Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 20:37:29 -0500
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
Comments: Resent-From: crispen@netsquirrel.com
Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 14 SEPTEMBER 1999 -- HURRICANE FLOYD / YAHOO FULL
COVERAGE
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[ Tip: Use a monospace font like Courier when reading this message ]
_________ ____________ ________ __________ _____________ ___ _
/ | / | | / | \
| "Why | Surf When / You Can | Ride The | Bus?" / | \
|__________|__________/__________|__________|___________/ | \
/ /_____|----\
| ------------> SAVE $10 AT CDNOW! <------------ |/////| |
| |/////| |
| $10 off for new customers at CDNOW, With five times |/////| |
| the selection of a conventional music store, personal |/////| |
| recommendations & more. CDNOW - Your music. Your Store. |/////| |
| http://www.cdnow.com/from=med:n:tfs:rc1t:t0086 |/////| |
\_________________________________________________________|_____|____|
/ \ / \ / \
\___/ \___/ T h e I n t e r n e t T o u r B u s \___/
Free Greeting Cards, Polls and more fun at http://www.TOURBUS.com !
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Hurricane Floyd / Yahoo Full Coverage
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/World/Hurricane_Season/
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/
Howdy, y'all, and greetings from charming Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Bob
and I swapped days this week to confuse you. Actually, I have to
drive to Toledo later this week for a wedding, so I asked Bob if I
could send out Tuesday's post instead of Thursday's. :)
TOURBUS is made possible by the kind support of our sponsors. I want
to thank the folks at "CDNOW," "iPrint.com," and "mail.com" for making
today's post possible. As always, please visit our wonderful sponsors
and thank them for keeping the bus rolling!
**************************************************************
SPECIAL OFFER: FREE ADDRESS LABELS
**************************************************************
Create your own set of FREE personalized address labels
at iPrint.com! A great back-of-your-envelope item just in
time for back-to-school. Offer available for a limited
time to new customers of iPrint.com only.
http://www.iPrint.com/121.html?ad=399ZU121B
****************************************************************
GET A FREE PERSONALIZED EMAIL ADDRESS!!!
****************************************************************
New!!Free E-mail @mail.com, @usa.com, @engineer.com and more!
Mail.com makes it easy to set up a free, personalized e-mail
address that you can access anytime and anywhere. All you
need is an Internet connection and a Web browser.
CLICK BELOW FOR MORE INFO
http://www.mail.com/mailcom/signup_1.jhtml?sr=mc.us.mk.247em/03
On with the show ...
---------------
Hurricane Floyd
---------------
The east coast of the United States is about to be hammered by one of
the biggest storms in history: Hurricane Floyd. Hurricanes are
cyclones that develop over the warm tropical oceans and have sustained
winds in excess of 74 miles per hour (119 kilometers per hour or 64
knots) [1, 2]. Hurricane intensity is rated on a scale of 1 to 5
using the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale:
Category 1: Winds 74-95 mph (119-153 kph or 64-82 kt.).
Category 2: Winds 96-110 mph (154-177 kph or 83-95 kt.).
Category 3: Winds 111-130 mph (178-209 kph or 96-113 kt.).
Category 4: Winds 131-155 mph (210-249 kph or 114-135 kt.).
Category 5: Winds greater than 155 mph (249 kph or 135 kt.)
As of a few moments ago, Hurricane Floyd is (and remains) a dangerous
category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. Hurricane
force winds extended outward up to 124 miles from Floyd's center, and
tropical storm force winds extended outward up to 205 miles [4].
Hurricane warnings are now in effect from Boca Raton, Florida, to
Little River Inlet, South Carolina, and a massive evacuation of over
2.5 million people along most of the US southern Atlantic coast is
currently underway. CNN reports that this is largest peacetime
evacuation in US history.
The most recent Weather Service bulletins report "Hurricane Floyd is
stronger and larger than Hurricane Hugo when it made landfall." Hugo
claimed 49 lives in the United States (and 71 lives overall) and
caused over US$4.2 billion in damage [3].
Reuters reports that Hurricane Floyd's projected path could take it to
a landfall at Beaufort, South Carolina, at about 11 PM Wednesday with
strongest winds about 20 miles away, in historic downtown Savannah,
Georgia [4]. [This could change over the next couple of hours, though.]
According to the Saffir-Simpson scale, a category 4 hurricane
generates a
Storm surge generally 13-18 feet above normal, more extensive
curtainwall failures with some complete roof structure failures
on small residences. Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown
down. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Extensive damage to
doors and windows. Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising
water 3-5 hours before arrival of the hurricane center. Major
damage to lower floors of structures near the shore. Terrain
lower than 10 feet above sea level may be flooded requiring
massive evacuation of residential areas as far inland as 6 miles
(10 km) [2]
Almost every major online news site in the US is covering this story,
but (once again) the folks at Yahoo's Full Coverage section offer the
most in-depth information. You can find Yahoo's Hurricane Floyd
section at
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/World/Hurricane_Season/ .
Yahoo's Full Coverage section offers:
- The latest news stories from both the national press (AP, ABC,
CNN, and so on) and from local newspapers covering the local
impact of the hurricane
- Links to almost two dozen hurricane related Web sites [this is
a GREAT resource!]
- Emergency information including evacuation routes and emergency
telephone numbers
- Satellite and radar imagery of the hurricane [if you haven't
seen the satellite images of Hurricane Floyd yet, you really
should check this out. Floyd is MIND-BOGGLINGLY huge! It is
BIGGER than Florida!]
- Audio news stories from NPR, BBC, and even FEMA (the Federal
Emergency Management Agency)
- Video news reports from CNN, CBC News, and ITN.
I also recommend that you visit and bookmark the National Weather
Service's Interactive Weather Information Network (IWIN) homepage at
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/ .
The IWIN homepage is not much to look at, but it contains up-to-the-
minute information about every weather-related watch or warning in the
United States. IWIN offers four different interfaces:
- An "animated graphics" interface
[ http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/graphicsversion/rbigmain.html ]
This offers multiple, live animations including weather maps,
satellite imagery, and radar summaries. Unfortunately, this
page is HUGE (approximately 300K), so patience and a fast Net
connection are virtues.
- An "enhanced graphics" version
[ http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/graphicsversion/bigmain.html ]
This is the same as the animated graphics interface, without
the animation. :)
- A "graphics" version
[ http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/graphicsversion/main.html ]
This is perhaps the best example of a 1995-era Web page I have
seen in a while.
- A "text" version
[ http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/textversion/main.html ]
This is designed for the folks who still long for the days of
Gopher. :)
As I said, IWIN isn't much to look at, but the depth of the
information it provides is outstanding (for example, IWIN is the best
place to turn for a complete list of weather warnings in Florida,
Georgia, and the Carolinas). And, best of all, IWIN is a National
Weather Service site, so all of its information comes "straight from
the horse's mouth."
Sources:
[1] Hurricanes: online meteorology guide
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/home.rxml
[2] Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/saffir.html
[3] US Hurricanes
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001443.html
[4] "Floyd Bashes Bahamas, Skirts Florida Heading North"
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990914/ts/weather_floyd_31.html
---------------------------
More on Yahoo Full Coverage
---------------------------
Sadly, Hurricane Floyd isn't the only tragedy taking place right now.
East Timor is currently in disarray, Turkey is recovering from a
second earthquake, Moscow is reeling from several bombings ...
To find out more about any of these stories, check out Yahoo's Full
Coverage Section at
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/ .
Yahoo's staff scours the Net each day looking for important news
events. Once they find an important event, they create a page that
gives you links to everything you could possibly want to know about
that particular news event.
Long-time TOURBUS riders will notice that this is a new address for
Yahoo's Full Coverage section (and, let me add, it is about time the
folks at Yahoo stopped hiding the Full Coverage section -- hands down,
this is my favorite Yahoo service). :)
That's it for this week. Bob will be talking to you in a few days.
Until then, please keep the people on the US east coast (and in East
Timor, Turkey, and Moscow) in your thoughts and prayers.
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Hurricane Floyd / Yahoo Full Coverage
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/World/Hurricane_Season/
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/
---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK
---------------------------------
WALLETS (phrase).
Usage: "Be sure to come in wallets still on sale."
(Hint: "wallets" = "while it's")
[Special thanks to a Talladega, Alabama, Texaco radio commercial for
today's wurd]
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day at
http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================
The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
Copyright 1995-99, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com
Do You Like Tourbus? Recommend It and You Could Win a Palm Pilot!
CLICK
Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to hop on the Bus!
=====================================================================
.~~~. ))
(\__/) .' ) )) Patrick Douglas Crispen
/o o \/ .~
{o_, \ { crispen@netsquirrel.com
/ , , ) \ http://www.netsquirrel.com/
`~ '-' \ } )) AOL Instant Messenger: Squirrel2K
_( ( )_.'
'---..{____} Warning: squirrels.
