Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Hurricane Andew

                      Hurricane Andrew

Hurricane Andrew is considered to be one of the most devastating storms in recent history. Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc on the Bahamas, southern Florida, and even central Louisiana in late August of 1992. During that time Hurricane Andrew was considered to be one of the most expensive hurricanes that hit the United States. It was the strongest hurricane to hit Florida in decades. The ferocious hurricane cost the United States over twenty-five billion dollars in damage. Hurricane Andrew formed near Cape Verde in the east Atlantic Ocean and from there it moved towards the west. It was classified as a category four hurricane when it reached Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. The impact of the hurricane caused a twenty-three foot storm surge that devastated the nearby Current Island. Hurricane Andrew was able to move faster than average hurricanes because of its very small diameter. It reached South Florida in a matter of days. In mid-August of 1992 in the Atlantic, Hurricane Andrew was born. Hurricane Andrew started out as very insignificant storm that most people assumed will fall apart. Like any other hurricane, Andrew started off as a tropical wave. A tropical wave is generally a slow-moving disturbance that's embedded in the easterly trade winds. Hurricane Andrew was created by a tropical wave that crossed from the west coast of Africa until it reached the North Atlantic Ocean.There were ten people who fell victim to the wrath of the ferocious Hurricane Andrew in Dade County, and there were at least three victims in the Bahamas. Not only did the violent hurricane take the lives of over a dozen people, but it also knocked power out in over one million households, and altered the very region of South Dade. The eye of Hurricane Andrew reached the shore of Florida City, which is only twenty-five miles south of downtown Miami, around five o’clock in the morning. The gales of Hurricane Andrew were up to one-hundred-sixty-eight miles per hour. The worst damage occurred from Kendall south to Florida City. The government was forced to implement a curfew law from dusk till dawn in order to restrict looters from stealing from others. The damage was more significant here because the eye-wall is the home of the most dangerous winds of a hurricane. The winds moved at great and high speeds and greatly damaged what it encountered. The damage to Louisiana alone cost nearly one billion dollars. The damage in the Bahamas was a quarter of the damage in Louisiana. The damage in the Gulf of Mexico is estimated to be around half of a billion dollars.  Andrew was able to whip up powerful seas that caused even more extensive damage offshore. Hurricane Andrew caused so much damage and chaos, so the name was retired. Usually the names of hurricanes are only retired when the hurricane is extremely destructive. This was the case for Hurricane Andrew. It is still among the top ten hurricanes in American history.
Satellite image of Hurricane Andrew with a very tightly formed eye

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