Hurricane Irene Research Paper

Close your eyes and imagine what it would be like to live in a house surrounded by enormous vivacious trees. The view from every angle of your home would never be a disappointment. Think about how beautiful and breathtaking it would be to watch all of the leaves change colors during autumn. Right now, you are most likely inclined to believe that nothing could possibly be awful about living here, but you are wrong, very wrong.
Now imagine that same house, but place it in a residential suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The house is located in a neighborhood, which like many others, has above ground power lines. On the average day not many people consider the great difference between having above ground or underground power lines. Now I ask

Outside of the United States of America, Hurricane Irene peaked at 120 mph wind speeds and earned its title as a Category 3 major hurricane right before making landfall in the Bahamas. Although the intensity of the hurricane decreased after hitting the Bahamas, as Irene approached the East Coast of the United States the damages did not lessen. The first unlucky victim of the East Coast was North Carolina. Irene was the first hurricane to make a direct landfall since Hurricane Ike in 20081. When Irene ultimately made landfall in North Carolina it had been downgraded to a Category 1

By the time Irene reached Pennsylvania and my house, it had downsized from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm. Saturday, August 27, Irene thrashed through southeastern Pennsylvania. It was not long before my power went out. When the power goes out in my house it is hard not to be frightened. My bedroom windows look out into my backyard, which is where most of the trees surrounding my house are. That night, I looked out my window only to see tree limbs whipping around and snapping in half. I was so scared to sleep in my bedroom, I kept dreaming that a tree was going to come crashing into my room and crush me. Instead of sleeping, I stayed up all night with my dad. My dad was always interested in finding out what took out our power, but the conditions were too rough outside for him to go searching through the