saffir and simpson rolling in their graves
ïTen years after Hurricane Andrew ravaged (what a clich
¿
½) south Florida, NOAA scientists decided it was actually a category five
hurricane on the
href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml">Saffir-Simpson Scale.
You probably saw the coverage of this tremendous realization.
Actually, this ties in with the previous note about the "sound of
science." Does it really matter what the hurricane's intensity was? It was
still the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Are those who
href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-andrewpic082402.photo?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dhurricane">lost
their homes in the hurricane any less haunted by the memories of
Andrew?
I guess that the scientists have learned more about damage and wind speeds
in the most devistating and some of the least understood storm systems on
the globe. That's definitely a good thing. But, Andrew was not that
unusual. You can bet that another hurricane will hit south Florida before
long. Maybe not a category five, but it could and it could be
href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-sandrew24aug24.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dhurricane">even
worse.
And, maybe Saffir and Simpson are not rolling in their graves since they
came up with their intensity scale only just in the 1970s.
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