ABSTRACT
Some may presume that the impacts of hurricanes would be similar in various tropical and subtropical coastal areas. But in fact there is great diversity regarding the impacts these storms may bring. The impacts of hurricanes are diverse depending on the characteristics of the human populations that they strike: an urban versus a dispersed coastal population; and a population that is rich in constituencies that are of prime concern to political leaders versus a population that is not so regarded. Looking back over several notable hurricane events that struck the Southeastern United States and Caribbean regions in recent years, we see examples of the foregoing diversity. The United Nations estimated the world’s population at 5.5 billion around the time that Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992. But the UN estimates the world’s population at around 7.7 billion, a 40 percent increase over just the past 26 years.
