A cyclone ripped through India earlier this month, leaving tens of thousands of destroyed mud huts in its wake. There was no warning, as residents were unprepared for the 100 mph winds that uprooted trees, tore down power lines, and even destroyed the wall to a prison, where 600 inmates were quickly shuttled off to different locations.
According to Wikipedia a cyclone is similar to a hurricane, and is an area of air currents and fluid motion rotating the same way as the earth. Most are centered on areas of low atmospheric pressure. While how they form may seem to be very abstract to a non meteorologist such as myself, they have some very devastating physical attributes.
They can create some extremely high winds and heavy rains, as well as the storm surge that is so deadly among hurricanes. Like a hurricane, they are created over a warm body of water and run out of steam as they travel over land. Actually they are basically exactly like hurricanes in every way except have a different name, and are found in the Pacific while Hurricanes occur solely in the Atlantic. Hurricanes usually also occur in the late summer/autumn, while this Cyclone had no problem hitting in April, probably because it was on the opposite end of the world.
While a cyclone is almost always devastating when it hits near a human population, especially a lower class more rural area, it can also serve a good purpose. A cyclone can be very effective at balancing out the effects of a drought, as it brings a rapid transition in the form of massive amounts of water, both from the ocean and in the form of rain.
This Cyclone was especially devastating because the people hit by it had very little to no warning to evacuate in time before it hit. While it is impossible to predict every possible disaster, hurricanes and cyclones are usually discovered pretty early, but unfortunately, not in this particular case.
No comments:
Post a Comment