Coastal regions are most at risk from hurricanes for some reasons. Two of the reasons are storm surges and that the hurricane losses power on land.
Storm surges are very dangerous and a major reason why you must stay away from the ocean during a hurricane warning or hurricane. Storm surges are simply water that is pushed towards the shore by the force of the winds swirling around the storm. This advancing surge combines with the normal tides to create the hurricane storm tide, which can increase the mean water level 15 feet or more. This rise in water level can cause severe flooding in coastal areas, particularly when the storm tide coincides with the normal high tides. The diagram to the left, shows the Mean Sea level and High Tide compared o the Storm Tide.
Because much of the United States' densely populated Atlantic and Gulf Coast coastlines lie less than 10 feet above mean sea level, the danger from storm tides is tremendous.
Hurricanes are stronger on water than land because of the moisture and warmth from the sea. The air above the sea heats up and therefore rises (convection), causing very low pressure. This low pressure and high temperatures are not on land so the hurricane slowly looses power.
Hurricane Mitch began developing over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on 22nd October. It drifted westward and became a tropical storm later that day then turned northward and became a hurricane by the 24th.
Hurricane Mitch then turned westward again and rapidly strengthened, becoming a Category 5 hurricane with a central pressure of 905 mb on the 26th.
After passing over Swan Island on the 27th, a weakening Mitch moved slowly southward near the coastal Islands of Honduras.
It made landfall over northern Honduras on the 29th as a Category 1 hurricane. Mitch gradually turned westward after landfall, and the surface centre dissipated near the Guatemala-Honduras border on 1 November.
The remnant circulation aloft reached the Bay of Campeche on 2nd November and began developing again. The re-born Mitch became a tropical storm on 3 November, then moved northeastward across the Yucatan Peninsula on the 4th.
Mitch crossed south Florida as a tropical storm on the 5th and then became extratropical later that day. The extra tropical cyclone remained strong as it crossed the Atlantic, eventually affecting the British Isles and Iceland on the 9th and 10th. The path of Hurricane Mitch is shown in the diagram above.
Mitch ravaged the offshore islands of Honduras with high winds, seas, and storm surge.
However the greatest impact was widespread heavy rains and severe floods in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Hurricane Mitch did mass destruction even thought it was predicted. On the 2nd of November in the afternoon, meteorologists at the Tropical Prediction Centre began to follow a cloud-system centre, the remnants of Hurricane Mitch, in satellite imagery over the Bay of Cameche. On the 3rd of November, a low-level circulation became evident in the eastern Bay of Cameche. A USAFR aircraft was sent to investigate the system that afternoon. The USAFR aircraft found 45knots winds at 1500 feet and a minimum central pressure of 997 Mb. Thus, advisories were re-initiated on Tropical Storm Mitch located about 130 MI south west of Merida, Mexico
Mitch caused an estimated 9,000 deaths in Central America with another 9,000 missing. Thirty-one people died when the schooner Fantome sank as it encountered the high winds and seas associated with the hurricane. Two people also died in the Florida Keys when a fishing boat capsized. Mitch caused tremendous property, infrastructure, and crop damage in Central America, and an additional $40 million in damage in Florida.
What can you do?
People who live in an area at risk of a hurricane should have a family plan, disaster supply kit and a safe place to go when a hurricane is going to hit the land near where you live
If you are asked to evacuate, you should do so without delay. You should have a plan that makes you as safe as possible in your home or to evacuate safely and affeciatly.
You should make sure that you family knows the type of hazards that could accure during a hurricane. You should locate a safest room in your house if the hurricane is predicted to be small. The safest place may be with you’re community.
It may be very useful to take first aid, CPR and disaster preparedness classes. This may help you to help family or friends.
You can prepare a kit that contains a NOAA weather radio, flashlights, food rations and a first aid kit. The kit is a useful tool when you evacuate as well as making you as safe as possible in your home. You may want to put bottles of water in the kit as well.
You need to know if you live in an area that can be vulnerable to floods etc. You should know if there is an escape route, a plan for what to do with your pet in dangerous circumstances, know how to call 999 or 911(depending on where you live), if you have house insurance and if you have smoke detectors.
You should contact someone in your family in a different state and let them know what is happening to you and where you are etc so the rest of the family have a contact point.
What areas are most at risk from Hurricanes
People who live on the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico coast lines are at risk from hurricanes, but in LEDCs, they have the technology to predict hurricanes and to make the people who are at risk of hurricanes as safe as possible. In MEDCs this protection may not be easily available because it cost a lot of money to get the all the equipment and saterlights to monitor hurricanes. Also the people who live in areas at risk may not be able to afford to protect themselves and their homes like the majority of people in north and South America.
