Hurricane Bill
Hurricane Bill May Become a Big Deal.
by MikeScholtes on Aug.19, 2009, under Hurricane Bill
The first hurricane of the 2009 season, Hurricane Bill, inched further towards land on Tuesday as it picked up speed and could now potentially become a major threat to many.
The National Hurricane Center reported that the hurricane was carrying winds that measured up to 105 mph. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 40 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extended up to 175 miles out. They also predict that it will continue to gain strength in the next 48 hours as it makes a northwards turn.
Several new weather models on Tuesday showed that Bermuda and various West Indies islands had already avoided a direct hit by the storm, although Bermuda may still face fall out from the passing storm in the form of fierce wind and increased wave activity in the ocean around the island.
The US areas that seem most likely to be affected in the US are the North East down to the Carolinas, although forecasters admit that the storm may curve back out to sea before it does so.
Hurricane watching becomes almost a nation past time in the US at this time of year, but some areas are always far more prepared than others as they are far more accustomed to dealing with the effects of the potentially devastating storms.
For instance, many Florida residents live in an almost perpetual state of hurricane awareness. Although the more recent Hurricane Katrina, the storm that caused the levee break that practically destroyed New Orleans, is more prominent in many people’s minds these days it was 1992’s Hurricane Andrew that remains the most costly natural disaster to hit the US in modern times. That storm caused almost $30 billion in damage in the state of Florida and killed 65 people.
Predicting the path of a hurricane or the damage it might cause is still a far from exact science, even with all the technology that is available to meteorologists in the twenty first century. Hurricanes can be tracked, weather prediction models can be created and best guesses can be made. But the speed and power many of them possess make being sure when, where and even if they land far from easy.
So the people who live in the Northeast and the Carolinas simply have to wait, watch and make sure that they are as prepared as they can possibly be in the event that this hurricane does become “Big Bill” in their area this weekend.
