Environment & Energy

unhappycamper

(60,364 posts) Sun Dec 16, 2012, 05:59 AM Dec 2012

Fears of ‘catastrophic damage’ as cyclone nears Fiji

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/15/fears-of-catastrophic-damage-as-cyclone-nears-fiji/

Fears of ‘catastrophic damage’ as cyclone nears Fiji
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, December 15, 2012 22:56 EST

Fijian authorities scrambled to evacuate residents from low-lying areas Sunday as a monster cyclone threatened the Pacific nation with “catastrophic damage” after causing widespread devastation in Samoa.

At least four people were killed when Cyclone Evan slammed into Samoa and the toll was expected to rise as a search was launched for eight men still missing on three fishing boats.

Only one survivor has been found, the New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which is overseeing the search, said.

After crossing Samoa, Evan intensified as it ploughed through the Pacific and forecasters said destructive winds could reach nearly 300 kilometres per hour (186 miles per hour) by the time it hits Fiji early Monday morning.

5 replies

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Highlight:

Fears of ‘catastrophic damage’ as cyclone nears Fiji (Original Post) unhappycamper Dec 2012 OP

What If Sandy Had Come In At 186MPH Wind Speed? TheMastersNemesis Dec 2012 #1

It's happened already OnlinePoker Dec 2012 #2

I Did Not Realize That. TheMastersNemesis Dec 2012 #3

Typhoons are the same thing as hurricanes. DavidDvorkin Dec 2012 #4

Starting to hit now muriel_volestrangler Dec 2012 #5

TheMastersNemesis

(10,602 posts)

1. What If Sandy Had Come In At 186MPH Wind Speed?

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Sun Dec 16, 2012, 08:30 AM

Dec 2012

That wind speed is amazing. If that speed is true would US citizens change their mind if a US Hurricane reached those speeds and came in on land. Very few buildings could withstand such a wind speed as now constructed. And what if global warming made such a storm possible in the Caribbean, the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico?.

OnlinePoker

(5,722 posts)

2. It's happened already

Reply to TheMastersNemesis (Reply #1)

Sun Dec 16, 2012, 02:48 PM

Dec 2012

Hurricane Camille came ashore in Mississippi in 1969 with winds of over 200 mph (exactly how high is unknown because the winds broke the measuring instruments).

TheMastersNemesis

(10,602 posts)

3. I Did Not Realize That.

Reply to OnlinePoker (Reply #2)

Sun Dec 16, 2012, 03:05 PM

Dec 2012

I had just gotten out of the service the spring before that and was not as tapped into the news as I am now. There was an episode on Science Fiction Theater in the 1950's that depicted a hurricane with 300 mile per hour winds.

Typhoons are much worse than hurricanes. If we had hurricanes as strong as typhoons the damage would be horrendous. It would make a hurricane like Katrina seem like a shower.

DavidDvorkin

(19,479 posts)

4. Typhoons are the same thing as hurricanes.

Reply to TheMastersNemesis (Reply #3)

Sun Dec 16, 2012, 04:07 PM

Dec 2012

muriel_volestrangler

(101,322 posts)

5. Starting to hit now

Reply to unhappycamper (Original post)

Sun Dec 16, 2012, 08:53 PM

Dec 2012

http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Cyclone-Evan-reaches-Fiji/tabid/417/articleID/280648/Default.aspx

Category 5; gusts up to 259 km/h = 161 mph.

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