Artificial satellites can be used to monitor the scale and path of hazards such as hurricanes. Data from previous hazards can help scientists predict possible paths and impacts of hurricanes. The prediction is not always entirely accurate but allows governments and media to inform the people of the risk, to allow them to move out of the hazard path.
The tropics are the area of hurricane formation because the conditions are perfect. I will concentrate on the Caribbean and Americas for my study, where the hurricane season is between June and November, with hurricanes being most frequent in September.
Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in November 1998, causing devastation throughout. Honduras was worst affected, other areas included Nicaragua, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. This area was full of debt ridden countries, some having just emerged from prolonged conflict. Hurricane Mitch caused huge loss of life, killing over 15,000 people and it displaced over one million. Minimal damage was caused by the high winds which died to a category 2 or 3 before making landfall, but the immense amount of precipitation, brought by the hurricane, caused widespread flooding, cutting people off and destroying agriculture and housing. The majority of the affected countries relied heavily upon agriculture as the main source of income. They grew cash crops such as bananas and coffee to export, but they also grew large amounts of cereal crops, e.g. maize, which made up the staple diet of their populations. Many of these crops were flooded or destroyed by the deposition of sediment (alluvium). This product dependency was the cause of massive food supply and economic problems.
Diseases such as cholera were widespread as the people sheltered in overcrowded places affected by flooding. Communications were down as power was out and most transport routes were cut of by floods, so many were cut off from aid and information on the flooding could not be passed on.
This hurricane was predicted days before it made landfall, but people were either not warned, or didn’t have knowledge of how to respond to such warnings. The countries did not have the infrastructure to cope, or the disaster management plans in place to evacuate those at risk. A small number of last minute evacuations took place in Nicaragua after the government sent out warnings, but they and other governments were working out disaster management plans together as the disaster was unfolding. Their countries had some evidence of facilities to predict the hurricane, but they didn’t have the ability to let the people know or predict how widespread the flooding would be.
Another hurricane, which hit the USA, was ‘Floyd’ in September 1999. It affected nearly the whole east coast of the US, with North Carolina and Virginia being the worst hit, by huge amounts of precipitation. Floyd caused 51 deaths, mostly due to drowning and displaying around 100,000 people. Again, the majority of damage was not down to the high winds, which died down before reaching land, it was due to the flooding. Over 7,000 homes were destroyed and tens of thousands were damaged. Roads became rivers and there was widespread loss of electricity, gas and water supplies.
However, loss of life was kept to a minimum due to the way the government warned the public and the way that they responded. Widespread evacuation took place, around three million people left the coast and moved inland. The Department of Transport made sure that there was maximum use of routes available for those leaving and closed all routes to danger areas once evacuations had taken place. The Government declared a state of emergency for 9-10 states, allowing aid to be rapidly provided, which was well organised and coordinated due to disaster management plans, drawn up by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).
The USA had the satellite technology and data from previous hurricanes to successfully predict the path and likely impacts of hurricane Floyd. So we can see that an understanding of the physical processes allowed informed predictions of the hurricanes path to be made, therefore reducing the impacts. The storm was monitored by the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, they anticipated the immense precipitation and floods that would follow, as Floyd was twice as big as the average hurricane in the area.
So in summary of the two case studies; Mitch hit an economically poor area, where there was great dependency on agriculture and little resources or education on hurricanes. Hurricane Floyd hit an MEDC (More Economically Developed Country) where they were well equipped to deal with the threat and where the public were well aware of the dangers.
A knowledge of physical processes means that the impact of the hazard can be predicted, the necessary precautions can be taken to protect the public and they can be educated in what to do when a climatic hazard occurs, plans can be made for aid, this all leads to a reduced impact on people.
Honduras is till recovering from it’s ordeal but has learned, at great cost, from it’s mistakes. They now have disaster plans ready and the public are becoming increasing aware and educated of the threat from hurricanes. The USA now has more data to add to it’s collection and has a greater understanding of hurricanes. We are learning all the time from the hazards.
