The Hawera Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. 1928. VISITATIONS OF HURRICANES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 28 September 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23. 1928. VISITATIONS OF HURRICANES

Delivered every evening by & o'oiook in uawera. Manair.. JSormanby, Okaiawa. Eltharn, Atangatoki. Kaponga. Alton, .Turley ville Patea. Waverlev. Mo.oiu, Wnakamara, Ohangai, Mareinere. Prasei Eoad. and Ararata.

The destructive hurricane referred to in the cables recently opens up interesting speculation as to the nature of these visitations and the,toll collected by them. According to the United States Weather Bureau, a hurricane is a tropical cyclone originating in the vicinity of the West Indies, the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, amd moving in- a <north-westerly direction until it reaches the neighbourhood of 30 degrees north latitude, whence' it veers and continues in a north-easterly direction. Scientifically, a hurricane is a wind of high velocity moving from an area where the barometric pressure’ is high to an area where the pressure is very low. As this tremendous volume of air rushes towards the low-pressure point, it swerves in and around it, creating in the centre of the low-pressure area a small area wherein the pressure is still lower, known as the “storm centre,” thus giving the storm the character of a whirlwind. This “storm centre” may be 1000 miles or more across, but usually it is about 50 miles wide. In this centre there is calm, but there is an inferno round the edge of it. It may not be generally known that the term hurricane is restricted to the storms of the North Atlantic Ocean, those of the North Pacific being called typhoons, while those' in southern latitudes are cyclones. The West Indian hurricanes as a general rule travel fairly slowly, the Florida one, for example, taking 198 hours to cover a course of 1500 miles, but their whirling speed is terrific, ranging from 80 to 120 miles per hour. It would appear that this is the time of the year that these disastrous visitations can be expected in the areas now affected. Florida’s hurricane of two years ago occurred on September 18, and the Galveston disaster of 28 years back, with its loss of 4500 lives, occurred an September 9. Not always, fortunately, does the track of a Caribbean hurricane run across populous towns, and it is only of those that do that the outside world hears much as a general rule. Altogether about 400 were killed in the Florida wreck of two years ago and 5000 were injured. Far more serious was the Galveston disaster of 1900, with a death roll of 4500, a groat part of the damage being done by the so-called tidal wave that was swept over the city by the sitorm. At Fort Lauderdale, which was hit by the full force of the Florida hurricane, about; 1300 houses out of a total of 5000 were j demolished.