...And yet, American oil-field technology is so good and so safe that not a single drop of oil was spilled from the hurricanes this year.
Posted on 12/1/2004, 4:50:18 AM by Ernest_at_the_Beach
MIAMI (Reuters) - Everything about the Atlantic hurricane season was big -- lots of powerful storms that spawned hundreds of deadly tornadoes, many deaths, an unprecedented onslaught on Florida, a huge damage toll and millions evacuated.
As the six-month season drew to a close on Tuesday, it was just getting bigger. Tropical Storm Otto was born in the Atlantic Ocean and forecasters said they reclassified August's Tropical Storm Gaston to Hurricane Gaston.
By the numbers, the 2004 season has produced 15 storms, nine of them hurricanes. Six were "major" hurricanes with sustained winds of more than 110 mph.
"The amazing thing was only three of the storms did not have an impact on land," said U.S. National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield. Officials said 9.4 million people along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts came under evacuation orders this season.
Florida took the brunt of the damage in the United States, with hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne walloping the state within a six-week span, the first time a single state was hit by four hurricanes in one season since 1886, NHC officials said.
Damage from the four storms may exceed the $25 billion-plus toll of Hurricane Andrew, the killer 1992 storm against which all others in Florida are measured. "Future hurricanes will continue to bring higher and higher damages as long as we continue to develop the coastlines," Mayfield said.
CARIBBEAN LOSSES
In the Caribbean, Grenada, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic and Haiti sustained serious losses. Ivan damaged 90 percent of Grenada's housing stock, and Jeanne, as a tropical storm, spawned floods that killed about 3,000 people in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.
Hurricane Ivan was a nightmare for the oil industry, thrashing through the Gulf of Mexico's most productive oil and gas fields and wrecking platforms and undersea pipelines.
Damage from the storm, which helped push oil prices to over $55 a barrel this fall, has so far cut more than 32 million barrels from an already tightly supplied market.
That is more than twice the impact on U.S. oil production caused by powerful hurricanes Isidore and Lili in 2002.
Producers have still not fully recovered their output, with about 10 percent of their normal production still shut.
Even as the official season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, waned, hurricane forecasters named the 15th storm. Otto was born on Tuesday about 810 miles east of Bermuda with 45 mph winds. It poses no threat to any land.
Study of Tropical Storm Gaston, which hit South Carolina three months ago, convinced experts that it had achieved the sustained 74 mph winds needed to be classified a hurricane, giving the 2004 season nine hurricanes.
The last decade brought more Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes than any 10-year period in history. That trend could continue for another two or three decades, officials said.
But for Florida, where thousands of residents are still struggling with cleanup, roof repairs and temporary housing from four hurricane strikes, a rerun of 2004 is highly unlikely.
"It's a very, very rare event," Mayfield said. "I wouldn't expect it again." (Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis in New York)
...And yet, American oil-field technology is so good and so safe that not a single drop of oil was spilled from the hurricanes this year.
It's Bush's fault.
Idiot.
The main reason no oil was spilled is that the dangerous weather kept the "Heroic Greenpeace Warriors" out of the water and out of the way.
You joke but here in Central Florida where three of the storms crossed some dem group actually put up billboards stating it was Bush's fault. Global warming and all that.
It's okay, it actually added humor to an otherwise sad situation.
..."...the 2004 season has produced 15 storms...
..."The amazing thing was only three of the storms did not have an impact on land..."...
A lot of creative building did withstand these storms in Florida. Private homeowners on their own built 'storm-proof' structures that did very well.
As with most natural disasters, engineering improvements will be copied. Good, prudent homeowners will make sure that their homes have the improvements.
The odds of four hurricanes hitting Florida within 6 weeks again within the lifetime of Mayfield or anyone reading this thread are pretty darn low.
I fail to see what's idiotic about Mayfield's statement.
Depends if you mean "storm proof" against wind or storm proof against storm surge.
Building a house that will survive a storm surge on the beach does require building an enormously expensive fortress.
Building a house that will survive hurricane winds with almost no damage is quite easy. Doesn't require reinforced concrete at all. Simply building the house with round walls instead of rectangular while still using standard housing materials and not spending much more money than a real house will work. One survived the brunt of Charley with no damage.
Simply making sure corners aren't cut in construction, that the roof is securely attached, and proper use of purpose-built shutters will allow almost any site-built house to survive Cat 3s and most cat 4 winds with very little damage. A very strong Cat 4 or Cat 5 can still do some wind damage but those are very, very, very rare, the area of those winds is narrow in any storm.
Reinforced concrete was one plan. Knowing the flood plains was another.
Tornados and Heavy rain produce as much damage as the hurricane eye-wall does. Lots of areas that don't get the 'direct-hit' get the heavy rain and the tornados.
Sounds like good practice that is used in earthquake country also.
Those signs are classic. Best of all, they are still up now. Good money spent, MoveOn.dumb
That is sad!
George Noory wouldn't even put something that ridculous on C2C AM. (Don't get me wrong, I like his program.)
Now that would be discrimination....but i would like to see it!
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