From what I gather from some of the reports was that the ground radar went down before this monster made landfall, there still estimating its speed at 195 miles per hour (MPH) which would put it up there with Hurricane’s Camille (1969) and Andrew (1992) in regards to Category 5 cyclonic storms making landfall. The big difference between this one and Camille will be the body count as Camille took an estimated 259 lives, this one looks like an excess of 10,000! With the radar going down we also won’t get an estimate on how many tornado’s came off of this storm. For these people the big challenge after the storm passes will not only be the clean-up but also the possible onslaught of water borne diseases (cholera, typhoid) and possibly stachytbotrys mold that can form on a structure’s cellulosic materials, and when brought to a dry state, can then become airborne and cause illnesses similar to Sick Building Syndrom.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up. MORE ABOUT DAN >>
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HI Dan,
From what I gather from some of the reports was that the ground radar went down before this monster made landfall, there still estimating its speed at 195 miles per hour (MPH) which would put it up there with Hurricane’s Camille (1969) and Andrew (1992) in regards to Category 5 cyclonic storms making landfall. The big difference between this one and Camille will be the body count as Camille took an estimated 259 lives, this one looks like an excess of 10,000! With the radar going down we also won’t get an estimate on how many tornado’s came off of this storm. For these people the big challenge after the storm passes will not only be the clean-up but also the possible onslaught of water borne diseases (cholera, typhoid) and possibly stachytbotrys mold that can form on a structure’s cellulosic materials, and when brought to a dry state, can then become airborne and cause illnesses similar to Sick Building Syndrom.