I have had a small amount of first hand exposure to disasters.
Hurricane Mitch.
Some excerpts:
Wiki said:
Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to catastrophic flooding from the slow motion of the storm. It was the deadliest hurricane in Central American history, surpassing Hurricane Fifi–Orlene, which killed slightly fewer people there in 1974.
The official death toll in Honduras was popularly reported as "More than 5,000, Less than 10,000."
In mountain valleys, there was a small village every few miles.
Flooding and mud slides and flows would take everything in their path.
So many villages were lost, as well as all living things that an accurate death toll was impossible to determine.
When I say lost, I don't mean it as a polite word for dead.
I mean lost, gone, disappeared, carried away, buried in mud, NEVER FOUND. LOST!
The rains from Hurricane Mitch were two or three hundred miles from the eye.
History.com
History.com said:
Honduras and Nicaragua were especially hard hit by the hurricane. In Honduras, floods and mudslides brought on by heavy rainfall washed away entire villages, and the majority of the country’s crops and infrastructure were destroyed. The hurricane also took a major toll on Nicaragua. In one area alone, Posoltega, more than 2,000 people perished in a huge mudslide.
Wiki said:
Honduras
Main article: Effects of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras
While offshore northern Honduras, Hurricane Mitch passed over Guanaja island.[4] High waves eroded northern coastlines and damaged lagoons.[19] Most of the Bay Islands had damage to their water facilities.[20] Two days of winds exceeding 200 km/h (120 mph) destroyed nearly all of the plants and trees on Guanaja, uprooting or knocking down almost the entire mangrove forest.[21] It is estimated that the hurricane produced waves of 44 ft (13 m) in height.[22]
I was scheduled to fly out of Guanaja at noon on Saturday. The weather was so bad that the Saturday flight didn't get out until Sunday afternoon.
On Monday Mitch hit.
Most hurricanes move on in a few hours.
Mitch circled and hit the Island of Guanaja three times in three days.
Our power company had about 5000 subscribers.
We lost all but three of our poles.
Those three weren't trusted and were replaced as well.
Our generators were saturated with salt water.
I opened the connection box on one generator.
There was a white salty high water mark inside the JB.
Meggered, zero.
Tested with an Ohmmeter. Just a few Ohms of insulation resistance.
I reversed the meter leads and got a different reading.
Tried a voltage measurement from the windings to ground.
I read a small voltage.
The copper windings and the iron core, along with the insulation saturated with salty water were forming a rudimentary battery.
When I flew back in the following Sunday, I think it was, the pine trees on the North West side of the Island were stripped of needles and black.
When I left the un-cut grass beside the runway was two to three feet high.
When I flew back in a week later the grass was a few inches high.
The winds had actually stripped the grass.
On the South East side of the Island the deciduous trees were a mess. The ends of all the branches were broken off where the branches were about 5/8" to 3/4" thick.
History.com said:
“The country was left like a window broken in a thousand pieces. Small and big bridges were destroyed, landslides obstructed roads, and even highways with strong pavement sunk into rivers,” writes Aníbal Serrano of the Fundación en Acción Comunitaria de Honduras, Sulaco, Yoro.
History.com said:
Hurricane Mitch struck Central America in late October 1998, leaving more than 11,000 people dead, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and causing more than $5 billion in damages. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the Western Hemisphere in more than 200 years.
Several fishing boat owners on the Island of Guanaja had small weather stations.
All reported gusts to 245 MPH. No greater speeds were reported before all of the anemometers were blown away.
What's the point?
Nobody was delivering any kind of fuel by air.
You used what you had or did without.
Not just fuel, everything.
Bill
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"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
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