide to be about $1.3 billion, but that number rose to about $6 billion in the following weeks as stunned officials fully grasped the extent of the disaster. People were warned not to drink or bathe in water from taps for fear that it may harbour dangerously high levels of ‘fecal coliform’ bacteria.” (CNN) The response period is the period that follows after the disaster has struck and the damage has been done to the nearby areas, people and objects. The response is thus the stimulus or the reaction that is given to the people and the places that have been harmed extremely badly because of the effects of the disaster. Recovery refers to the measures that are taken in order to fix the damage that has been done during the occurrence of the disaster and help the people as much as possible to restore and regain what they had prior to when the disaster had originally struck. “Many trees that had withstood the elements for decades were standing in waterlogged soil and got pushed over like bowling pins. But the costliest damage came not from the storm itself—it came from the swiftly rising rivers and creeks that course through eastern North Carolina like a dense cluster of capillaries connecting the Piedmont Region to the Atlantic Ocean.” (Kenneth Silber) It is very tough for a government to battle out and help the people remain calm during the response and recovery period and is what defines the strength of the people with respect to the country that they live in. Hurricane Floyd was dealt with in an exceptional manner as the government was able to supply finances to almost all the people that had suffered the damage on even a micro level. Infrastructure was also taken care of after the disaster had struck, helping the government departments understand the impact of the disaster and prepare for something worse in the future. Various organizations and charitable institutions came forth in order to help the affected people and places due to the aftermath of the hurricane. The Bahamian Red Cross Society for example opened up approximately 41 shelters around the Bahamas in order to help the affected citizens and tourists recover an recuperate from the effects of the disaster. This lasted for a period of a week during which almost $435,000 were required in order to provide only food, shelter and clothing to the affected people. Furthermore, the Inter-American Development Bank also gave 20 million US dollars in order to rebuild the infrastructure within the islands which had completely broken down, in the form of roads, bridges, docks and sea walls. Steps were also taken to strengthen the infrastructure in order to further prepare for a similar disaster in the future. In the Southern part of the United States however, people were not affected as badly and thus even though steps were taken in order to prepare for the impending doom by evacuating, not that many people were affected, fortunately. Strong waves and heavy rain only led to erosion of the beaches on the coastline and damaged some of the boat piers, including ships and boats. Approximately 300 houses were also damaged because of the torrential rains and falling of trees due to heavy wind. The trees are what are said to have caused the maximum damage leading to a total monetary damage of around $46.5 million, which was much lesser in amount to what had originally been estimated by the government departments. (Pasch, R) Hurricane Floyd also had significant effects on the ecology and environment, barring the people and the locations. The salinity and oxygen levels in Pamlico Sound and its tributaries dropped to a solid zero following the storm, because of the freshwater runoff, sediment and decomposing organic matter present in the water, triggered by the heavy floods and rain. This has caused a large variety of aquatic plants and animals to die, leaving very few to survive in the water. Massive numbers of various kinds of fish as well as shrimp have known to have not survived, and the government was thus forced to respond to the fish and shrimp industries in terms of financial matters. Furthermore, a large number of pollutants were also present when the water was tested after the storm and floods, and it was found that pesticides and disinfectants were the main pollutants in the water to have travelled and spread, killing even more marine life. In this manner, therefore, hurricane Floyd took the nation almost by surprise because even though a watch was kept on the harbouring winds, they picked up speed extremely fast, proving it to be a meticulous task for the weather forecast and meteorology department to keep in check the direction that the hurricane was moving in and the impact with which it was going to strike the coastline. This hurricane has been labelled to be one of the worst that has ever hit the planet in the history of such disasters; however, the US was able to cope with it well considering the kind of financial damage that it was forced to face because of the disaster. People came together in order to help one another and prepare themselves for something similar in the future, while others helps to assure their friends and families that it was an experience to learn from. Even though many lives were lost and damage to property was rampant, people were able to heal themselves quite fast from the effects of this disaster. This shows that the country and its citizens had a certain level of preparedness and were ready to face something as sinister; however, their loss is grieved for. As the hurricane slowly pushed its self through the various states that it hit, it left an enormous amount of destruction behind, however restoration and determination of the people helped to leave this behind and start a new life afresh. References Herring, D. (2000, March 1). Lasting Impact Hurrican Floyd. Earth Observatory. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/FloydIntro/ Pasch, R. (1999, September). Preliminary Report. NCEP. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1999floyd.html Kenneth Silber (1999). Bracing for Impact. space.com. Retrieved February 16, 2012, from http://www.space.com/news/floyd_team.html CNN (1999). Waters rise, fall across eastern North Carolina. CNN. Retrieved February 16, 2012 (2000) Hurricane Floyd Information: Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Area. USGS. Retrieved February 16, 2012. Read More