Table of Contents 28 Hurricane Maria 30 Devastation Again 32 The Aftermath 34 A Terrible Toll 36 Hurricane Nate 38 Nate in the U S 40 Nate Makes Landfall 42 A Safe Future For All 44 Hurricane Prepping 46 Glossary 47 Learning More 48 Index 4 Pounding Storms 6 A Recipe for Disaster 8 Hurricane Harvey 10 Wind and Rain 12 Rescue Missions 14 Escaping Danger 16 The Aftermath 18 Lessons from Harvey 20 Hurricane Irma 22 24 Irma in Florida 26 After Irma Irma in the Caribbean
Pounding Storms During 2017 four powerful hurricanes left paths of destruction along the Atlantic coast of North America the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico These epic storms hurricanes Harvey Irma Maria and Nate left hundreds of people dead and millions of lives forever altered A Season of Destruction The Atlantic hurricane season happens every year between June 1 and November 30 But 2017 was especially damaging because of warm waters in the Atlantic Ocean and dangerous weather patterns in the air above it Hurricane Harvey was the first of the four to wreak havoc It made landfall in Texas during late August In September Hurricane Irma made its way from the Caribbean and tore through Florida Shortly after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico In October Hurricane Nate tore through Costa Rica Nicaragua Honduras and finally Louisiana and Mississippi What’s the Damage The total damages are still unclear but experts say that for the United States alone 2017 was the most expensive and active in the country’s history at over 250 billion 4
Hurricane Season The Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are particularly at risk for hurricanes that originate in the Atlantic Ocean On average 10 tropical storms develop in the Atlantic each year and grow into hurricanes There were 17 different storms recorded in 2017 making it an abnormally active season Hurricanes Harvey Irma Maria and Nate were particularly strong storms which added to the devastation In fact because of the records broken during this year the World Meteorological Organization WMO has retired their names There will never be other hurricanes with these names Hurricane Nate caused 48 deaths 14 in Costa Rica alone It was that country’s costliest natural disaster Naming a Hurricane Male and female names have been used to refer to storms since 1953 Storms used to be named using geographic coordinates but they began using names because they were easier to communicate back and forth between scientists meteorologists and the media 5
