Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-21
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Complete information regarding the
extent of the hurricane will not reach
the outside world for some days yet
not until the stricken region can be
explored and the fatalities and losses
tabulated. But enough has come to
cause every one to stand aghast in
horror and awe.
While the fatalities will not APP
proach the number lost in the Gal
weston disaster. the financial loss, csti-
mated now at 5000, 200, 900 has had no
| precedent in all American history,
whether by flood or fire. In the great
| fire of Chicago, in 1871, the loss was
| given as between 200 and 800 lives and
| $3.50 900 900. This hurricane across
| Florida and the southern coast of Ala
bama already reaches 40 per cent
greater loss in property and perhaps
! five or six times as many human lives.
| The Galveston flood, due to a similar
hurricane, was more fatal to human
| lives. sweeping away 5000 victims.
| but the property loss was estimated at
only one-tenth that of the Florida dis
| aster. The YOUNGSTOWN flood cost $500
| lives.
X X X \
| No American flood has ever COM
pared with the worlds famous great
| floods, the most fatal of which was
that in the Sikokf Island, Japan, 6S4
| AID, which history records as TAX
! ing half a million victims. A flood in
| kaifong, China, due to waves caused
! by a cyclone. in 1912, cost 100000
| lives; one in Bengal, India, in 1876.
| cost 200 900 lives, in storm-WaVe
which swept the victims to sea. \
food in Holland. in 144G, took 100000,
| and another, two centuries later, took
| 10000. At Friesland, in 1908, an
eruption of the sea swept 1905 to
death.
| The path of northern cyclone is
usually very narrOw-a few hundred
feet The path of a West Indian hur-
ricane as it traverseS the sea, is from
! 100 to 500 miles wide, while it spreads
| to 900 miles after it reaches land. A
mountain range dissipates its force
| and spreads it wide. While such bur
| ricanes always originate in the South.
they may travel northward over land
or sea, as some have done, sweeping
| all the Atlantic Coast or inland up to
Newfoundland, and even Iceland, but
with less force as they go northWard
| The average annual flood damage
| in the United States is estimated at
| 1926. 600 900, but the present hurricane
and flood damage in the South already
| reaches nearly that total annual de-
/ struction, all within two or three days
| X X i; x
| The North has never experienced
any disturbance of the elements com
pared to a West Indian hurricane. 1t
| begins invariably far out at sea be-
tween ATTITUDES 10 and 80. either
/ north or south of the Equator, and
| travels at a pace which bears no re-
lation to the velocity of the wind. The
center of the whirlwind cyclone. If in
the Northern Hemisphere, moves
! northwesterly at about II or 20 miles
an hour, while the velocity of the wind
| NAV be from so to 100 or more an
hour. 1t has been estimated that
| some hurricanes reach a velocity of
! 200 miles. but no instrument has ever
been made that could record a higher
velocity than 125-all figures above
| that are estimates. after the building
| or station containing the instrument
| has been blown away or collapsed.
The Florida storm reached the maxi
mum record of velocity. How much
more. nobody knows.
| X Il X
What causes a hurricane. no scien-
| fist Processes to know. The eXplana-
ions are theories based upon only par
/ tial data.
| Here is an explanation by meteor
lologist of high neutrality-suspicious.
I his book, "Meteorology"
THE so-called dangerous half of a
tropical cyclone (hurricane) is the
north and northeast portion. when the
cyclone is moving northwest, and the
! south and southeast portion when it
is moving northeast. All this applies
| to the Northern Hemisphere. These