Hurricane Irma Hits USA: Management, Lessons and FEMA Response

Running head: HURRICANE IRMA HITS USA
Assessment name: Hurricane Irma hits the USA
Name of the Student:
Student ID:
Word Count: 2750 words

1
HURRICANE IRMA HITS USA
Table of Contents
Introduction:..................................................................................................................... 2
Description of Hurricane Irma:......................................................................................... 3
Management of Hurricane Irma:...................................................................................... 4
FEMA, preparedness, response and recovery from Irma:............................................5
Lesson learnt from Hurricane Irma:..................................................................................8
Faults to manage Hurricane Irma (things that did not go well).........................................9
Conclusion:.................................................................................................................... 10
References:....................................................................................................................12
Appendices:................................................................................................................... 16

2
HURRICANE IRMA HITS USA
Introduction:
Hurricane Irma was the second most powerful storm after Hurricane Wilma which
hit the east cost of the United States in 2017. Hurricane refers to a system of storm
which has intense low pressure prevailing in its center, prevails in the lower level of the
atmosphere and pushed by strong winds. It has spiral bands of thunder storms which
causes heavy rainfall and bring extremely bad weather. The name hurricane is given to
the storm when it occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeast Pacific Ocean. The
direction of movement of the wind is counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and
clockwise in the southern hemisphere which is in accordance to the Coriolis force. A
hurricane has air rotating very fast around a center where air sinks. This is known as
wind field while the core where the air sinks to reduce cloud formation is known as the
eye of the cycle. Presence of local thunderstorms are known to have further intensify
the hurricane. Studies have revealed that climatic change due to global warming are
increasingly contributing to building of weather conditions which favour formation of
these storms. Hurricanes are divided into 5 categories according to their increasing
intensity and power to cause destruction. Category 5 hurricanes are the most
devastating of the five categories with wind speed ranging above 252 kilometres an
hour capable of causing massive damage like damaging most constructions, uprooting
trees, blowing away mobile towers, power cuts and water losses, extending over
months. Irma mainly affected the Caribbean Islands and Florida on the east coast of the
United States of America (nbcnews.com, 2018) (Appendix 2).
The National Hurricane Centre or NHC started monitoring a tropical wave right
from its development and warned the authorities and the people which enabled them to

3
HURRICANE IRMA HITS USA
prepare for Hurricane Irma. The state authorities along with the local people were able
to manage the situation well owing to measures like stocking of provisions of food and
shelter well ahead of the landfall of the storm. However, in spite of the preparations,
Hurricane Irma caused massive damage in the areas affected and it took months for
things to return to normalcy in these places (Wex et al., 2014).
Description of Hurricane Irma:
Hurricane Irma belonged to category 5 storm having the highest recorded wind
speed of 285 kilometres per hour. The hurricane was created over western part of Africa
as an atmospheric trough having intense low air pressure on August 26, 2017. The
storm gained strength as the weather worsened with torrential rainfall and thunderstorm
over the next two days. The storm then passed through Cape Verde Islands and
approached the east coast of the United State of America gradually evolving into a
tropical storm. It developed an eye and intensified towards August 31, 2017. The
hurricane after this graduated first into a category 2 and then category 3 storm at a very
fast speed (Jackson et al., 20165). The speed of the wind reached 185 kilometres per
hour by September 4 after which it surpassed the category 4 stage to achieve the
intensity of category 5 hurricane with a wind speed of 285 kilometres per hour. The
hurricane made its landfall for the first time on Barbuda on September 5 and a second
landfall on Sint Marteen. The successive landfalls happened on Virgin Gorda and British
Virgin Islands, all were hit by it at top intensity, thus causing massive damages. The
hurricane after this passed over Puerto Rico and north coast of Hispaniola on
September 6, 2017 and September 7, 2017 respectively weakening to a category 4
storm. The storm again gained its category position on September 8, 2018 and made a