Re: Hurricane Georges

[jack@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jack Hagerty)]

From: MEHemsley@domain.elided

>Georges was initially looking bad for us in Bay St. Louis, but it turned east
>the night before landfall.  It went ashore about 30 miles east of us.  

>It could have been worse, and has been for this part of the coast.  In August,
>1969, Hurricane Camille (Category 5 with sustained winds over 200 mph) went
>ashore in Pass Christian...6 miles from the house I now live in.  That was a
>bad storm, but this house made it through.  

Not to prolong a thread with no Alfa content, but living in earthquake country,
I've always wondered about something regarding the other "big one" (earthquakes
and hurricanes are the largest energy release one can experience directly and
have a good chance of surviving).

People refer to hurricanes "coming ashore" with incredibly tight tolerances 
as in the quotes above. Isn't your typical large hurricane (like Georges) a 
couple hundred miles across? How can you say it came ashore at any one place?
Doesn't it pretty much hit land everywhere along a hundred miles of coastline?

Normally I would have responded to this directly, but I figured there's 
probably more than one person out there with an answer.

- - Jack

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| Jack Hagerty                |                                             | 
| jack@domain.elided   |                                             |
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