The Houston Chronicle June 01, 2004
Hotlist: Hurricanes
By Cay Dickson
Cay Dickson is a Web site designer in Houston. Her e-mail address is ocayd@ocay.com, and her site is www.ocay.com.
53rd WRS (Hurricane Hunters) - www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usaf/53wrs.htm
This squadron's mission started out as a barroom dare in the early 1940s. The unit flies into the belly of a hurricane to get statistics on it. The squadron reports on storms in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico so you'll know when to hop in the car and high-tail it inland.
30 YEAR HISTORY OF TEXAS HURRICANES - www.tdi.state.tx.us/commish/storms/hsplash.html
Find out what the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to touch the Texas shores have been. This is part of the Texas Department of Insurance site.
FEMA: HURRICANES - www.fema.gov/hazards/hurricanes
Anyone who lives in or near the Gulf Coast is familiar with this agency. Take a moment and look at the steps you need to take to be ready before, during and after a hurricane. This is a thorough overview of how to be prepared and what to do if you are affected.
HOW ARE HURRICANES NAMED? - http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/hurricane/names.html
Yeah, and who names them? That would be the World Meteorological Organization. This site is for kids, so you can expect that it will be easy to understand the method used to name the storms.
THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE: WEATHER - http://weather.chron.com/tropical vKeep up to snuff by checking out the weather information and charts. Facts and figures and forecasts and summaries are at your fingertips.
NAVY HURRICANE HUNTERS - www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/3630
From 1945 to 1975, these brave souls flew into and around storms to gather information on them. This site is more about the members and the equipment used, and it presents an insider's view of what it was like.
COAST GUARD STORM CENTER - www.uscg.mil/news/stormcenter
Being in a boat during a storm, especially a hurricane, means that you'd better know what to do and when to do it. This is a good source for how to read the signals for getting prepared on land and water.
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER - www.nhc .noaa.gov
Blow into the Tropical Prediction Center for tropical depressions, forecasts, maps and charts, and an ocean of resources. You can see the daily plans for the reconnaissance flights after you read the details about how to read them.
HURRICANE FACTS - www.psend.com/users/stormchaser/hurricane.html
Just as the title says, there are buckets of facts on these storms, including a section on how to predict their tracks. You can also learn how hurricanes are classified.
THE HURRICANE OF '38 - www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hurricane38
This intriguing story of a storm that devastated the East Coast, from North Carolina all the way to Vermont, includes photographs, stories from people who lived through it and a timeline of U.S. storm disasters.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Hurricane Hunters get a look at the eye of Hurricane Georges over the Gulf in 1998. For more on the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, which started this mission after a 1940s barroom dare, see www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usaf/53wrs.htm.; Associated Press file
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