The word hurricane is derived from the Taino language of Central America and its literal translation is "god of evil."

During the 18th century, an Australian meteorologist, Clement Wragge, began a tradition of naming hurricanes and tropical storms using female names. The US weather service began using women's names in the identification of hurricanes in 1953. This all changed in 1978 when both men's and women's names began to be used.

The year 2003 name list for hurricanes as created by the World Meteorological Organization (for Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean storms only):
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fabian
Grace
Henri
Isabel
Juan
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used because there are few names beginning with these letters.

Lists are reused every six years, but a specific name will be retired if a storm makes landfall and has a grave economic impact on society.

Hurricane hazards include high winds, tornados, heavy rain fall and storm surges. Storm surges are by far the greatest potential for the loss of life from hurricanes. Historically 9 out of ten victims of hurricanes died from storm surges.
Specifically, a hurricane is a tropical storm, usually in the Atlantic Ocean (in the Pacific they are usually called typhoons or tropical cyclones) which has sustained surface winds of more than 33 meters per second (74 miles per hour). A speed lower than that is a tropical storm.

Hurricanes always form over water and often lose strength once they hit a coastline (though not so quickly as to spare the people living on that land from intense weather and great damage to the area). The Atlantic and north Pacific hurricane season is June through November, with peak activity typically in early September.

Hurricane is the common name given to a tropical storm formed over the Atlantic with winds in excess of 74mph. The very same storms are called typhoons if they form over the Pacific or Cyclones if they form over the Indic Ocean or northeast of Australia.

Hurricanes always form near the equator line, fueled by high water temperatures and the coriolis effect. They follow a somewhat predictable path, and are carefully observed by satellites whenever they move close to populated areas.

The strength of a hurricane is measured according to the Simpson Saffir Scale, being category 1 the mildest and 5 the most intense. Hurricanes get human names, from a list that is "rotated" every six years. If a given hurricane causes considerable impact on the society, its name is removed from the list and never reused.

A common misconception is to confuse hurricanes with tornados. Hurricanes are large storms that have the capability of crossing oceans. You can only appreciate their circular nature when you see them from a satellite. Tornados on the other hand, happen on a much smaller scale, being visible as the traditional spinning funnel of dirt or water that typically lasts for minutes or hours. It's very common for hurricanes to spawn tornadoes, increasing even more their destructive powers.

Also a potent alcoholic drink especially popular in New Orleans. While individual bars serve their own variations, the drink is usually made of several kinds of rum and fruit juice. Pat O'Brien's bars are the most famous place in New Orleans to get a hurricane.

Also also, "Hurricanes" is the team name of several sports franchises including University of Miami's teams and Carolina's NHL squad. Additionally, University of Tulsa's teams are known as the "Golden Hurricane".

Hurricane is also a very enjoyable two player card game.

Now explaining a card game using only text is a little clumsy but please bear with me.

How to play.

First you take a 52 card deck with no jokers and take out all 8s, 9s and 10s leaving you with the 40 cards used in the game.

The dealer deals 3 cards to his partner face down, places 4 cards face up in the middle of the table, then the cards are dealt face down in groups of three to alternating players till both have six cards. Then the game begins.

Each card has a value: for A-7 this is their face value Js are worth 8;Qs 9 and Ks 10.

The player opposite the dealer then begins by taking one of the cards from his hand and then taking one or more cards from the center whose total value is equal to that of the card he took from his hand.

e.g. With a 6 he could take another 6; two 3s;three 2s;an A, a 2 and a 3. etc. All of these cards (those from the table and the one from his hand) are put aside till the end of the set.

Then it is the dealer's turn to play in the same way then play alternates until both players have used all the cards in their hands.

If either player cannot take any cards from the centre because he does not have a card of the appropriate value in his hand or because there are no more cards on the table then he simply places a card from his hand in the center and play passaes to his partner. N.B. a player may choose to do this rather than play if he wishes.

If either player manages to take all the cards in the center that player scores a hurricane.

When both players have used their six cards the round is over. The dealer then deals each player another six cards but does not put any additional cards in the center. The second and third rounds are played leaving the cards from the previous round in the centre.

At the end of the thrird round the last player to play without laying out a card takes all the remaining cards in the centre.

That set is then scored and a new set begins with a new dealer.

Scoring

Sets are played until one player reaches sixteen points. If both players reach sixteen in the same set, then a decider set is played. If that set is a tie, then another is played until there is a winner

For every hurricane a player has he scores one point.

The player who has the most cards scored one point.

The player with the most hearts scores one point.

The player with the 7 of hearts scores one point.

The last point is called the priority point. In order to determine who wins this point each player's cards are asigned the following values.

7s 21 points; 6s 18; As 16; 5s 15; 4s 14; 3s 13; 2s 12; Ks 10; Qs 9; Js 8.

(These points are temporary and are used only for working out the priority point.)

Each player then takes his most valuable card from each suit and adds up their values to find his total priority score.

The player with the highest total priority score scores one point.

If any of the above scores are tied neither player gets a point.

Hurricane, located in Myrtle Beach, SC, is a simplistic wooden roller coaster gracing the Grand Strand less than a block from the oceanfront beach. Built in the Myrtle Beach Pavilion by Custom Coasters International, Inc. (CCI) for a cost of six million dollars, this 101 foot, unpopular coaster opened on May 6th, 2000.

Even though the lift hill gives a rider a great view of the city, people seem to be more attracted to socializing and spending time on the beach than to spend excessive costs for this simple coaster. Though it runs at a slow maximum speed of 55 mph, the maximum g-forces of 3 Gs is somewhat appealing to coaster riders.

Hurricane
Built by CCI
Opened 5/6/00
  • Length: 3800'
  • Height: 101'
  • Duration: 2:00
  • Max Speed: 55 mph
  • Angle of Decent: 56 degrees

Resources include: roller coaster database and one fantastic weekend at Myrtle Beach.

You are in New Orleans. The calendar on the opposite wall says August below the images of coffee beans. You are in a coffee shop, sipping your insanely expensive watered-out coffee-like concoction while taking advantage of the wireless connection to the outside world.

The buzz at the counter is friendlier than usual, and inbetween the shouting of made-up Italian words and handing-over of thick paper cups with beige plastic lids on, a couple of words are repeated. No, not "thank you" or "have a nice day" or even "caffè molto sottile, venti".

"Storm season."

Then you remember Katrina. Shit. Fuck. Oops.

You should have been somewhere else, but you aren't. You gotta cash your paycheck first, and that takes some time. Besides, you aren't done with your coffee yet. Hurricane or not, you are not going to leave a three dollar cup of coffee for some godawful hurricane. No way.

Eventually you disconnect from the world, pack up your laptop and make your way outside into the incredibly fucking awful humidity. The paycheck-cum-cash is burning in your pocket and subsequently hot-potatoed across the counter and transformed into greens.

You pass outside Bar 76 and recognize Marco behind the counter behind the glass behind the sidewalk behind the road. There's a bar and in the pocket is a wad of money.

"Fuck this, I'm having a drink", you utter to yourself, all Charles Bronson-like.

Marco just looks at you, mentally shaking together a glass of what you always drink when you're around.

"Surprise me", you say.

Marco surprises you.



New Orleans Hurricane (serves one)

  • A handful of ice
  • 60 ml light rum (151 proof or thereabouts)
  • 60 ml syrup tasting of passion fruit
  • 235 ml of a lime-like soft drink
  • Some lime juice.
  • A splash of rum which isn't considered light

Pour everything except the heavy duty rum haphazardly into a shaker, shake the shaker about (put the lid on first) and pour everything into a nice looking glass. If the guy in the back doing the dishes has fled the county, use a paper cup or something. Be creative. Ask the coffee shop next door if you don't have any. Carefully float the rum that didn't go into the shaker on top of the mixture now in the glass or cup. Stick a straw into the drink and go from the bottom. Enjoy it while you can.

While your head starts emitting a pleasant buzz, you think "Fuck this. Dallas can wait."


Everything's in metric because I am an asshole.
This one's for discofever. Good luck with Katrina.

Hur"ri*cane (?), n. [Sp. hurracan; orig. a Carib word signifying, a high wind.]

A violent storm, characterized by extreme fury and sudden changes of the wind, and generally accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning; -- especially prevalent in the East and West Indies. Also used figuratively.

Like the smoke in a hurricane whirl'd. Tennyson.

Each guilty thought to me is A dreadful hurricane. Massinger.

Hurricane bird Zool., the frigate bird. -- Hurricane deck. Naut. See under Deck.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.