Year: 2017

Harvepino/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Three hurricanes are currently churning in the Atlantic Ocean, and they're all moving west.Hurricane Irma -- a Category 5 storm -- poses the most imminent threat as it bears down on the Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph speeds before it is expected to take a turn to the north to threaten the U.S., according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).Hurricane #Irma Advisory 31: Eye […]

Sun Sentinel/Getty Images(MIAMI) -- Hurricane Andrew -- the monster storm that hit South Miami in August, 1992 -- showed just how shoddily many homes in the area were built at the time to accommodate a booming population in the decades before.The Category 5 storm -- the last at that strength to hit the U.S. -- completely destroyed about 63,000 homes and damaged an additional 100,000, Jorge Zamanillo, director of the […]

behindlens/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Imagine trying to stand upright on the roof of a car going 74 mph down a highway.That's how it would feel just trying to stay standing amid Category 1 hurricane-force winds, the lowest rank on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Simply put, it would be impossible without any support, experts say."People start to have trouble walking at wind speeds in the 30 mph range. That's nowhere close […]

Meinzah/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Former Port Authority Intelligence Unit Det. Matthew Besheer says he predicted a decade before the 9/11 terror attacks that the World Trade Center would be a terrorist target.“In 1991 leading into 1992, I was asked by the commanding officer of the World Trade Center to do a vulnerability study,” Besheer, 66, told ABC News’ “Nightline.” “My report that I submitted was that the building was vulnerable to […]

StrahilDimitrov/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- As Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm, begins battering the Caribbean, you may wonder how hurricanes get their names.Storm naming is actually maintained by an international group of meteorologists known as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).The organization's experts meet annually to discuss hurricanes. They also decide when to retire the names of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes, such as Katrina, Rita and Matthew.A list of the retired […]

Harvepino/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 blasting through the Caribbean this week, and Hurricane Harvey, a devastating storm that tore through southeast Texas less than two weeks ago, both began as a group of thunderstorms moving west off the west coast of Africa -- which is how some of the most destructive hurricanes that make landfall in the U.S. start.Here is how those dangerous storms form:That group of […]

GlobalP/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- As Florida residents prepare for Hurricane Irma, pet owners in the state will need to take extra precautions to help their animals.Aaron Johnson, director of the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Conroe, Texas, was on the ground helping stranded animals to shelters after Hurricane Harvey struck the state last month. He advises Florida pet owners to be prepared and follow evacuation orders."People just really need to have […]

Andrew Itkoff/AFP/Getty Images(MIAMI) -- Imagine if Armageddon struck modern-day America, where once-busy roads are filled with silence, and destruction is visible as far as the eye can see.Entire trailer parks are flattened. Facades of hotels have been completely ripped off. Rows of concrete telephone poles have fallen to the ground like dominoes. Looters begin taking to the streets to cause further chaos.The day is August 24, 1992, and Hurricane Andrew, […]

ABC News(MIAMI) -- Hurricane Irma passed over the island of Barbuda during the early morning hours of Wednesday as Floridians prepared for the worst ahead of the record-breaking storm.Sustained winds on the ground in Barbuda were recorded at 108 mph, gusting to 155 mph before the anemometer, the instrument measuring the wind, broke. As of 5 a.m. ET, the monster Category 5 storm's eye wall was butting up against St. […]