Tag Archives: hurricane

Typhoon Rolls Through the Philippines, Death left in its Wake.

Typhoon Haiyan is the name of the deadly typhoon that hit the Eastern Philippines shores on Friday, November 8th. The dead littered the streets along with completely destroyed buildings and homes. This typhoon reached 170 mph when it first it but the winds died down when it got into the central area of the Philippines to about 74 mph. The government’s main priority is to restore power and communications in isolated areas and make sure relief groups are reaching the people that need it. There is an estimated more or less than 1000 people dead, but since time has passed since the article I read, it is most likely to have climbed a few thousand more as rescuers could get to the cut off areas by flooding.

I have had some time to watch home video footage of tsunamis and tornadoes off of YouTube, and let me tell you I have seen how scary it is to be in a situation like this. People hear stories like this all the time, but not many have actually experienced a real live situation. The video I watched was about a man and his wife and daughter, hiding in a closet as a tornado ripped up their house. The woman was crying the entire time, and thank god none of them were hurt. He showed the viewers the aftermath of his home, and showed how cars and other pieces of houses were blown up into their house. Their entire house was destroyed, and it was truly a scary experience for me just watching what they went through. I now have a better glimpse of what happened and how these people dealt with Typhoon Haiyan.

~Colin

Hurricane Sandys’ Effects on New Jersey

kDQwF2qntICdepmxrlh4C9Tz1I9W1ihHd64gzG0OKhnWFRlAZ3kmEeo2S2J4HKrtHjPeuBxf8ukH03keSNdatLmF-txFs-LcBHVf_FTF9AySy_pI6HnOcBOM.jpg

On October 26th 2012 New Jersey was hit by a devastating hurricane.  Jersey lost thousands of jobs and state revenue growth slowed to a crawl in November. Jerseys labor market and its $31.7 billion state budget, both of which were under stress even before the storm hit. Jersey’s unemployment rate clocked in at 9.6 percent in November, continuing to slope down from an August peak of 9.9 percent. In October job losses were revised down from 11,700 to only 1,000. Sandy affected New Jersey economically and it damaged Jersey physically.

Hurricane Sandy had a devastating outcome on a lot of people, but especially ones in New Jersey. I believe that the National government should give the state of New Jersey more financial aid. I think this because people are still struggling to get back on their feet.  People need to support their families while still not at work.  How are they supposed to do that if they lost all their money, job and house to Sandy? I also believe that the government should be more generous with simple state jobs. People are in need of jobs to make money to keep themselves and their families alive. This government is so selfish when it comes to a devastating time. It is an outrage really, if you think about it. I mean how would you feel if someone took away your house, money, and job?  Not so good would ya.  The government should open up their eyes and look at the reality.  

~Alyssa Stevens

 

Global Warming

Lately global warming has become more serious as scientists point out the rising dangers from the climate change caused by the buildup of human-related greenhouse gases. Scientists reported that global emissions of carbon dioxide are at an all time high  in 2011 and 2012 as we continue to burn more and more fossil fuels and forests. Emissions have continued to increase so rapidly that the international goal of limiting the overall warming of the planet by 3.6 degrees, established three years ago by the Global carbon project, is on the verge of becoming unattainable.  Scientists realized long ago that our planet’s climate greatly influenced the human race; biologically, culturally, and geographically. But only recently they have realized that we can be a powerful influence on Earth’s climate, as well.
Our earth is making it clear that record heat, drought, storms, and fires are caused from what scientists are calling global warming. Carbon pollution is the main reason for our planet heating up, and when the climate changes as quickly as it is, it increases the chances of weather disasters. Many natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy, wouldn’t have been so devastating if it wasn’t for global warming. First of all, the heat is melting the ice in the north and south poles which is making the seas rise increasing the chance of a hurricane in the first place. Then, with more water the storm was able to last longer and reach further inland than if the average sea level wasn’t so high to begin with. Also, there aren’t as many cold winds coming from the North and South Poles, which is greatly influencing natural disasters. If we don’t do something quickly things will continue to get worse, but I think if we do something drastic enough then we will be able to save our planet.

~Pascal Preud’homme

Looking Back on Irene

Looking back on Hurricane Irene, it really didn’t happen too long ago. It was an eight day hurricane that started on August 20, 2011 and ended on August 28, 2011, which was around the time that we all remember when it hit us in Connecticut. And the truth was, we really didn’t get the worst part of the hurricane either. Even though the hurricane caused the first day of school to be canceled, when the storm got to Cheshire, it was actually starting to die down and was hardly what it used to be early on. Even so, the storm still caused some major damages in Connecticut anyway. Throughout Connecticut, 20 homes in East haven were destroyed and 5 more beyond repair along the Long Island Sound. In addition, and estimated half the state, that’s about 750,000 people lost their power for up to a week during and after the storm.

Weather is certainly unpredictable and sometimes very devastating. One of that last things that people in Cheshire would expect to happen is for a hurricane to hit. Even inland in a place like Cheshire, a storm like this can cause a lot of damage. That is why is is extremely important to be prepared for something like this to happen. Just having a generator when something like this hits can save you from days without power. To watch out, and keep track of storms like these easily, all you have to do is watch the weather channel on TV, weather reports on the computer, or even when power and cable are out, you can still tune into an emergency weather broadcasting channel on a radio.

~David Amann

The Big Splash

All of you know about the big event that  gave us an extra day of summer. But if you don’t I am talking about Hurricane Irene.Okay so what  was a hurricane doing all the way up here in Cheshire, CT? Well I can’t answer that question but I can talk about,” were we prepared and did people take the right precautions at the right time”?  In  many ways yes we were prepared but in many ways  we were not prepared for the storm that hit us on  August 27, 2011. People took many of the right precaution’s in preparing for this event but were they done in time? I think yes. People knew what was going  to hit them and they were smart about it, like boarding up their windows or going to a shelter for a few days. But people did get caught up in some  bad situations  like  being stuck at an airport for a day or two, or not having any food , and having flooding in their homes.   Yes, going to an airport the day before the hurricane hit is just plain silly , but still,  were people really suppose to know about what would happen, how bad it would be?  Which brings me to  my next question.

Did the government put to much downplay on this situation? Meaning,  was this situation not emphasized enough. I think that there was just  a little too much down play on this hurricane. I understand that the government wanted to make sure nobody got overly  freaked out or scared but with an event like this, was it really worth losing the lives  of loved ones to a fallen tree? 8 people were reported dead  and over 2 million homes were without power for days or weeks. If the government didn’t downplay Hurricane Irene those precious life’s may not have been lost and maybe some of the power outage could have been prevented. Now think about it, would you rather have the government downplay a catastrophic event or tell people exactly what is going to happen so you can take the right precautions into keeping yourself safe?

Thank you for reading my ideas and opinions on Hurricane Irene . But I would like to hear what you have to say. I hope this has all made you think about this event but also about what else is happening in the government .

~Caitlin Gibb

Storm of the Century

About a month ago there was a category one hurricane that hit the east coast hard. It was Hurricane Irene. This wild storm happened on August 28th, 2011.  People were preparing everywhere in case the worst would happen.  Stores were empty and homes were full of supplies.  Flooding and major winds were expected so many people were preparing.

Some places that had problems with flooding was New York. The Northern part of the city, had flooded in the Hudson River Valley and in the Catskills there were washed out roads and buildings.  In Philadelphia, several buildings collapsed after the two rivers around the city flooded. In Maryland, Delaware, and Washington DC widespread power failure affected more than a million households. But in some places people were lucky and did not lose power or have flooding issues.

In many places there was no school and for Dodd Middle School and all Cheshire Schools we had to postpone the first day of school. In my opinion its good that the first day of school was canceled because there were still many people with out power and some roads were blocked off from the branches being in the road. In my neighborhood we did loose power but for only one day, and there were many trees and branches that had blocked the street.

Hurricane Irene definitely did some damage in New England. And living in Connecticut we were lucky that it did not do as much damage as in other places.

~Danielle Grenon