{"id":25321,"date":"2017-09-06T20:41:58","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T01:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25321"},"modified":"2017-09-06T20:41:58","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T01:41:58","slug":"6-reasons-hurricane-irma-could-be-the-natural-disaster-of-our-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=25321","title":{"rendered":"6 Reasons Hurricane Irma Could Be the Natural Disaster of Our Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"headline\">\n<h3 class=\"node-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/environment\/6-reasons-hurricane-irma-could-be-natural-disaster-our-time\">6 Reasons Hurricane Irma Could Be the Natural Disaster of Our Time<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"teaser\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">One meteorologist admits he&#8217;s &#8220;at a loss for words&#8221; over the size of the storm.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-tools\">\n<div class=\"right\">\n<div class=\"talk_box\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/story_image\/public\/story_images\/screen_shot_2017-09-06_at_1.30.39_pm.png?itok=xjixFE96\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"the_body body_environment clearfix\">\n<div class=\"story_images\">\n<div class=\"story-image-sourcing\">\n<div class=\"story-image-source\">\n<p><cite>Photo Credit: Screenshot \/ Raw Story<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hurricane Harvey was a tragic nightmare that hit the Texas shores with force and then lingered for days, dumping dump-trucks full of rain on a city ill-equipped to handle it. Florida is next, and if predictions are accurate, Hurricane Irma is going to be far worse than Houston was, and worse than anyone has prepared for.<\/p>\n<p>Already, Irma is setting records and being named the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/2017\/09\/irma-the-strongest-atlantic-hurricane-in-history-keeps-getting-stronger\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">strongest storm the Atlantic Ocean<\/a>\u00a0has seen on record. Here is a short list of things meteorologists and experts at the Hurricane Center have already seen from Irma that should give everyone pause.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. The wind speeds broke the measuring tool.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The wind was so strong when Irma passed over Barbuda that the monitoring equipment used to measure the wind was damaged and couldn\u2019t report an accurate account of the wind speed. It tapped out at 151 mph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. The prospect of 185mph wind should strike fear into our hearts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The gusts for the Category 5 storm have reached 185 mph. That\u2019s the equivalent of an EF4 tornado sitting on an area, nonstop for hours. To put that into perspective, the photo below is of the damage sustained by residents of Garland\/Rowlett, Texas after an EF4 tornado blew through in 2015.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1117160\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015-659x430.png\" sizes=\"(max-width: 659px) 100vw, 659px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015-659x430.png 659w, http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015-76x50.png 76w, http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015-529x345.png 529w, http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015-768x501.png 768w, http:\/\/2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Garland-tornado-2015.png 800w\" alt=\"\" \/><em>Damage in a residential area as a result of the EF4 Garland\/Rowlett, Texas tornado. (Photo: Wikipedia)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>To make matters worse, NOAA\u2019s tools dropped into the hurricane to measure the storm and recorded 226mph gusts from its northeast eyewall.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">7:15 PM &#8211; Whoa. Dropsonde in NE eyewall 196 knot winds just 19mb above the surface, 167 knot winds in lowest reported level. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Irma?src=hash\">#Irma<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rB31sZf61B\">pic.twitter.com\/rB31sZf61B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Lamers (@AlexJLamers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexJLamers\/status\/905208065464700928\">September 5, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>6 Reasons Hurricane Irma Could Be the Natural Disaster of Our Time One meteorologist admits he&#8217;s &#8220;at a loss for words&#8221; over the size of the storm. Photo Credit: Screenshot \/ Raw Story Hurricane Harvey was a tragic nightmare that hit the Texas shores with force and then lingered for days, dumping dump-trucks full of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9913,15807,15906],"class_list":["post-25321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-alternet","tag-hurricane-irma","tag-sarah-k-burris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25322,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25321\/revisions\/25322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}