Effects of hurricanes
The effects of hurricanes can be grouped into two: weather and economic.
Impact on the weather
Hurricanes bring about storm surges. The powerful spiral wind action carries water a couple of feet high and lashes it ashore. This can destroy structures and items very close to the shore. Storm surges are the main causes of the floods they bring.
What is a Storm surge: This is a rise in the ocean’s water level as a result of extreme winds blowing over the sea’s surface. Water levels can rise up to 15 feet and a lot more. As the storm makes a landfall, the high sea level brings water inland, causing major flooding and destruction.
Click image to see how a storm surge is created.
Hurricanes carry a lot of rains with it and even after the hurricane has subsided, it may continue to rain. This causes a lot of floods and brings about other types of destructive results. (Learn more about floods here)
Houses, cars, farms, and many other structures are blown away by the powerful winds that come with hurricanes.
Impact on the economic
Anytime there is a disaster caused by a natural phenomenon like hurricanes, floods and fires, there is extensive damage to property. Peoples’ livelihoods are wiped away and may take many years to get things together again. In many cases, there are fatalities and entire communities are severely affected.
People may be forced to stay home for so long and businesses suffer as a result.
In addition to that, the state (or governments) spend huge amounts of resources in preparation for these occurrences. Emergency work and rebuilding of infrastructure cost the city a lot of money. It is known that hurricane Sandy caused about 50 billion USD worth of damage to the people of the United States of America.