Answer to Question 1
ANSWER: The deadliest known hurricane to strike the Western Hemisphere was the Great Hurricane of 1780, which claimed approximately 27,000 lives in the eastern Caribbean. The next-deadliest was Hurricane Mitch in October 1998. Mitchs high winds, huge waves (estimated maximum height 44 ft), and torrential rains destroyed vast regions of coastal Central America. In the mountainous regions of Honduras and Nicaragua, rainfall totals from the storm may have reached 190 cm (75 in.). The heavy rains produced floods and deep mudslides that swept away entire villages, including the inhabitants. Mitch caused over 5 billion in damages, destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, and killed more than 11,000 people. More than 3 million others were left homeless or were otherwise severely affected by this deadly storm.
Answer to Question 2
ANSWER: Horizontal structure: As one approaches the hurricane, the sky becomes overcast with cirrostratus clouds; barometric pressure drops slowly at first, then more rapidly as we move closer to the center. Winds blow from the north and northwest with ever-increasing speed as we near the eye. The high winds, which generate huge waves over 10 m (33 ft) high, are accompanied by heavy rainshowers. As we move into the eye, the winds slacken, rainfall ceases, and the sky brightens, as middle and high clouds appear overhead. Vertical structure: Near the surface, moist tropical air flows in toward the hurricanes center. Adjacent to the eye, this air rises and condenses into huge cumulonimbus clouds that produce heavy rainfall, as much as 25 cm (10 in.) per hour. Near the top of the clouds, the relatively dry air, having lost much of its moisture, begins to flow outward away from the center. This diverging air aloft actually produces an anticyclonic (clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere) flow of air several hundred kilometers from the eye.
Underside of a Thorny devil, an agamid, Western Australia
Earthquake history: Strike-Slip Fault in Turkey
Potentially Active Volcanoes of the Western U.S
The Western Front, 1918
Hurricanes and Coastal Damages