Horrible Hurricanes
The Devastation of Hurricanes
Picture yourself
Picture yourself in Mississippi with your family, in a hotel getting ready to go to the beach when you hear sirens. You go outside to see what all the ruckus is about. It's pouring down rain. Gusting winds push you around. A tree falls on a car. You tell your family you have to go back to the hotel. Luckily your room is near the top floor because you're stuck in a hurricane!
Formation of a storm
Hurricanes form over the warm ocean water near the equator. The warm moist air rises up and away from the water surface causing low pressure below it. Higher air pressure pushed in to the low pressure area. The new air gets warm and then it rises too. This keeps happening causing warm air to rise and new air constantly replacing it which causes a swirling effect to begin. It continues doing this and creates clouds when the air starts to cool. Everything keeps growing and spinning because it keeps getting heat and moisture from the ocean. Storms that form north of the equator spin counterclockwise and storms that form south of the equator spin clockwise because of the Earth's rotation. The center of the storm is called the eye. The eye is very calm. The scientific name for a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. Only storms that form over the Atlantic or eastern Pacific Ocean are called hurricanes.
A satellite view of the hurricane named Katrina.
A look at the huge area of devastation caused by Katrina.
Hurricanes not only bring storms. They also usually bring a flood!
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was by far one of the worst tragedies cause by Mother Nature, taking over 1250 live away and doing over $108 billion in damage. On August 23, 2005, this horrible hurricane effected the Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and most of Eastern North America. Katrina was the 11th named storm and 5th hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was one of the 5 most deadliest hurricanes in the U.S. and reached over 175 mph. It's the 3rd most intense tropical storm right behind a hurricane over Labor Day in 1935 and Camille in the 60s.