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Hurricanes generally move across the Caribbean Basin from east to west before recurving to the north. A few late-season storms that form in the western Caribbean occasionally drift northeast for a while before veering westwards. However, Hurricane Lenny's track in 1999 was unprecedented in the region's historical record. The late-season storm formed to the south and west of Jamaica, then tracked from west to east across the Caribbean Basin exiting in the vicinity of the Virgin Islands. As is often the case, the response of Caribean people to the experience of the trauma of a hurricane impact, was to give the storm a variety of additional nicknames. Leeward islanders and local newspapers called the storm "Left Hand Lenny" but a sense of propriety does not permit us to publish the other creatively humourous names used to describe its unorthodox impact. Lenny was the fifth Category Four storm of the 1999 season (a record for a single season) and caused extensive storm surge damage in the Eastern Caribbean, from Grenada to Puerto Rico. The article that follows provides resource material for geography teachers and students on storm surge hazard and the impacts of Hurricane Lenny.
Introduction
During the annual Atlantic hurricane season which lasts from June through to the end of November, a number of tropical cyclones traverse the Caribbean Basin. On average, ten hurricanes develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico during the season (www.nhc.noaa.gov) and these cyclones are, in the main, purveyors of destructive winds and damaging amounts of water.
One feature of great significance to Caribbean territories is the often deadly storm surge associated with these cyclones. This hazard is considered by many experts to be the worst type of coastal marine hazard in the world, and is certainly the most dangerous component of tropical weather systems, causing nine out often deaths. A storm surge is defined as a rise in water height above astronomical tide level along a coastline. As a tropical storm approaches the coastline, it brings with it huge waves. This is an oceanic event triggered by meteorological phenomenon and factors such the type, intensity and direction of movement of the tropical weather system must be taken into consideration when determining surge potential. Other important...