A further 5 million homes were left with no electricity and many houses were a victim of falling trees. A Holt in the Stock Market occurred, with many work employees opting for a few days off work due to not being able to travel. The fire brigade recorded over 6000 calls in a 24 hour period. London experienced the first blackout since the blitz and flights were cancelled in Gatwick and Heathrow with also Ports closing. After the storms had gone, the people of England tried in many ways to rejuvenate their land.
The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
16 minutes later there was a reported rise of 2m in one hour. At 15:53 the fire brigade was mobilised and 7 minutes later access to all roads was closed. 30 minutes later at 16:30 a 3m wall of water flowed through Boscastle at 64kph. The flood reached peak level at 17:00 and cars were swept away and buildings destroyed. The rain was so heavy it was difficult to see.
The mega hurricane displaced millions and killed over 1,800 people. The irony of the hurricane come from the impact it had on New Orleans. The preparation for the hurricane in New Orleans was inadequate, people were not ordered to evacuate until less than a day before hurricane Katrina made landfall which lead to numerous
On the 24th august 1992 hurricane Andrew hit Florida, and is recognized as the most destructive natural hazard in the United States, scoring category 5 on the Saffir Simpsons scale. It formed as bands of clouds close to the equator where the air is moist. A centre of low pressure forms, and the air begins to spiral in towards the low pressure, as the system moves away from the equator. Latent heat is released when water vapor condenses, this encourages further uplift as the warm air rises and the pressure at the centre falls rapidly. The storm gets bigger as the low pressure sucks in more warm moist air this also causes strong winds.
The tremendous eruption of Mount Tambora in April 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 19th century. The eruption and the tsunamis it triggered killed tens of thousands of people. And the magnitude of the explosion is difficult to fathom. It has been estimated that Mount Tambora stood approximately 12,000 feet tall before the 1815 eruption, and the top 4,000 feet of the mountain was completely obliterated. Adding to the disaster's massive scale, the huge amount of dust blasted into the upper atmosphere by the Tambora eruption contributed to a bizarre and highly destructive weather event the following year.
The main area hit was San Francisco yet, it did affect almost all of the San Andrea’s Fault. Damage and casualties after the San Francisco earthquake were devastating, 498 deaths in San Francisco, 64 deaths in Santa Rosa and 102 deaths near San Jose. 225,000 from a population of around 400,000 were homeless. 28,188 wood and brick buildings were also destroyed by the
The first strategy I will evaluate is the use of levees in New Orleans, USA. During August 2005 Katrina was discovered forming over the South – Eastern Bahamas, the storm strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico, reaching category 5 status. At 6:10am 29th August the hurricane made landfall on New Orleans and the next day; the levees, which were meant to protect the city failed. This caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and over 100,000 businesses and homes were destroyed. It was later on found that the levees failed because they were only built to withstand a category 3 hurricane, it was also recognised that during construction the wall segments of levees were not interlocked which made them weak and vulnerable to breaking under stress.
The effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was extremely severe, resulting from one of the most deadly natural disasters in U.S. history. By August 30th, 2005, one day after the Category 4 storm made landfall, about 80 percent of the city of New Orleans, was flooded with some parts of the city under 20 feet of water. The flood was caused by several levees breaches, which most people didn’t believe it could breach, due to a combination of a powerful storm surge, strong winds and excess water in the bodies of water surrounding the city. After reading the author’s response, her curiosity was based on her belief that the delayed response time was due to racism. She first noticed when watching the T.V.
News Report Explosion in Halifax Harbour By: Jagroop Johal Deceber.7th 1917 Yesterday at approximately 9:00am residents of Halifax was devastated by a massive explosion. This occurred in the waters if Halifax harbour. This explosion was caused by a French ammunition ship the Mont Blanc and a Belgian cargo ship the Imo which had collided earlier that morning. The Mont Blanc collided with the Imo at approximately 8:45 yesterday morning. The Mont Blanc had been carrying benzol on its deck which was set on fire by the sparks from the collision.