by Charles Ray

Created on: May 05, 2009

Having grown up in an area of the country (lower East Texas) that experiences both hurricanes and tornados, I have to give my vote to that black funnel as the deadlier of the two.

While it is true that hurricanes with their storm surges and longer durations appear more foreboding, many of the deaths in the U.S. that are caused by hurricanes are due to failure (or in Katrina, inability due to government inattention or miscalculation) to get out of the affected area. Hurricanes, which are born in the warm waters of the Atlantic off the coast of West Africa, pack a wallop. Winds from a catewgory 3 or higher hurricane can lift boats out of the water and deposit them far inland. Frame dwellings can be torn from their foundations and converted to piles of kindling. Katrina totally obliterated some small villages along the Gulf Coast, and left devastation along the coastal highway that remains unrepaired. It reshaped the coastline in some places.

The storm surge from a large hurricane can leave towns underwater even far inland if they are near large rivers or other bodies of water. My home town, which is 200 miles from the Gulf Coast was routinely flooded after big hurricanes, under a foot of water from a nearby river for several days.

As a consequence, I have a deep and abiding respect for these named storms. I don't hesitate to move to higher ground and out of the predicted path when a hurricane alert is called. The thing that really frightens me about hurricanes, though, is neither the wind nor the storm surge - it is the fact that the edge of a hurricane spawns the weather phenomenon that turns my legs to jelly, tornadoes. Literally hundreds of twisters of varying size and force can spring up (or drop down) at the edge of a hurricane.

Unlike a hurricane, which is big, relatively slow moving, and somewhat predictable, tornadoes are the devil spawn of weather events. They seem to come out of nowhere; do their damage and, just as quickly, disappear. The science of predicting tornadoes is still limited. We can know most of the time when conditions are right for them to develop, but are not yet able to predict with accuracy where or how hard they will strike.

Allow me to illustrate the difference with two true stories. In 2005, when Hurricane Rita was bearing down on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, I followed its course on TV. Except for being off about 50 miles about where the eye would make landfall, the forecasters accurately predicted it. The evacuation of coastal cities

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>