MEDC Tropical Storm Case Study Revision

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MEDC Tropical Storm Case Study Revision

• Hurricane Floyd, USA, 1999

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What do you need to revise?

• (1) Where? When? What happened?
• (2) What were the Human, Economic Environmental
  effects of the hurricane?
• (3) What had been put in place to lessen the
  impacts of the hurricane?

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Satellite image of Hurricane Floyd, source
eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Study/FloydIntro/
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Source www.newmediastudio.org/.../Synoptic_Histor
y.html
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Where? When? What happened?

• Formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of
  Africa.
• Intensified to a category 4 hurricane as it moved
  towards Bahamas.
• Slowly weakening, Floyd tracked northwards and
  hit the US mainland near Cape Fear, North
  Carolina on 16th September.
• It then moved up the coast weakening to a
  tropical storm as it entered New England.

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Human Effects

• 79 people died
• 4 million people left their homes in Carolina,
  Georgia and Florida
• 1 million people lost electricity water
  supplies
• 12,000 houses destroyed
• 150,000 people registered for government
  assistance

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Hurricane Floyd left the downtown area of
Franklin, Virginia under 1.8metres of water
Source www.nationalgeographic.com/.../h_img_4_1.h
tml
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Economic Effects

• 460 billion paid out for insurance.
• Farmers lost 1 billion
• Many farmers had to find other jobs as crops
  totally destroyed
• 250 roads and many bridges damaged
• In Bahamas boats, hotels and offices destroyed
  as well as houses.

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Source docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-511/wlboat.html
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Environmental Effects

• Beaches sand dunes destroyed
• Oak Island had 20m of beach blown away
• 1000s trees blown down
• Severe erosion at Barrier Islands which led to
  increased flood risk on coastline
• 14 states suffered from flooding. North Carolina
  had area size of Belgium flooded.

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Source www.nws.noaa.gov/.../inland_flooding.html
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What had been put in place to lessen the impacts?

• Prediction Warning
• National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami, Florida
  is a government funded warning service.
• Satellites constantly provide data of tropical
  storm development
• Evacuation procedures in place (reduced death
  toll with Floyd as 2.5Million were evacuated). By
  June 2000 new highway renovation had taken place
  to ease traffic congestion at evacuation times.

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• Preparing the People
• - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
  provides a free guide with tips on how to protect
  yourselves, homes and businesses against
  hurricanes.

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• Building design and regulations
• -Many windows and doors are covered with wood and
  nailed down
• -Some have storm shutters and shatter-resistant
  windows
• -All hurricane prone states have building codes,
  not everyone follows this though!
• -In some US states the government is limiting the
  building of new developments in high risk coastal
  and river plain locations.

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Typical questions

• There are often hurricanes on the east coast of
  the USA, an MEDC. Why do people continue to live
  in this area? 3
• Tropical storms have an impact on people and the
  environment. Choose a case study of a tropical
  storm. Describe the impacts (effects) of the
  storm and explain how the effects of the storm
  are related to the state of development of the
  country 8.