A fifteen foot wall of water is ramming into the shore line and wind gusts of up to one hundred miles an hour are ripping trees out of the ground, breaking them as if they were tooth picks. There is complete darkness, the winds are increasing, and the waves are pushing objects that would normally take fifty men to move wherever they want, but this just the beginning. These storms can cost millions of dollars in damage, leave thousands homeless, and can kill hundreds of helpless people. An awareness of the history and development of storms, the use of hi-tech tracking equipment, and a respect for power of these storms, better prepares today's public to deal with hurricanes. .
Few people truly have an understanding of where and how hurricanes develop. The hurricane season starts during late summer and early fall along the coast line of North America and the Caribbean, but in the western hemisphere the season lasts all year long (Knowledge 293). A hurricane develops when condensation occurs and rises. Surrounding air spirals around the sea of low pressure and clouds form creating a thunder -storm (Knowledge 293). These events could take hours or even days. Trade winds carry the storm westward about 12 miles per hour. Spiraling winds are blowing about forty miles per hour and at this point the storm starts spiraling around a calm low pressure area in the center of the storm (Knowledge 293). This area is known as the eye of the storm. The eye of the hurricane may measure ten to twenty miles across and while winds are raging around the eye, it remains calm inside the eye (Longshore 349). Skies overhead may be clear or partly cloudy. Winds are light, less than fifteen miles an hour (Knowledge 792). While the eye is only twenty miles wide, the rest of the raging hurricane can reach up to three to four hundred miles in diameter (Cosgrove Pg. 44). Traveling speeds of the hurricanes vary.
