In the 1930’s there was a strange turn of affairs in hurricane hunting. It had long been the purpose to keep ships out of trouble, first by giving the mariner1 a law of storms and then by sending warnings by radio. One morning in August, 1932, an indignant citizen came into a Weather Bureau office on the Gulf3 Coast and wanted to know where the hurricane was. The weatherman told him that there were no ship reports in the area but the center seemed to be somewhere in the central Gulf.
“What’s the matter with the radio reports from boats?” he asked.
“Because of the warnings we issued yesterday, all the ships got out of the area and apparently4 there are no ships close enough this morning to do any good,” the weatherman explained.
“Say, what kind of a deal is this?” demanded the citizen. “The only way we can tell where the center is located is to get radio reports from boats out there and you fellows chase all the boats away from the storm.”
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“Well, that’s our business,” replied the Weather Bureau man in astonishment5. “We are required by law to give warnings to shipping6.”
“I don’t see it. I’m going to write to my Congressman7 and to the White House, if necessary, to get this straightened out. What we ought to do is send boats out there to give reports when we need them,” was the final declaration by the citizen who had one time been a shipmaster himself. And he did write to Congress and the White House. Others joined him. The argument over legislation began.
Long before the use of radio on shipboard, the location, intensity8, and movement of hurricanes over the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf, and along the coasts and between the islands in the West Indies had been judged by careful observations of the wind, sea and sky. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the storm hunters had become quite expert at it. Among the best were the Jesuits in the West Indies and in the Far East. They watched the high clouds moving out in advance of the tropical storm, the sea swells9 that are stirred up by the big winds and travel rapidly ahead, and, finally, as the storm center drew near, they studied the winds in the outer edges when they began to be felt locally. One of the pioneers in this work in the West Indies was Father Benito Vi?es, at Havana. He began giving out warnings as early as 1875 and by the end of the century was an authority on the precursory signs of hurricanes, both for land observers and for men on shipboard. By that time many of the Weather Bureau men along the coasts had become experts and, after the Spanish War, they began work on the islands in the West Indies.
Observations from the islands came in by cable and from the American coasts they came by telegraph. In some areas this information served very well, but far from land—in the open Atlantic, Caribbean, or Gulf—there was not much to 61 go on. Along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the last resort before putting up the red flags with black centers was the experienced observer who had an unobstructed view of the open sea. Even with the best of such reports, there was always a question as to whether it was a big storm with its center far out or a small storm with its center close by. This fact, plus the rate of forward motion of the storm, could make a vital difference. A big, slow-moving storm gave plenty of warning but a small, fast-moving one brought destructive winds and tides almost as soon as the warnings could be sent out and the flags hoisted11.
Aside from these indications, the storm hunters depended heavily on the behavior of tropical storms in different parts of the season. They had average tracks by months, showing how storms had moved both in direction and speed, and much other information on their normal behavior. But all too often hurricanes took an erratic12 course, and now and then the center of a big one described a loop or a track shaped like a hairpin13. A few of the storm hunters thought that some upper air movement—a “steering current”—controlled the hurricane’s path. The most obvious influence of this kind is the general air circulation over the Atlantic—the large anticyclone nearly always centered over the ocean near the Azores but often extending westward15 to Bermuda or even to the American mainland.
In the central regions of the Atlantic High, the modern sailor, unlike his predecessor16 in the sailing ship, is delighted by calms or gentle breezes and fair weather. On its northern edge, storms pass from America to Europe, stirring the northern regions of the ocean. On its southern edge, we find the trade winds reaching down into the tropics and turning westward across the West Indies and the Bahamas. A chart of these prevailing17 winds gives a fairly good indication of the ocean currents. Some of the surface waters are cold, 62 some warm. And where they wander through the tropics as equatorial currents or counter-currents, they are hot and, other things being favorable, we find a birthplace of storms. In some other tropical regions, the waters are cold and no hurricanes form there.
Near the equator, the earth is girdled by a belt of heat, calms, oppressive humidity, and persistent18 showers. This belt is called the “doldrums.” The trade winds of the Northern Hemisphere reach to its northern edge, while the trades below the equator brush its southern margin19. Tropical storms form now and then in and along the doldrum belt at certain seasons—just why, no one knows, for there are hundreds of days when everything seems right for a cyclone14 but nothing happens except showers and the miserable20 sultriness of the torrid atmosphere.
Stripped to his waist, the sailor sits on his bunk21 at night without the slightest exertion22 while perspiration23 descends24 in rivulets25 from his head and shoulders. Nothing seems capable of making any appreciable26 change in this monotonous27 regime. But eight or ten times a year on the Atlantic, in summer or autumn, a storm rears its head in this oppressive atmosphere. Its winds turn against the motions of the hands of a clock, seemingly geared to the edges of the vast, fair-weather whirlwind centered in mid-ocean. Around the southern and western margins28 of this great whirl the storm moves majestically29, gaining in power which it takes in some manner from the heat and humidity—a power which would drain the energies of a thousand atom bombs. The crowning clouds push to enormous heights and deploy30 ahead of the monster—a foreboding of destruction in its path. Here is one of the great mysteries of the sea. Its heated surface lets loose great quantities of moisture which somehow feed the monster—that we know—but what sets it off is almost as much of a mystery as it was in the time of Columbus.
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Until lately, the investigators31 trying to study the hurricane in motion across the earth were as handicapped as if they had been stricken blind and dumb when its great cloud shield enveloped32 them. The darkening scud33 and rain shut off all view of the upper regions by day and left them in utter darkness by night. No word came from ships caught in its inward tentacles34 until long afterward35, when the survivors36 had come into port. Balloons tracing its winds disappeared in the clouds and were carried away. A method of following them above the clouds would have helped in the understanding of the upper regions in the same way that reports from sailing ships had helped in the study of the surface winds. This was the situation at the end of the Spanish War. But a new era was opening.
As the century came to a close, Marconi was getting ready to span the far reaches of the Atlantic with his wireless38 apparatus39. Already the miracle of the telephone carrying the human voice by wire had become a practical reality, with more than a million subscribers in the United States, but it was not destined40 to be used across the ocean for many years. Even that accomplishment41 would not have afforded much help to the storm hunters. They had tried transoceanic messages for weather reporting when submarine cables were laid across the Atlantic. Some weathermen thought at first that it would be possible to pick up reports of storms on the American Coast and, allowing a certain number of days for them to cross the Atlantic, to predict their arrival in Europe. This failed to work, for many storms die or merge42 with others en route, and so many new disturbances44 are born in mid-Atlantic that it is necessary to have reports every day from all parts of the ocean to tell when storms are likely to approach European shores.
In 1900, Marconi was building a long distance transmitting station in England, and readable signals had been sent 64 over a span of two hundred miles. No one then could foresee the strange roles that this remarkable45 invention would play in storm hunting but it was obvious that messages could be sent across long distances between ships at sea and from ship to shore. Already wireless had been used successfully between British war vessels47 on maneuvers48. Actually, it was destined to be a powerful ally of the men who searched for hurricanes and reported their progress, but eventually this trend reversed itself and radio was the cause of tropical storms being found and then lost again in critical circumstances.
The spread of wireless across the oceans began while the American people still had vividly49 in mind the most terrible hurricane disaster in the history of the United States. The nation had been shocked by news of a “tidal wave” which had virtually destroyed Galveston, Texas, on the night of September 8, 1900, and killed more than six thousand of its citizens. Really it was not a tidal wave but a West Indian hurricane of almost irresistible50 force which had raised the tide to heights never known before and then topped it with an enormous storm wave as the center struck the low-lying island.
There was good reason to expect a disaster of this kind. A number of bad hurricanes had hit Galveston in the nineteenth century. The first of which we have any reliable record struck the island in 1818, when it was nothing more than a rendezvous51 for pirates, principally the notorious Jean Lafitte. It is known that he was in full possession there in 1817, and it was rumored53 that he and his pirate crews were caught in the hurricane of 1818 and had four of their vessels sunk or driven on shore.
All along the Texas Coast, the inhabitants always have worried about hurricanes and they have plenty of reason. Whole settlements have been destroyed by wind and wave. 65 One case deserves special mention. After the middle of the century, there had been a thriving town named Indianola in the coastal54 region southwest of Galveston. The town gave promise then of being the principal competitor of the island city for the commerce of the State of Texas. But in September, 1875, a West Indian hurricane took a slow westward course through the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and struck the Coast near Indianola. Vicious winds prostrated55 the buildings while enormous waves swept through the streets, drowning a large share of the population.
Courageous56 citizens rebuilt the town and for more than ten years it prospered57. Then in August, 1886, a bigger hurricane ravaged58 the town and the countryside and literally59 wiped the place out of existence. The survivors deserted60 the site and after a few days nothing was left to mark the spot except sand, bushes and the wrecks61 of houses and carriages, a litter of personal property, and a great many dead animals. After the hurricane of 1875, the Signal Corps62 had established a weather station at Indianola, and in the storm of 1886 the building fell in, overturning a lamp in the office and setting fire to the fallen timbers. The observer tried to escape but was drowned in the street.
Both of these hurricanes caused much damage at Galveston, for the island was caught in the dangerous sector64 on the right of the center in both cases. And it was natural that when, on September 8, 1900, the winds began to increase and the tide rose above the ordinary marks at Galveston, the citizens became alarmed, expecting a repetition of the big blows of 1875 and 1886, which were still being mentioned in August and September every year when the Gulf became rough and gusty65 northeast winds tugged66 at the palm trees and oleanders.
But on September 8 the wind kept on rising and the tide crept above any previous records. The weather observers 66 feared the worst and dispatched a telegram to Washington, telling about the heavy storm swells flooding the lower parts of the city and adding, “Such high water with opposing winds never seen before.” It was not altogether unexpected. Beginning on September 4, the hurricane had been tracked across Cuba and into the Gulf toward the Texas Coast, but this rise of the sea was more than the observers had bargained for.
By noon, the wind and sea were much worse, the fall of the barometer67 was ominous68, and the Signal Corps observers, two brothers named Isaac and Joe Cline, took turns going out to the beach and reporting to Washington. At 4:00 P.M., all communications failed. Isaac found the water waist deep around his home and the wreckage69 of beach homes battered70 by waves was flying through the streets. At 6:30, Joe, who had come to the south end of the city to view the Gulf, joined his brother and found the water neck deep in the streets and roofs of houses and timbers flying overhead after being tossed into the air by giant waves. As the peril71 grew, fifty neighbors gathered for refuge in the Cline home because it was stronger than others in that part of the city.
At 6:30, in the weather office, one of the assistant observers, Joe Blagden, looked first at the steep downward curve on the recording72 barometer and then noted73 that the wind register had failed as the gale74 rose to one hundred miles an hour. To repair the gauge75, he climbed to the roof and crawled out, holding on tightly in the gusts76 and edging forward in the lulls77. Reaching the instrument support, he saw that the wind gauge had been blown away, so he crawled down from the roof, after taking one brief, horrified78 look over the stricken city.
There was no longer any island—just buildings protruding79 from the Gulf, with the mainland miles away. Down the 67 street filled with surging water, the spire80 of a church bent81 in the wind and then let go as the tower collapsed82. The side of a brick building crumbled83. As each terrible gust2 held sway for a few moments, the air was full of debris84. The top story of a brick building was sheared85 off. The scene was like that caused by the destructive blasts at the center of a tornado86 but, instead of the minute or two of the twister, it lasted for hours. Darkness, under low racing37 storm clouds, swiftly closed over the city in the deafening87 roar of giant winds and the crash of broken buildings. The frightened observers saw that the right front sector of the hurricane was bearing down on the island.
Out at the beach, block after block of houses, high-raised to keep them above the tide marks of previous storms, had been swept into the center of the city and were being used as battering88 rams89 to destroy succeeding blocks, until a great pile of wreckage held against the mountainous waves. After an hour or two that seemed like an eternity90, the hurricane center began crossing the western end of the island, and the city on the eastern end was swept by enormous seas which brought the water level to twenty feet behind the dam of wrecked91 houses. Everything floated, many frame buildings, or what was left of them, being carried out into the Gulf.
The Cline house disintegrated92 and more than thirty people in it drowned, among them Isaac’s wife. The others drifted on wreckage, rising and falling with huge waves and trying desperately93 to hold timbers between them and the wind, to ward10 off flying boards, slate94, and shingles95. One woman, seeing her home was giving way to the wind and going down in the water, fastened her baby to the roof by hammering a big nail through one of his wrists. He survived. How many drowned or were killed in that awful night was never known. The estimates finally rose above six thousand. 68 Doubt about the number was due to the presence of many summer visitors at the beaches and, besides, there was no accurate check on the missing, partly because the cemetery96 was washed out and the recently buried dead were confused with the bodies of storm victims. The aftermath was horrible beyond description.
Galveston had been on the right edge of the hurricane center. If the city had been equally close to the center on the left side, the destruction of wind and waves would have been bad, but nothing like that actually experienced. On the left side—that is, left when looking forward along the line of progress—the tide would have fallen rapidly as the center passed and the gales97 would have lacked the peak velocities98 so damaging to brick buildings and other structures which had withstood previous hurricanes. Here was a sharp challenge to the storm hunters. To tell in advance how devastating99 the hurricane might be, they would have to be able to predict its path with sufficient accuracy to say with some assurance whether the center would pass to the left or right of a coastal city.
This case shows how hard it was to make predictions without radio. During the approach of the Galveston hurricane, the storm hunters knew the position of its center only when it crossed Cuba and again when it struck the Texas Coast. While it was in the Gulf, weather reports from coastal points indicated that there was a hurricane outside, moving westward, but the winds, clouds, tides, and waves at those points would have been about the same with a big storm far out over the water as with a small storm close to land. Soon after the Galveston disaster there was a growing hope that wireless messages from ships at sea would provide this vital information in time for adequate warnings.
Progress in the use of wireless at sea really was fast, although 69 it seemed very slow to the storm hunters at the time. The first ocean-weather report to the Weather Bureau was received from the Steamship100 New York, in the western Atlantic, on December 3, 1905. It was not until August 26, 1909, that a vessel46 at sea reported from the inside of a hurricane. It was the Steamship Cartago, near the Coast of Yucatan. The master estimated the winds at one hundred miles an hour. This big storm struck the Mexican Coast on August 28, drowned fifteen hundred people and created alarming tides and very rough seas all along the Texas Coast. Thousands of people at Galveston and at many other points between there and Brownsville stood on the Gulf front and watched the tremendous waves breaking on the beaches.
Gradually the number of weather reports by radio increased and the work of the storm hunters improved. World War I and enemy submarines stopped the messages from ships temporarily, but after 1919 weather maps were extended over the oceans. Other countries co-operated in the exchange of messages and the centers of storms were spotted101, even when far out of range of the nearest coast or island. Cautionary warnings were sent to vessels in the line of advance. By this means, the service of the storm hunters was of extreme value in the safety of life and property afloat as well as on shore.
By 1930 another trouble had developed serious proportions as a consequence of this efficiency in the issuance of warnings. Vessel masters soon learned that it was dangerous to be caught in the predicted path of a hurricane, and when a warning was received by radio, they steamed out of the line of peril as quickly as possible. Thus, as the storm advanced, fewer and fewer ships were in a position to make useful reports and in a day or two the hurricane was said to be “lost,” that is, there were too few reports to spot the 70 center accurately102, or in some cases there were no reports at all. The storm hunters could only place it vaguely103 somewhere in a large ocean area. When it is impossible to track the center of a hurricane accurately, it is impossible also to issue accurate warnings.
In 1926, a hurricane crossed the Atlantic from the Cape63 Verde Islands to the Bahamas and threatened southern Florida. After it left the latter islands, weather reports from ships became scarce and the center was too close to the coast for safety when hurricane warnings were issued, although everybody in southern Florida knew that there was a severe storm outside. More than one hundred lives were lost in Miami and property damage reached one hundred million dollars. In 1928, another big hurricane started in the vicinity of the Cape Verdes, swept across the Atlantic, and devastated104 Puerto Rico and parts of southern Florida. Loss of life was placed at three hundred in Puerto Rico and at two thousand in Florida, mostly in the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee.
In these years and up to 1932, several hurricanes were “lost” in the Gulf of Mexico and citizens of the coastal areas began making demands for a storm patrol. They wanted the U. S. Coast Guard to send cutters out to search for disturbances or explore their interiors and send information by radio to the Weather Bureau. There was opposition105 from the forecasters—they didn’t know what they would do with the cutters. If they had enough ship reports to know where to send the cutters, they would not need the latters’ reports, and if they had no reports, they would not know where to send the vessels. Besides, it was the government’s business to keep ships out of storms—not to send them deliberately106 into danger.
The season of 1933 established an all-time record of 71 twenty-one tropical storms in the West Indian region. Many of them reached the Gulf States or the South Atlantic Coast and the controversy107 about sending ships into hurricanes was resumed, resulting in legislation containing the authority, but President Roosevelt vetoed it. By 1937 the criticism of the warnings and the arguments about Coast Guard cutters began again. This time it involved Senators and Congressmen from Gulf States and finally the White House was embroiled108.
In August, 1937, a delegation109 of citizens came to Washington and brought their complaints direct to the White House. The President arranged a conference so that the storm hunters, Coast Guard officials and others could explain again why vessels should not go out into the Gulf of Mexico to get data when the presence of a hurricane was suspected. Actually, ships were being saved by the warnings which kept them out of danger, and the criticism was based on fear of hurricanes rather than any deficiency of the warnings with respect to the coastal areas.
When the conference was held at the White House, the President was busy with other matters and James Roosevelt presided. The President had given him a note to the effect that he should receive the delegation in a most pleasant manner but that it would be dangerous and fruitless to try to send Coast Guard vessels into hurricanes.
The President’s note to his son said in part:
“Make it clear that I would veto the bill again and that instead of a hurricane patrol the safest and cheapest thing would be a study of hurricanes from all of the given points on land and around the Gulf of Mexico. This might involve sending special study groups to points in Mexico, such as Tampico, Valparaiso, Tehuantepec, Yucatan, Campeche, also to the west end of Cuba and possibly to some of the 72 smaller islands in the region. What the Congressmen and others in Texas want is study and information and it is my thought that this can be done more cheaply and much more safely on land instead of sending a ship into the middle of a hurricane.”
The delegation gathered in an outer office at the White House. It happened that the Coast Guard had a new Commandant, Admiral Waesche, who had not been advised of the views of the White House, the Coast Guard, and the Weather Bureau. In the few minutes before the conference started, there was no opportunity to inform the Admiral, for he was engaged in conversation with a group of Senators and Congressmen. As soon as the conferees were assembled, James Roosevelt called on the Admiral to speak first. To the amazement110 of all present, he indorsed the idea in full and promised to send cutters out in the Gulf whenever a request was received from the Weather Bureau. Nobody knew what to do next, so James adjourned111 the conference, and after everybody had shaken hands and departed, he went back to his father to explain what had happened.
Thus began a brief period of hunting hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico with Coast Guard cutters. During the next two seasons, the Weather Bureau forecasters notified the Coast Guard when observations were needed. In each instance a cutter left port in accordance with the agreement, but as soon as the vessel was in the open Gulf the master was in supreme112 command and he would not deliberately put his ship and crew in jeopardy113. Cutters went out in a few cases, but most of the disturbances to be reconnoitered were crossing the southern Gulf, out of range of merchantmen on routes to Gulf ports. In sailing directly toward the center under these conditions, the Coast Guard commander would 73 have been traveling into the most dangerous sector, and the distance he could make good in a day in rough water could not have been much larger than the normal travel of a tropical storm, certainly not a safe margin.
Irate52 citizens complained to Washington, first, that the Weather Bureau refused to call on the Coast Guard for observations; and, second, that the Coast Guard refused to carry out the Weather Bureau’s instructions. After two or three years, no special information of any particular value was obtained and the scheme was forgotten.
In accordance with the ideas expressed by President Roosevelt, but without any support from Congress, some study groups and other special arrangements secured useful results on coasts and islands, but it was obvious after 1940 that automatic instruments for exploration of the upper atmosphere and reconnaissance by aircraft offered the best prospects114 for improvement in the service.
The most destructive hurricane during this period devastated large areas of Long Island and New England in September, 1938, taking six hundred lives and destroying property valued at about a third of a billion dollars. This event aroused general criticism of the storm hunters for two reasons. First, this disturbance43, while it was in the West Indies and during its course as far as Hatteras, behaved like others of great intensity, but from that point northward115 its forward motion was without precedent116. During the day when it passed into New England, its progressive motion exceeded fifty miles an hour, hence little time remained for the issue of warnings after its increased rapidity of motion was detected. Second, the people were absorbed in news of negotiations117 in Europe to prevent the outbreak of a world war, and storm news on the radio was largely suppressed to make way for reports of the European crisis.
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Here it might be said that the storm hunters lost another battle, but it is probable that the loss of life in this hurricane would have exceeded that at Galveston in 1900 if there had been no real improvement in the warning service in the meantime.
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1
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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Congressman
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| n.（美）国会议员 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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hairpin
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| n.簪,束发夹，夹发针 | |
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14
cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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descends
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| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
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rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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deploy
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| v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开 | |
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scud
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| n.疾行；v.疾行 | |
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tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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38
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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39
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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40
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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41
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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42
merge
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| v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体 | |
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43
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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44
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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45
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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46
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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47
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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48
maneuvers
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| n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 ) | |
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49
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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50
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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51
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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52
irate
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| adj.发怒的，生气 | |
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53
rumored
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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54
coastal
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| adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的 | |
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55
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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56
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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63
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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sector
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| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
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gusty
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| adj.起大风的 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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72
recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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76
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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lulls
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| n.间歇期（lull的复数形式）vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的第三人称单数形式） | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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81
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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82
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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83
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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84
debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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85
sheared
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| v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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86
tornado
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| n.飓风，龙卷风 | |
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87
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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88
battering
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| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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89
rams
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| n.公羊( ram的名词复数 )；(R-)白羊（星）座；夯；攻城槌v.夯实（土等）( ram的第三人称单数 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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90
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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91
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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92
disintegrated
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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93
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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94
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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shingles
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| n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板 | |
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96
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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97
gales
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| 龙猫 | |
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98
velocities
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| n.速度( velocity的名词复数 )；高速，快速 | |
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99
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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100
steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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101
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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102
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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103
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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104
devastated
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| v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的 | |
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105
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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106
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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107
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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108
embroiled
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| adj.卷入的；纠缠不清的 | |
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109
delegation
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| n.代表团；派遣 | |
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110
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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111
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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112
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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113
jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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114
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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115
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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116
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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117
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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