304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



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Figure 2. — Tracks of most of the important hurricanes and one tropical storm of the 1954 



and 1955 seasons. 



The type of damage caused by a hurricane varies with the character- 

 istic of the storm and the nature of the terrain affected, and results 

 mainly from (1) high winds, (2) floods resulting from the heavy 

 rains that are typical of most hurricanes, and (3) inundations caused 

 by the storm surge. When hurricane Janet crossed Swan Island 

 in 1955, all trees were blown down, and nearly every house on 

 the island was either destroyed or severely damaged; but not a 

 person was killed. Hurricane Diane caused very little wind damage, 

 but the floods that were triggered by the rains killed many people and 

 caused property damage estimated at about 1 billion dollars. The 

 amount of damage caused by the hurricane winds is largely dependent 

 on the type of building code enforced in the ravaged cities. The dam- 

 age from floods is usually much greater in mountainous areas than on 

 flat terrain. When a foot of water falls on relatively flat land, the 

 people are inconvenienced but few are drowned. The same amount 

 of water falling over a range of mountains may start a flood that will 

 drown people 150 miles or more away where perhaps there had been 

 no rain. The inundations caused by the storm surge are greatly de- 

 pendent upon the slope of the Continental Shelf and the elevation near 



