2015-10-22
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Michael White in Washington ____
On network television yesterday a south Texas property developer stood on the still tranquil sea front at Corpus Christi and brushed aside the alarm of city dwellers in the temperate north about the onslaught of Hurricane Gilbert.
"I'd rather be standing here... than sitting on a free-way in Los Angeles that could be destroyed by an earthquake," he said.
Few parts of the US are free from brutal reminders of nature’s power. Hailstones the size of a man’s fist, tornadoes, floods, droughts, fires, all reflect a weather system often at the mercy of tropical or Arctic extremes.
Unlike impoverished citizens of Jamaica or Yucatan, cleaning up yesterday after Gilbert’s devastation, Americans enjoy all the benefits of satellite pictures and a communications network which gives them ample time to flee the path of a storm and the means - cars and cash - to do so.
Nowadays most do and those who stay behind are warned that they are on their own.
The death toll in Jamaica is now put at somewhere between nine and 25 - chiefly by drowning - with widespread damage caused to airports and hotels.
Flimsier structures, inhabited by the poor, inevitably suffered most, with some estimates putting the homeless at 500,000 of the island’s 2,5 million people, with 20 per cent of homes destroyed and 80 per cent left roofless. Waves as high as 23 feet were reported. As relief supplies began arriving damage was estimated at S300 million. Sugar and banana farming also suffered badly.
Venezuela and the Dominican Republic were the first to suffer. The British dependency of the Cayman Islands was a so hit by the storm - which touched 175 mph on Tuesday. No lives were lost.
Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula also sustained less damage than was expected, though at least 25 people are feared dead and many more are missing.
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As elsewhere on Gilbert’ 1,800-mile westward path across the Caribbean - including southern Cuba - tourists were removed to safety.
Yesterday Gilbert was crossing the Gulf of Mexico towards the Corpus Christi area - 300 miles south of Galveston - and, on present projections, was expected to make a landfall by midmorning today on either the US or Mexican side of the Rio Grande basin whose major coastal town is Brownsville.
Described as “the mightiest storm to hit the Western hemisphere in this century”, Gilbert’s eye was described by air force weather analysts as unusually narrow, just eight miles rather than 20-25 miles - and thus more like a tornado, a smaller but more devastating type of storm which arises on land.
The effect of a narrow low pressure eye, sucking warm wind from the ocean to altitudes of 50,000 feet, is to intensify surrounding winds and with it the high waves which cause most death and damage.
The National Hurricane Centre on the frontline in Miami is taking a very grave view.
The only other Category 5 hurricane to hit the US took 408 lives in Florida in 1935. In 1979 Hurricane David killed 3,000 in the Caribbean but swept ashore harmlessly in South Carolina. Allen in 1980 killed 200 people in Haiti but only 28 in the US.
Yesterday people could be found planning to stay and sit out the experience because Allen had not been as bad as expected. “Everyone got ready - and then, nothing,” said another citizen of Corpus Christi. But by then most people had already left town.
1. According to the person interviewed on TV in South Texas,...
a) Los Angeles is a less dangerous place than Texas
b) Texas is a less dangerous place than Los Angeles
c) the hurricane will destroy the city
d) hurricanes are not dangerous
2. In the USA, extreme weather conditions are experienced in...
a) all parts of the country c) few parts of the country
b) almost all parts of the country d) the northern states
3. American citizens are in a better position than Jamaicans because they have...
a) better roads and stronger houses
b) better weather
c) faster cars
d) transport and money to escape from a storm
4. Those Americans who don't escape from the storm are...
a) insured against the danger c) unaware of the danger
b) made aware of the danger d) protected from the danger
5. According to the report, Hurricane Gibert will reach the coast at around...
a) 8 a.m.today b) 10 a.m.today c) 12 noon today d) 2 p.m. today
6. A tornado usually...
a) causes less damage than a hurricane
b) causes more damage than a hurricane
c) travels faster than a hurricane
d) travels more slowly than a hurricane
7. When a hurricane strikes, most damage is caused by...
a) high winds b) falling trees and buildings c) rain d) the sea
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8. In the past, hurricanes have killed...
a) fewer people on Caribbean islands than in the USA
b) more people on Caribbean islands than in the USA
c) the same number of people on Caribbean islands as in the USA
d) very few people on Caribbean islands and in the USA
9. In 1980, Hurricane Allen turned out to be...
a) as serious as expected in the USA
b) less serious than expected in the USA
c) more serious than expected in the USA
d) unexpectedly serious in the USA
10. The total number of lives lost in Hurricane Gilbert (up to the date of this report) is about...
a) 9 b) 25 c) 50 d) 200
B Find the words or phrases in the article that have the following meanings. The numbers show which paragraph you should look at. The first is done for you as an example:
quiet (1) tranquil number of people killed (6)
refused to take seriously (1) reach the coast (11)
attack (1) make more extreme (13)
poor (4) serious (14)
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