Hurricane!

Residents and visitors with their binoculars and cameras walk quietly through the refuge, seeking nothing more than awesome nature.

When they spot a particular sight, like a sleeping alligator, they share the discovery with you and whisper the directions for seeing it.

Unlike other areas of Florida, Sanibel is an ecological island, and the people who vacation on it are quietly respectful of natural treasures.

By the time you read this, nearly every resort and small inn on Sanibel will have returned to full operation, on grounds largely cleared of damage.

Not so on neighboring Captiva Island, which received the full brunt of Charley's 160-mph winds.

On Captiva, numerous lodgings remain closed, including the giant South Seas Resort, where construction crews are working toward a reopening date sometime in the spring.

Here's an inside look at the steps Disney World takes to prepare for a hurricane. This list might help other businesses prepare in the future.

Phase 5
(Monitoring Storm Possible)
Review current plan, checklists and business recovery plans. Review personnel and resource availability for the ride-out crew. Verify contact numbers and emergency data. Prepare WDW Emergency Operations Center for activation.

Phase 4
(Storm likely within 24–36 hrs)
General readiness imposed. Brief personnel. Review checklists. Consider possible shut down of long lead operations and not starting extended operations. Limited activation and staffing of WDW Emergency Operations Center.

Phase 3
(Storm probable within 12–24 hrs)
Intensify clean up and tie down. Prepare for phase 2 activity. Selected ride-out crew personnel given the opportunity to secure their personal property. Turn in excess radios and vehicles. WDW Emergency Operations Center opens and is fully staffed. Note: Generally this is when the WDW Emergency Operations Center, command centers, and command posts will be fully activated. However, this is an Executive Policy Team decision.

Phase 2
(Storm impending)
Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney close. Guest campground trailers removed and secured by the guests. Scheduled hotel and campground guests notified of conditions. Complete all clean up and tie down short of shutdown. Authorized ride-out families move to pre-designated shelters. Ride-out crew fully staffed at start of phase 1 or as directed by the WDW Emergency Operations Center. Personnel not in ride-out crew released as soon as possible.

Phase 1
(Storm imminent, take shelter)
Shutdown all activities and immediately take shelter. Fulfill ride-out requirement plans.

Post Storm Phase
Command Centers submit situation reports to WDW Emergency Operations Center. Establish business resumption / recovery schedule. Notify employees through media and cast Member emergency lines of call back as directed by WDW Emergency Operations Center.

Corporations can leverage their assets to help with recovery.

WESH Tv reports that Disney World is given free tickets to those who helped in the recovery. Tickets will be distributed by the companys involved.

After a hurricane or other natural disaster, you might want to see if your company can pitch in. Below is a great example of a company with data recovery skills helping after Hurricane Charley. In the long run, your company might pick up some customers, too!

In response to the devastation wrought last month by Hurricane Charley and again this weekend by Hurricane Frances, Gartner Inc. said today it will provide free advice and counsel to public and private organizations in Florida whose operations were disrupted by the storms. Gartner...will provide priority assistance to both clients and non-clients on a wide variety of issues including disaster recovery and the replacement of damaged IT operations. Free information and counsel will be available until November 25, 2004 for any organization that suffered business disruption within those counties designated as federal disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency...Help can be found on the Gartner web site at www.gartner.com

This story compares the tsunami of December 2005 with other great storms in the Indian Ocean.

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean wasn't really a weather event. It was a geological event. But it does teach an important lesson about the power of ocean surge.

The surge created by an underwater earthquake, as happened in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, has similarities to that created by a hurricane, cyclone or typhoon, which is what those storms are know as in various sectors of the world.

In fact, the Indian Ocean has produced two horrible storms in the past 35 years that are perhaps most comparable to the tsunami catastrophe. Both targeted Bangladesh. In November 1970, a cyclone killed an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people, mostly from an enormous storm surge carried across the low, swampy and very crowded nation.

A similar cyclone hit Bangladesh in April 1991, killing 138,000. Again, a storm surge, said to be about 20 feet, was blamed for many of the deaths

The ten most deadly hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, measured since 1492. Listed by hurricane, location, date and estimated casualties.

 	
Barbados, St. Eustatius, Martinique	
Oct. 1780
20,000-22,000

Mitch, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize
Oct. 1998	
9,086 dead,
9190 missing

Galveston,
Sept. 1900
8,000 - 12,000

Fifi, Honduras
Sept. 1974
8,000 - 10,000

Dominican Republic
Sept. 1930
2,000 - 8,000

Flora, Haiti, Cuba
Oct. 1963
8,000

Guadeloupe
Sept. 1776
6,000

Newfoundland Banks
Sept. 1775
4,000

Puerto Rico, Carolinas
Aug. 1899
3,063 - 3,433

Martinique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Florida
Sept. 1928
3,375 - 4,075

The link between global warming and hurricanes is unclear, but this article has some good points on the possible connection.

There is near universal agreement in the scientific community that (a) global warming exists and (b) a significant component is caused by human activity. The exact mechanisms are still being worked out as are the timetables and consequences. The chart shown is used at nearly every general audience talk on global warming these days. Sadly we have an illiterate administration.

Direct relations with hurricanes are not well understood, although it seems to reason that more energy into a system that produces storms whose size and intensity is a function of water temperature will result in more and larger storms. Some work is emerging and much more is in the pipeline.

While it is impossible to tie the current events in the Southeastern US to global warming (some statistical arguments can be made to show that this is inconsistent with "normal"), one has to wonder when and how the association will be made in the public mind and how politicians will react.

This blog has some of the most comprehensive coverage on hurricanes as they take place. Click on the link to see how many hurricane and media resources were available in one place.

Quick Summary: Hurricane Jeanne made landfall at 11:50 p.m. EDT Saturday at the southern end of Hutchinson Island – 5 miles southeast of Stuart, and within walking distance of Sewalls Point, where Hurricane Frances made landfall exactly three weeks ago. Jeanne made landfall as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph maximum sustained winds. Reports from Florida include six deaths, flooding, roof and mobile home damage, downed trees and power lines, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses without power. Jeanne is now nearing southern Georgia as a tropical storm and is expected to move east of Atlanta before heading up to North Carolina by Tuesday. Current watches/warnings here

Prime time TV has become obsessed with weather disasters, and "This kind of reporting normalises disaster and it becomes difficult to distinguish between Day After Tomorrow and CBS/CNN/The weather channel." The article that inspired Apocalypse was by Tom Engelhardt in Mother Jones:

Our media, of course, adores Xtreme weather events. Dan Rather's CBS prime-time news show, for instance, never saw an El Nino effect, a hurricane, a major flood, or an onslaught of snow that it didn't rush right to the top of the news; while those once Weather-Channel-restricted scenes of reporters, their bodies oddly angled, shouting into mics and staring into water-smeared lenses in the pelting rain of an onrushing storm are now commonplaces of the national news...

How much does it cost to recover from a hurricane? Marginal Revolution looks at the question.

Andrew of 1992 was by far the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, estimated at $26.5 billion in damages, here is a list of the top ten. If you want an older list of the top thirty, adjusted to 1996 dollars, click here.

The Center for Disease Control has vital information on what to do after the hurricane passes through. The CDC covers all the topics listed below. Visit the CDC site to learn about each topic.

NOTE: Hurricanes often cause power outages. Indoor use of portable generators, charcoal grills, or camp stoves can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. Take steps to protect your family from carbon monoxide poisoning…

On this page:

•How to Store Food Safely
•How to Make Sure Your Water is Safe
•How to Clean Mold from Your House
•How to Prevent Injury after a Hurricane
•How to Cope with Stress after a Hurricane
•Dealing with Wild & Domestic Animals in a Disaster
•How to Wash Your Hands without Water
•Prevent West Nile Virus

Here's a report on Hurricane Ivan and the aftermath way up north in West Virginia.

I am not sure how many of you are aware of he devestating effect that Hurricane Ivan had over the weekend to the interior of the nation, but here are some pictures to give you an idea. My hometown of Bethany, WV, received 9.5 inches of rain in ONE DAY, and we experienced the worst flooding in the memory of our oldest citizens. This was a once a century flood.

Mark Jaquith blogs about the approach of Hurricane Charlie last year and has a page of hurricane-related blogs.

Just thought I’d throw out a few links to the other Florida bloggers covering the hurricane.

WeatherBug
HatcherShack
Sticks of Fire
Nick’s Big Adventure
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Interstate4Jamming
Side Salad
The Unstoppable Girlie
Crazy Island
My Single Mom Life
DeCloah Blog

And Glenn Reynolds isn’t in Florida, but he’s been linking to a few Florida bloggers, so watch there for more links.

Did I miss anyone? Leave a comment if you know of any other Florida bloggers covering the storm.

ResarchBuzz has lots of weather news, in particular, some pointers to hurricane landfall estimates:

Quick, what's June 1st? Yes, it's Morgan Freeman's birthday. Yes, it's Potty Training Awareness month. What I was getting at, though, is that it's also the start of hurricane season,...

Tempus Fugit notes that:

HurricaneCity.com has some info on the Sarasota area’s hurricane past.

With all the recent hurricanes, sometimes it's good to look back to time before people could get warnings on TV and radio.

This killer weather system was first detected over the tropical Atlantic on August 27. While the history of the track and intensity is not fully known, the system reached Cuba as a tropical storm on September 3 and moved into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on the 5th. A general west-northwestward motion occurred over the Gulf accompanied by rapid intensification. By the time the storm reached the Texas coast south of Galveston late on September 8, it was a Category 4 hurricane. After landfall, the cyclone turned northward through the Great Plains. It became extratropical and turned east-northeastward on September 11, passing across the Great Lakes, New England, and southeastern Canada. It was last spotted over the north Atlantic on September 15.

This hurricane was the deadliest weather disaster in United States history. Storm tides of 8 to 15 ft inundated the whole of Galveston Island, as well as other portions of the nearby Texas coast. These tides were largely responsible for the 8,000 deaths (estimates range from 6,000 to 12,000) attributed to the storm. The damage to property was estimated at $30 million.

2004 saw a large number of high energy hurricanes hit the U.S. coast, especially in Florida.

An article from the Christian Science Monitor today on the analysis and impacts of the recent hurricanes.

Last month marked the first time since the beginning of postwar hurricane reconnaissance flights that August generated three major hurricanes in the Atlantic. If the current forecast track for hurricane Ivan holds, it will be the third hurricane to strike Florida in a month.

Yet for all its fury, this season's burst of activity falls well within the bounds of past experience. What's surprising, say experts, is that the US and Florida haven't seen more major storms make landfall over the past few decades.

.... Yet even with improved forecasting tools, the public doesn't always put the information to best use, some researchers say. "We still can't explain why only some people leave and others don't," says Jay Baker, a geographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee who works on emergency-preparedness issues. Understanding that motivation may help officials devise education programs to encourage more people to heed calls for evacuation.

That response may have less to do with knowing the difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning than it does with perceptions of individual risk, he says - a perception that can include misconceptions about how far a person needs to travel to avoid the storm. The solution can be as simple as more accurate hazard maps .....

Hurricanes and cyclones start the same way.

Several important ingredients are needed for a tropical disturbance to become a tropical cyclone and later strengthen into a tropical storm or hurricane:

1. A tropical disturbance with thunderstorms.
2. A distance of at least 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the equator.
3. Ocean temperatures of 26.5�C (80�F) or warmer to a depth of at least 50 meters (164 feet) below the surface.
4. Lots of moisture in the lower and middle part of the atmosphere.
5. Low wind shear.

This site has lots of good hurricane info including hurricane seasons.

Hurricanes happen in both the Atlantic Basin and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, but the season is a little different in each place.

In the Atlantic Basin, hurricane season officially begins on June 1st and lasts until the end of November each year. This chart shows the average number of tropical storms (gold) and hurricanes (red) in the Atlantic Basin during a period of 100 years.

A good question on stopping hurricanes from a CNN viewer.

Q: Why don't they destroy or weaken hurricanes when they threaten land?

A: The basic problem is the size and intensity of hurricanes. They cover tens of thousands of square miles even when they are just beginning. They draw their energy from air over hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean. Cooling the water over this large area or finding a way to prevent evaporation of water would reduce hurricanes' strength. But, all of the dry ice in the world would be quickly absorbed in a small part of the ocean near a hurricane. Also, the hurricane would quickly move away from the cooled water or water covered with something to prevent evaporation.

The National Hurricane Center notes that a hurricane releases heat energy at a rate of 50 trillion to 200 trillion watts. (trillion here is used in the U.S. and French sense: a number followed by 12 zeros) This is the equivalent of a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding about every 20 minutes.

Here's another example of blog reporting on hurricanes, this time for Hurricane Charlie.

Looks like hurricane Charlie is tearing things up pretty badly down in Florida. President Bush has already declared several counties as disaster areas and the storm is just now hitting the Carolina coasts. I’ve got friends and family in the path and I hope they’re all safe and sound and make it through this OK. I’ll have to see if I can check in with my cousins and Aunt and Uncle in Daytona Beach, but I’ve already heard from my friend Michael Brady via instant messenger in Wilmington, NC where the storm was just hitting about a half-hour ago. It was discomforting to have him suddenly sign off in the middle of the conversation and I can only assume he must have lost power at that point. Hopefully he and his fellow voice actors will make it through safely. I don’t recall where exactly my other relatives reside in that State, but hopefully they’ll be OK as well.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the government agency that studies hurricanes and other weather-related events. Here is the NOAA description of a hurricane.

A hurricane is a severe tropical storm, that forms in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico or in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Hurricanes need warm tropical oceans, moisture and light winds above them. If the right conditions last long enough, a hurricane can produce violent winds, incredible waves, torrential rains and floods.

Hurricanes rotate in a counterclockwise direction around an "eye." Hurricanes have winds at least 74 miles per hour. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year; over a 3-year period, approximately five hurricanes strike the United States coastline from Texas to Maine.

When hurricanes move onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and heavy waves can damage buildings, trees and cars. The heavy waves are called a storm surge. Storm surge is very dangerous and a major reason why you MUST stay away from the ocean during a hurricane warning or hurricane.

Like the December 26th tsunami, hurricanes leave people asking what happened and what caused such a catastrophe. This blogger doesn't appear to agree with Jeb Bush.

Jeb Bush has been quoted as blaming god for the unpredictability of Hurricane Charley.

“God doesn’t follow the linear projections of computer models,” Bush said outside the emergency management center, whose roof caved in during the hurricane. “This is God’s way of telling us that he’s almighty and we’re mortal.”

I’m sure hurricane victims are glad to know that god is on their side. Couldn’t god show us that “he’s almighty and we’re mortal” through a less violent and destructive method?

Here's another example of blogs providing specific information about hurricanes. As Hurrican Frances wound down, Weatherbug provided good information on air travel and the Red Cross

Our flight was delayed slightly leaving Georgia. Even with squalls moving through southeastern Georgia, our flight was very smooth. We made it back into DC by around 9:30pm. I finally arrived home by around 10:30pm. Tonight I'll be happy to be sleeping in my own bed. At last word, power is still out to millions of people in Florida. Thousands are still in hurricane evacuation shelters. Recovery efforts, however, are already well underway. It will take days, weeks and maybe even months before full recovery is possible. With that in mind, the prospect of Ivan or any other hurricane hitting the state is too much to bear for many. Floridians and I will be hoping for the best. If you are trying to contact lost relatives in Florida, you can call the American Red Cross at 1-800-GET INFO (1-800-438-4636)

Blogs are a great way for people to give local information about hurricanes. Here's a blog from when Hurricane Isabel travelled north towards Canada.

It's just after 7:00 AM and what's left of Hurricane Isabel is centered right about where I am here in Southwestern Ontario.

We're getting a heavy downpour and moderate wind. It looks like the power of the storm has diminished and what we're experiencing is no worse than other storms this year. By the looks of the radar image, though, we're in for quite a few more hours of rain.