Posted on 02/15/2005 12:40:05 PM PST by NYer
SYDNEY (AFP) - Twin cyclones began battering three south Pacific nations and weather experts warned they could combine into one giant, destructive storm center that would create havoc in the region.
Cyclone Olaf, a powerful Category 4 storm packing winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour (155 miles per hour), was bearing down on Samoa and American Samoa and was expected to reach "super cyclone" status by the time it strikes the two territories' main islands around 0000 GMT Wednesday.
Olaf has intensified steadily in the past 24 hours and was forecast to reach Category 4/5 out of a maximum of 5, meaning it will whip up sustained winds of more than 250 kilometers per hour and gusts above 300 kph, the Australian-Pacific Center for Emergency and Disaster Information (APCEDI) said.
Samoa and American Samoa were under states of emergency, with schools, businesses and airports closed and boarded up and low-lying areas evacuated, residents in the American Samoa capital Pago Pago told AFP.
The Samoa and Fiji meteorological centers said Olaf was expected to pass directly over the Samoas and then continue southeast to the southern Cook Islands, which were already being buffeted by a second cyclone, Nancy.
"This continues to be a critically dangerous situation for Samoa, American Samoa and the Southern Cooks," APCEDI said.
Nancy uprooted trees, tore off roofs and flooded coastal areas of the small Cook Islands atoll of Aitutake overnight, the Aitutake Cyclone Center reported.
Tourists had earlier been evacuated from Aitutake, one of the Pacific's most picturesque atolls, and half the island's 200 residents were in emergency shelters, the center said.
Nancy was a weaker, Category 3 cyclone but was considered very dangerous for the Cook Islands, which were still recovering from significant damage caused by a category 4 storm, Meena, which struck just 10 days ago.
Cyclone Nancy was expected to miss the main island of Rarotonga by about 110 kilometers (65 miles), but high winds and "phenomenal" seas were still expected to cause damage to the east coast, where buildings and sea walls were ravaged by Meena, the Fiji Meteorological Center said.
The storm was due to pass directly over four smaller Cook Islands atolls.
Kevin Vang at APCEDI said it was possible Olaf and Nancy could cross paths, spinning around each other in a giant storm center until one of the storms is flung off.
"For the South Pacific it is unusual to have two cyclones this close together," Vang said. "This has the making of an absolute mess."
The danger was greatest for the Cook Islands, where Olaf was forecast to follow hard on the heels of Cyclone Nancy.
"Authorities should in fact be prepared for a quick double hit by both storms in a 24-48 hour period starting late Monday or Tuesday. This is an unusual and very dangerous situation," Vang said.
Foreign Minister Phil Goff of New Zealand said his government, Australia and France would coordinate needed emergency relief efforts for Samoa and the Cook Islands under a tripartite arrangement for disaster response.
"New Zealand is standing by to assist Samoa or the Cooks as required," he said.
'Could' is not news. 'Did' would be news.
Head for the high ground.
the term "perfect storm" used in conjunction with 2 interacting tropical systems is media drama whoring at its best...as the interaction is actually a negative affect on the strength of either storm.
Is the general track for these storms to the northwest?
Sounds like Mrs. Pelosi is still having a hard time coping with John sKerry's defeat.
Me, us? We're presumably in the Northern hemisphere and safe from storms of any sort crossing the equator. The physics of that would be truly news worthy. Some branch of physics would be forever changed.
They're in the Southern Hemisphere - and they tend to track southward, just as storms in the Northern Hemisphere tend to track northward.
However, since these two storms are so close to each other, we will probably see the Fujiwara effect come into play, where the storms will affect each other's movement and wheel around each other, unless Olaf overwhelms Nancy and absorbs its remnants.
I have to question the suspicious timing of this.
The perfect storm was nontropical but picked up a dying hurricane and flung it at New England. But you are right, these two would greatly disrupt each other's outflow and both would weaken.
Yep, talk about your MSM garbage science articles; "Perfect Storm" my butt.
Tropical systems interacting never results in either storm getting stronger than they would have been alone.
Not quite. This gets complicated and it's routinely misrepresented (including the "Perfect Storm" movie, but not in the original book.)
The "Perfect Storm" was a standard non-tropical Noreaster. It interacted with the remnants of Hurricane Grace.....which resulted in it retrograding Southwest towards New England, in combination with an extreme high pressure north of the storm (The Non-Tropical Perfect Storm that is)..which was the truly unusual thing about the Perfect Storm.
AFTER the Perfect Storm had sunk the Andrea Gail and damaged New England, it kept wandering SW and weakened, but moved over the Gulf Stream off New Jersey. Then in the CENTER of the weakening Perfect Storm, the fully tropical (with an eye and everything) "Unnamed Hurricane" formed. This was a true hurricane..however it did basically no damage. The NHC deliberately didn't name it to avoid confusing the public though they were fully aware it was a fully tropical hurricane.
ha. Fixed them for you.
Could be global warming in full effect here. Or a Zionist conspiracy. Or some completely new inane theory.
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