Freakishly powerful storm affects Pacific Coast

[Dark Knight]

A freakishly powerful storm far off in the South Pacific propelled huge swells to the Americas, causing a surge of waves that battered homes and beachfront businesses from Peru to Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.

High surf kicked up as far south as northern Chile and as far north as Southern California, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported as several hundred people were evacuated in at least eight countries.

The barrage began Sunday, and the waves were beginning to weaken Tuesday afternoon, meteorologists said.

"We expect them to gradually subside over the next 24 to 48 hours," said Hugh Cobb, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The waves resulted from a particularly intense low pressure system several hundred miles off New Zealand that caused hurricane force winds and rare snowfall at sea level. Masses of water were shoved eastward, creating unusually big waves when the swells hit the Americas.

Rest at link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060620/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/central_america_waves&printer=1

 

[dark_shadows]

Hello DK,
Thank-you very much for the info.
Respectfully,
dark_shadows

 

[scandi]

Thanks from me too Dark Knight. Things like this are always interesting

The article said masses of water were shoved eastward which created the huge waves. Having lived on the oceanfront for years, I thought the water stays in place but raises up and down when a wave is created. I remember seeing that too with the recent Tsunami. Its kind of like an optical illusion that you think the wave is moving forward, except when it reaches the shore and the water falls over itself.

Scandi

 

[narlacat]

I didn't want to start a thread so am bumping this thread to talk about the floods over there in Pennsylvania and NY state....
I might be getting my states mixed up, god knows you guys have enough of them compared to us lol

But I just caught a bit of the news and I did notice those two states mentioned....
Looked disastrous, has anyone died or drowned??
House were literally being washed away...
It always makes me sad to see people's homes being destroyed like that, I hope noone has been hurt.

 

[narlacat]

Well, it was your flood.
Thanks for all the replies

 

[Maral]

Yes, Narlacat, all that flooding is horrible. The last I heard, there were 12 confirmed deaths in four states due to the flooding.

 

[narlacat]

Thanks Maral

I didn't catch it all on the news, didn't see how many may have died.
That's awful...
As humans, we are so vunerable to the elements.