Hurricane

In early September 1999, the name, Floyd would soon be remembered for years and years. Hurricane Floyd struck the eastern coast of the United States in during the mid-month of September of 1999. This storm originated over the Atlantic off of the western region of Africa. Although Floyd only began as a tropical wave, it became a storm the United States thought could be the biggest and strongest they had ever seen. In preparation for this storm from Weather Forecast Offices and different Prediction Centers began to warn the public. Although the strange path of the hurricane, it was believed that it could directly hit Florida and wreak havoc up the coastline of the United States. As Floyd raised its power as it survived, it had almost become a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale which is the highest category there is. Floyd became responsible for the largest evacuation in United States history. The articles used in this paper will identify the beginning of Floyd and how its path affected the outcome of Florida’s evacuation evaluation. They will show how it was prepared, and who played their roles. In conclusion to this study will show contrast to previous hurricane emergencies and contribute to possible methodologies to mitigate for a future evacuation demand.

Hurricane Floyd can originally be traced to Western Africa from a Tropical Wave that emerged on September 2nd, 1999. As the storm moved across the Atlantic in eyes of Weather Forecasters, they upgraded the system to Tropical Storm Floyd on September 8th. As the storm loomed closer to the United States’ worries, it became as what is known now as Hurricane Floyd at 8 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time on September 10th. By September 12th, Floyd turned more westward and began a large strengthening installment right above the Bahamas Islands heading straight for the Southeast tip of Florida. James Lee Witt spoke “Floyd had potential to be the worst hurricane to ever strike the East Coast. This is the first time we have ever had an evacuation that involved so many states at one time. It was my worst fear.” (Reed, J 2000). James Lee Witt at the time was the Director of Federal Emergency Management Agency and Cabinet Adviser to the President Bill Clinton. His emphasis in this storm was that of Floyd being one mile per hour less than a Category 5 Hurricane. Floyd topped at 155 miles per hour and a 27.20 inches surface pressure on September 13th. Floyd showed no signs of slowing down or
stopping headed straight for the coast of Florida. Floyd’s direct path that led forecasters and prediction centers believing everyone in those regions were going to be demolished by this menacing storm. Sirens were sounded, TVs’ volumes rose to higher volumes and emergency responders warned. Schools and courts were closed and naval ships headed to sea. Soldiers demanded island populations leave immediately for a clear out due to Floyd’s wrath.

Many National Weather Service offices forecasted and delivered warnings for threats from Floyd. National Centers that played major roles in warnings and tracking were the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) and the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC) of the National Centers for Environmental Protection (NCEP). Weather Forecast Offices issued a total of 300 flood warnings and statements. All impacted were given either a “Special Weather Statement,” or a “Flood Potential Statement” 30 to 48 hours before any flooding began. All Weather Forecast Offices gave numerous advanced heads up calls to emergency officials 2 to 5 days before Floyd caused any sort of rainfall. (Daly, W , Baker, J ,Kelly, 2000). As all the warnings and sirens were sounded Floyd kept its pace of strength but took sudden sharp turn heading north up the coast. Floyd began to parallel Florida’s coastline 110 miles off of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Floyd increased its travel speed and showed its path leading into northern region of South Carolina and straight shot to North Carolina. (Reed, J 2000). In Florida there is an evacuation process as there is in many other regions or states. The Floridian Evacuation Process is composed of 3 phases. In the first stage, it is considered the Initial or Standby stage. This is where it is determined of the areas most affected from the storm. The next stage is the decision to evacuate is provided and therefore the Governor declares a State of Emergency. Shelters are then prepared, support organizations consolidate and prepare for the aftermath and crisis telephone lines are setup. In the third stage of the process, it is the evacuation itself. This is also called “HURREVAC.” This is a restricted use, United States computer program that is used to help coordinate evacuation of local and state regions. With all phases involved Florida evacuated with a more than vast amount. It is estimated 3.2 million Floridians, Georgians and Carolinians evacuated. One problem that was evident is that no one wanted to evacuate unless it was absolutely necessary.

Therefore orders cannot be given too early. Between the estimated 2 PM and noon the next day on Monday September 13th, 47 counties that were at risk were given the command. Many of the evacuees started beginning their evacuation within the same time period as the tens of thousands of other people. Many people were stuck in double digit hour traffic jams and more. Major interstates such as I-75, I-95, and I-10 in Florida were used for evacuation in this multistate operation. The traffic was clustered in Florida due to the major participation but included many other interstate highways like I-16 in Georgia, I-26 and I-20 which runs completely west to Texas. Participation was a factor, but preparation for a multistate evacuation for these highways was not as evident. Many were forced to remain at rest stops, strip malls, parking lots and low lying bridges during the hurricane after it had barely harmed any of Florida or Georgia. A Hurricane Program Manager at FEMA Regional IV Office in Atlanta by the name of Bill Massey noted, “Our infrastructure cannot handle an evacuation with the kind of participation that took place during Floyd.” Emergency Managers noted that the overall evacuation was a success and that what they needed was to evacuate and the participation was more than expected. The traffic coordination is where most mitigation needs to be emphasized. In the same article Robert S. Lay noted a point that led to the mass participation of evacuation. The media today has changed over the years than it has in the past. Lay stated “I think people looked at the hurricane on TV and said ‘I’m leaving!’” Robert Lay was the Director of Office of Emergency in Brevard County, Florida. Since Hurricane Andrew, Americans view on breaking news has changed. Real time news radiates into kitchens, homes, and offices. Bill Massey believes that TV coverage actually alarmed the wrong people and stirred up thousands that did not necessarily need to. A survey was created after Hurricane Floyd at the College of Charleston. David N. Sattler, a psychologist suggested that citizens actually trust local weather forecasters more than state officials. It is safe to say that media has taken a prime role in help of the evacuation but almost too much.

Needless to say, communication between state officials and local forecasters needs to be held prior to a future evacuation or hurricane. (Reed, J 2000). According to Daly, Baker, and Kelly (2000) Emergency Management Officials commended all Weather Forecast Offices on coordination efforts before and during Hurricane Floyd. Emergency officials found that flood forecasts that gave river forecasts comparisons were immensely helpful. They provided examples of how severe flooding could be. It compared to another historic flood crest and gave better insight their planning of emergency operations. Of the 57 deaths, apparently 48 were due to drowning from inland flooding. An estimated more than half of these were when vehicles were either driven into high water or were flushed away. In regards to forecast errors in distance and intensity of the hurricane were much smaller than average at every 12 hour mark, from 72 hours away. The only recommendation evident was in that local offices could change policies on releasing Flood Warnings rather than Flood Statements. Flood Warnings are more like to be acted upon in that Flood Statements are not enough to capture attention of the public in an earlier timeframe. In relevance to Axtman’s (1999) article, it’s explained that the evacuation was somewhat a success in that others declared a success in general. His reason for success was not as strong. Axtman stated the 15 hour traffic jams throughout the interstates and up to the Carolinas were and are avoidable. Some argue that reaction from the state officials should have been quicker to turn highways inland to all one-way roads, while others believed it is on the public and how they need to act quicker instead of waiting until the very last minute to evacuate or begin their procedure. Of the one-way highways Axtman described the state officials should have turned to relieve the evacuation traffic, in a newer term for it called “contraflow.” Contraflow is the process of taking numerous lanes inbound and outbound to a full on outbound evacuation to increase capacity.

The structure to set up a contraflow of traffic is very difficult, complex and much easier said than done. There is a shoulder lane that would need to be created as well as merging lanes and an emergency vehicle lane. Police, Emergency Responders and anyone involved would need to block off all oncoming traffic routes to make efficiency of the process. This practice was used in some areas to relieve the traffic jams, but with the participation involved, the process was still inefficient due to no familiarity. The practice has a high risk and requires a high cost and a large amount of manpower to get the operation established (Wolshon, B, Urbina, E, Levitan, M, 2000). The LSU study stressed that involvement in all parties needs to be increased. Previously emergency management and law enforcement led evacuations. The Governor, highways and transportation professionals have now become more involved as well as engineers to share experience in creating plans with a great deal of flexibility, efficiency and awareness. In the National Review of Hurricane Evacuation Plans and Policies the evacuation was commended on being well publicized. Some argued over the overreaction. Insufficient planning and limited coordination between various agencies were pointed out as well. Involvement from awareness within the professional transportation community in the field of evacuation was also appointed. Not only locally and within the state but interagency coordination for regional and cross state evacuations could be tuned up. One very interesting point at the Department of Transportation level was the less than adequate use of infrastructure available. (Wolshon, B, Urbina, E, Levitan, M, 2000).

In hindsight to the overall operation, with all factors, mishaps, and successes, the successes outweigh the others. The evacuation of Hurricane Floyd was eventful and upsetting due to 57 fatalities total, but for the millions in participation it has to be considered. Forecasting from offices has been commended all across emergency operations. The public cannot say that was no notice. Timely warnings were given 2-5 days before. The general idea of the meaning is to evacuate, and emergency management itself must be content with the participation. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were given notice days in advance and were also queued in traffic difficulties. Traffic with participation in numbers like these is almost inevitable but in a timely manner can successfully acquire safety to the vast majority. In future events, there are many recommendations and mitigation that can be taken into planning. Voluntary and Mandatory Evacuations could be much more detailed or complex when concerning the mass amount of people in participation. Although the United States does not want casualties, there are also measures to be taken in costs, time effectiveness, and efficiency. If an area is not in mandatory need of evacuation, let it be their choice to ride out the storm. Structurally many things can improve. Coordination between agencies not only locally but regionally or federally can improve in communication and directed jurisdiction of job emphasis per command post or police department. Exploitation of all infrastructure ability is a key point. Any sort of transportation available should be implemented considering low mobility citizens such as nursing homes or prisons. However in future forecasting and warning times, they do not want to warn too soon and create a cry wolf syndrome. This meaning, you want to keep the trust between the state officials or forecasters, wherever the trust lies. The evacuation in Florida was affected by numerous neighboring states but not one fatality was reported in the state of Florida. What needed to be done was done, and for the future U.S. Emergency Operations will be ready. From preparation and forecasting to evacuation and recovery, the evacuation due to Hurricane Floyd succeeded leaving optimism in future proposal.

1 2 In 1903 W. E. B. DuBois has said that race was to be the most important issue of the 20th century. This paper examines how the ‘race problem’ has unfolded in 20th century America, from the immigrations and United States imperialism to the Ku Klux Klan. The paper looks at what happened to help the issues with race why it took so long for America to pass the Civil Rights Act. Finally, the paper looks at the progress made in America in the latter part of the century. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination that was based on your race, color, religion and even national origin in employment and public accommodations.

Then the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that restored and also protected voting rights. In 1965 the Immigration and Nationality Services Act that opened entry to the United States to the immigrants other than just traditional. These acts I believe helped save the United States and solve some of the race and immigrant issues due to Civil War. At the federal level , the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act were the highest of the political struggle to improve legislation. But long before these milestones, race-specific policy changed rapidly at the state level.

It was unfair to the diffusion of anti-discrimination policy that provides the opportunities to be able to study the political economy. Also the effects of the policies before the federal coverage applied a comparatively uniform standard to most places at the same time. In the first two decades were the most intense and some people have said that it was the lowest point for Black Americans since the Civil War ended. The rule of the land was the segregation and separation. This caused issues; African Americans had to ride in separate railroad cars, their own drinking water fountain and most of all the black Americans even had their own court houses and hotels. Can you imagine how the black Americans felt? To make matters seem worse the black Americans even had to use their own facilities and were not able to sit in the front bus, only in the back. The whites had much better facilities than the black Americans did. When a black man was accused by a any white person of having an affair with a white woman, a crime or a different kind of charge, they would become lynched. Lynching is known for ‘hanging’ and it became a public event for the white men, women and even the children.

The whites would hang the body, torture it and the burn the body. This became such a popular horrifying event, that between 60 to 80 black men were lynched each year from the years of 1905 to 1915. I could not even imagine how the children felt seeing this. From the years 1900-1914, the White Supremacist called KKK known as the Ku Klux Klan, was started by a small group of whites from the south. The KKK were mad at the fact that the African Americans got their freedom and that the war ended but most of all that the south had lost all their slaves. They did not know how to react.

Their revenge was to torture and kill the African American’s just because they got freedom and that they are not the south’s slaves anymore . By 1924 there were more than 4 million KKK men in the United States. Griffith To this day the KKK still exists and think the same way they had years ago. There are some people still do believe like the whites did after the Civil War, black Americans have way more freedom now than they ever did. For example black and white’s are now allowed to marry, all can use the same bathrooms, busses and be able to eat in the same restaurants. In my opinion I do not think that all the racial and segregation should have been a problem because we are all the same people just different skin color and some of our beliefs. White people have different beliefs than other white people but they do not hate each other or want to kill them. 5 References http://americanracedescrimination. wordpress. com/2011/01/27/1900-1914-racism-kkk/ Bowles, Mark. D, American History 1865-Present | End of Isolation http://www. nber. org/reporter/winter06/collins. RACE IN TURN

When going to cnn. com I found that right away it had the link that I could click on to see all of the information about how Bermuda is bracing for hurricane Igor. Also, there are links that you can click on to view videos and live feed to see how bad it actually is. This site tells you everything you need to know such as sustained winds, the wind gust, and the latitude and longitude of the hurricane. The one thing I found interesting is it gives you a picture of the projected path that it is going. It also tells you what category, or size, the hurricane is.

As of right now CNN is saying that hurricane Igor is going to affect the United States east coast over the weekend. CNN also gives you a link that you can recommend this website to people on your Facebook. This is a good thing on their part because with the Facebook link people can like it and see this article on your Facebook. They can see that you went to this site and they might look at it and like it too. This means more publicity for CNN and more people will view the top stories on there. CNN has a big article on how sever and damaging hurricane Igor is.

CNN also tells you about any other hurricanes or tropical storms that were or are going to be dangerous to the east coast or Bermuda and what their projected paths are. When I went onto MSNBC. com I found the article right away, with big bold letters that say “Bermuda braces for ‘long and punishing’ Igor. ” This right away attracted me to click on that headline so I can get more information on the weather and Igor. After clicking on the link there is a big picture of someone boarding their house up to keep it safe.

Down at the bottom of the website it gives you three options that you can tell people about this story. You can email this story to a friend, you can share it on Facebook or you can share it on twitter. These are three main ways that people can spread this story to others so that they are aware of how sever the hurricane is. MSNBC. com also gives you a huge, well detailed article written by Elizabeth Roberts. She stated how sever the weather was in the beginning of the week.

It was a category four in the beginning of the week and it has now gone down to a category two hurricane. The reporter talks about the sustained winds and the location of hurricane Igor. She tells you where it is headed and where it is going to impact. They also have this interactive tracker that shows you three different hurricanes and you can click on each one to find out how sever each one is and where it is headed. This gets updated every couple of minutes. You can also put in your address and it will give you the 5 day forecast.

You can also click on a link that will give you archives of previous storms. FOXnews. com was one if the difficult websites for me. I went to their site and I didn’t see anything on hurricane Igor that caught my attention. I had to really look for this story, and I found it as I scrolled down and there is a little box that has the latest news, most read, and videos. The Bermuda story was far down the list and you had to click on the link to go to the story. When going into this article, there are no pictures of hurricane Igor, it is all words.

This site gives you an article by Rick Leventhal, in which he writes about hurricane Igor. In this article he states that hurricane Igor is a category two hurricane and how it makes landfall with sustained winds near 110 miles per hour, gusting to 130. Fox news also tells you that the last major storm was back in 2003. So that is a paragraph that was interesting because it showed how they haven’t had one since then. It gives you how a hotel business has gone down by 50% since hurricane season started; this isn’t good for Bermudas economy.

You cannot share this with anyone on face book or twitter but there is a place that you can leave comments and you can get follow up via email if anyone comments on this story. There is a link that you can click on that will take you to the author’s biography. It also gives you a list of all the articles he has written and there are someone other hurricanes on there. There are many similar things that all of these websites have such as telling everyone where the hurricane is located.

It also describes in detail the wind gust and when it is suspected to hit the targeted area. Now when it comes to the difference there is a bunch of them. CNN from the beginning of the home page gives you a picture to look at, but also gives you a link to click on so you can view more. When you are looking on CNN you can see how they use bold writing when it comes to the sustained wind and wind gust, also the latitude and longitude. MSNBC on the other hand uses the hurricane interactive tracker to tell you all of that. I found that this is very detailed and very helpful.

It is a different kind of tool that you can use to really see where hurricanes are going and who will be affected by them. MSNBC and CNN give you the option to send the information to someone by emailing, facebooking, or placing it on twitter. This helps them get more viewers and makes their rating go up for how many people view the website. Fox news on the other hand is not at all appealing for the weather. You have to really look for the article and when you find it, all it gives you is the article. The difference here is that there is not enough information for me about the hurricane, Igor.

It was on August 28 2017 the exact date that Hurricane Harvey strengthen to a category four and was one of the most devastating hurricanes in world history. It produce massive amount of rain making many people without homes in many cases the water went in on many houses which cause the closing of the roads and even miss work that day.

The damage of hurricane Harvey was massive in repair if I’m not mistaken I think it was billions of dollars the cost of all repairs. Houston Texas was really damaging Texas the water floods were swallowing all kinds of stuff and objects like for examples cars and street signs and mailboxes and many other stuff.

I remember my experience with hurricane Harvey just as I was going to sleep It started rain so bad that when I woke up in the morning I was already floating in the water I got about 5 inches of rain inside my house and I remember waking up in the morning and I was already walking around water inside my house and my reaction was speechless as I never seen this much water inside my house that was full of water. According to research hurricane Harvey dump more than 27 trillions of gallons of rain over making the wettest Atlantic hurricane ever measure in history.

One of the top reason why hurricane Harvey hit so fast is that the meteorologist did not gave us the time necessary to prepare for the storm. In addition the hurricane Harvey was a category one when it started forming and people were really not paying attention to the recommendations that the meteorologist were given us.

Furthermore when the hurricane quickly escalated to a category four that was when people started doing something about it but it was too late. On the other hand a hurricane is a cyclone form an ocean with water because a hurricane needs water in order to survive but that does not mean that the hurricane cannot do billions of dollars’ worth of damage.