The picture above shows what
the "Storm Surge" of Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulfport
Veterans Administration Hospital's Main Building.
A note about water: It must be understood that water weights
about 60 pounds per cubic foot and has unusually low compressibility.
Imagine a nearly solid wall of water 30 feet deep, and 1,000
feet wide traveling at 20 miles per hour. At 60 pounds per cubic
foot, that would be tons of fast moving water. Moving water can
easily go around the sharp corners of a building, but it "slams"
straight into the flat walls of any structure. Fast moving water
can also go around the circular trunk of a tree. Although small
trees may not be able to withstand the force of fast moving water,
larger and stronger trees can. That's why almost all of the larger
trees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast remained standing after Hurricane
Camille in August of 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in August of
2005.It must be understood that water weights about 60 pounds
per cubic foot and has unusually low compressibility. Imagine
a nearly solid wall of water 30 feet deep, and 1,000 feet wide
traveling at 20 miles per hour. At 60 pound per cubic foot, that
would be tons of fast moving water. Moving water can easily go
around the sharp corners of a building such as the corners above,
but it "slams" straight into the flat walls of any
structure such as those above. Fast moving water can also go
around the circular trunk of a tree. Although small trees may
not be able to withstand the force of fast moving water, larger
and stronger trees can. That's why almost all of the large trees
on the Mississippi Gulf Coast remained standing after Hurricane
Camille in August of 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in August of
2005. |
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